iRhino 3D—accessing 3dm files *already* stored on one's iPad?

iRhino 3D
1

THE iRhino app is beautifully implemented!

However the ability to “Add Model” seems to be limited to remote servers (why?!).

One appears able only to add models via ~

  • Google Drive
  • Dropbox
  • http://

I have copied over many 3DM models from my computer to my iPad, via a short cable, mainly as backups.

They are stored as “Files” on my iPad. I cannot see a way of viewing these within iRhino, without having to re-save them onto (the above listed) external storage … and then download them, again.

Is there any way in iRhino, of viewing pre-existing 3DM file on the iPad, without the extra steps and time as above please? It seems unnecessary.

If not, can this be implemented please? This seems to be a fairly obvious need.

———

COMPATIBILITY—inconsistent information

Also, I am running iRhino that I downloaded yesterday to my iPad. This is the latest available version 2.2.4 that dates from 26 January 2018. The information on the Apple Store says that one can open any file version 1 to version 6; however, when attempting to open a test file downloaded from my Google Drive, the warning came up

“iRhino 3D does not support Rhino 6.0 files.”

Thanks,

Clive Carter

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We’re working on a completely new version that will read any version of Rhino 3dm file and will support files on your iOS device. Hopefully we’ll have something in the next month that can be beta tested.

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Steve,

iRhino 3D

Thanks for the prompt reply.

It is surprising that this app has been left to lie fallow for such a while, since it seems to me that it has much scope as a showcase, both for McNeel and for Rhino’s users.

What a great advertisement for Rhinoceros it could be!

I recently bought a large old iPad, partly for iRhino 3D, and updated it to the current iPadOS 15.4.1. Shortly afterward I put on iRhino 3D v.2.2.4, the most recent available, that installed without a problem. While the Copyright notice is 2022, I understand it has not been updated for several years.

The potential is clear from the McNeel sample models (seven in all) that can be downloaded from the Apple Store. Their ease and simplicity is just what I’d expected. That’s what I meant above when I said beautifully implemented.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my own 3dm models, despite re-saving files as v.5, with shading and despite several attempts to download modest-size files from Google Drive. What, if anything is wrong?!

I’m sure that an ability directly to open 3DM files on an iPad would be greatly useful. However, that benefit is not just avoiding the rigmarole of uploading and then downloading files from an external server (that for me at least, is not working currently in any event).

Privacy:

Regarding the current version and “Add Model”, why would iRhino (McNeel) want to, quote,

“See and download all your Google Drive files”, rather than 3DM files only (my emphasis)?

The deeper splash screen, that not everyone would notice, notes, quote:

This app wants permission to:

  • See your Google Drive files
  • Download your files
  • See the names and emails of people that you share files with

There may be private information in your Google Drive, like financial, medical reports, photos or tax info.

End quote.

Presumably, “files” means all one’s files (as mentioned only once, earlier).

Is this not unnecessarily and overly, intrusive and invasive?

I would much like to see iRhino 3D succeed, but it may have little take-up unless such privacy issues are addressed.

Thanks for your attention.

CDC

4

The next version of iRhino3D is the same as the current version in name only. We are now using a significant part of the Rhino 8 source code to implement iRhino3D. This allows for all geometry that you can see in desktop Rhino to be visible in iRhino3D in all of the standard available display modes. All display will be done with metal as the display technology.

File access in the next iRhino3D uses the Files app which has become the recommended approach on iOS.

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Looking forward to this being released. I need to use this to view iCloud files as well as shared Google Drive files and it is not currently able to handle this task. How can we get on the Beta?

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Also looking forward to this. I just had use for this today at work, but failed as even though I put my file on Sharepoint and shared the link, setting it up in the app (which was very cumbersome) resulted in a loading screen that never completed (had to give up after 15 minutes and display static images in the meeting).

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Appreciate the enthusiasm @Will_Walker , @eobet . We’re hoping to release the beta very soon. We’ll make an announcement here on Discourse when it’s ready.

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and… here’s the announcement

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