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Is rhino actually used for serious CAD work? From what I‘ve read/heard I thought it was mostly something used in student projects or design explorations because

by bschne 6y ago

Is rhino actually used for serious CAD work? From what I‘ve read/heard I thought it was mostly something used in student projects or design explorations because of grasshopper‘s visual programming functionality

jacquesm 6y ago
Yes it is. I've seen it used professionally at more than one company.
- saeranv 6y ago
  Depends on the firm, but it's definitely used. Specifically Rhino/Grasshopper get used a lot for concept, schematic design, and then Revit gets used for design development and onward, especially at companies that work a lot with complex geometry (Zaha, SHoP).
  - bschne 6y ago
    That makes sense, I have no clue about how architects actually work but I imagine Revit et al. have a ton of features that you would probably miss in Rhino when it gets to working out the nitty-gritty details of floorplans, generating section drawings, or working with BIM features?
    - CositaS 6y ago
      https://www.visualarq.com/ https://www.visualarq.com/ adds BIM tools to Rhino (and the total price of perpetual licenses for Rhino+VisualARQ is still significantly less than a year's Revit subscription)
      - saeranv 6y ago
        Sounds perfect, but I've yet to hear of any company using this plug-in! Personally I also have hope for the interesting hybrids that are continually coming out that are trying to create a seamless pipeline between Revit and Rhino: Google's Flux (which failed), Speckle, RhinoInside. I also hacked up my own crude solution, which was to continually run a flask server in the background, and then pass json strings between Rhino, Revit, and Jupyter. I do a lot of analysis work (building energy and environmental simulation/optimization), so wanted a solution that gave me access to the scientific python ecosystem.
    - saeranv 6y ago
      Yeah exactly. You can easily generate any orthographic views, cut sections, use templates for common building elements and more in Revit. On the other hand, everyone loves the flexibility, and UX of Rhino/Grasshopper.And (for now?) Rhino has the market cornered on structural, energy, and environmental simulation and optimization plug-ins, just because data-management is so much easier in Grasshopper then Revit's equivalent visual scripting language (Dynamo).
runxel 6y ago
Depends on the industry. For automotive and even ship design a lot of studios are using it (even not openly, but in a "secret" manner). In AEC many students nowadays use it during university. Some offices use it as well, and if only for Grasshopper. GH is a really great piece of software and you can e.g. even use it with Archicad nowadays.
polygotdomain 6y ago
To add to what the other user has said, it is used at a number of firms, but primarily in early stages of design. It's actually very solid for actual drafting (Rhino originated out of an AutoCAD plugin), and does freeform surface modeling very well. It's the middle piece, bringing the design into a set of drawings, that is the sticking point, and something that Revit automates very well. It's not that Rhino can't do it, it's that it's a very manual process that requires a lot more steps and structured process than most firms are willing to invest. Also, the kind of work you'd use Rhino for doesn't flow well to other downstream CAD or BIM software that architects typically use. Yes, you can easily export linework, but at that point, you might as well keep it in Rhino. Somewhat unrelated, but Rhino's SDK is really solid and gives a ton of access to the software. It's amazing some of the things that can be done with it, and Rhino as a whole, but at the same time it's producing construction documents that's where the rubber meets the road as far as Architecture is concerned. Source: Former architecture student and Rhino plugin developer
deleted 6y ago
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by bschne 6y ago

jacquesm 6y ago

Yes it is. I've seen it used professionally at more than one company.

saeranv 6y ago
Depends on the firm, but it's definitely used. Specifically Rhino/Grasshopper get used a lot for concept, schematic design, and then Revit gets used for design development and onward, especially at companies that work a lot with complex geometry (Zaha, SHoP).
- bschne 6y ago
  That makes sense, I have no clue about how architects actually work but I imagine Revit et al. have a ton of features that you would probably miss in Rhino when it gets to working out the nitty-gritty details of floorplans, generating section drawings, or working with BIM features?
  - CositaS 6y ago
    https://www.visualarq.com/ https://www.visualarq.com/ adds BIM tools to Rhino (and the total price of perpetual licenses for Rhino+VisualARQ is still significantly less than a year's Revit subscription)
    - saeranv 6y ago
      Sounds perfect, but I've yet to hear of any company using this plug-in! Personally I also have hope for the interesting hybrids that are continually coming out that are trying to create a seamless pipeline between Revit and Rhino: Google's Flux (which failed), Speckle, RhinoInside. I also hacked up my own crude solution, which was to continually run a flask server in the background, and then pass json strings between Rhino, Revit, and Jupyter. I do a lot of analysis work (building energy and environmental simulation/optimization), so wanted a solution that gave me access to the scientific python ecosystem.
  - saeranv 6y ago
    Yeah exactly. You can easily generate any orthographic views, cut sections, use templates for common building elements and more in Revit. On the other hand, everyone loves the flexibility, and UX of Rhino/Grasshopper.And (for now?) Rhino has the market cornered on structural, energy, and environmental simulation and optimization plug-ins, just because data-management is so much easier in Grasshopper then Revit's equivalent visual scripting language (Dynamo).

runxel 6y ago

Depends on the industry. For automotive and even ship design a lot of studios are using it (even not openly, but in a "secret" manner). In AEC many students nowadays use it during university. Some offices use it as well, and if only for Grasshopper. GH is a really great piece of software and you can e.g. even use it with Archicad nowadays.

polygotdomain 6y ago

To add to what the other user has said, it is used at a number of firms, but primarily in early stages of design. It's actually very solid for actual drafting (Rhino originated out of an AutoCAD plugin), and does freeform surface modeling very well. It's the middle piece, bringing the design into a set of drawings, that is the sticking point, and something that Revit automates very well. It's not that Rhino can't do it, it's that it's a very manual process that requires a lot more steps and structured process than most firms are willing to invest. Also, the kind of work you'd use Rhino for doesn't flow well to other downstream CAD or BIM software that architects typically use. Yes, you can easily export linework, but at that point, you might as well keep it in Rhino. Somewhat unrelated, but Rhino's SDK is really solid and gives a ton of access to the software. It's amazing some of the things that can be done with it, and Rhino as a whole, but at the same time it's producing construction documents that's where the rubber meets the road as far as Architecture is concerned. Source: Former architecture student and Rhino plugin developer

deleted 6y ago

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