Hi
New here. Hope all could bear with me…
3 primary questions to ask:
Do you get the whole set of rhino3d?
what other softwares are prefered when it comes to collaborating with rhino3d?
Would an ipad be good as a digitizer and work as drawing tool ?
Thanks and looking forward to some advise here.
Cheers!
Hi @Cheerygirl
You’re hopefully going to get several answers, as there are seldom a single, correct answer to these types of questions, but here’s my 2 cents:
1: If you buy Rhino, you get the whole package, which means all the modelling tools (NURBS and mesh tools), Grasshopper (visual programming for modelling), the Rhino render (a slightly out-dated render engine still capable of doing some OK-but-not-great renders) and Cycles render (a real-time raytrace render, which is more modern - if your graphics card and/or CPU is up to the task). What you don’t get (for free, that is) is some of the more complicated plug-ins and render options. There are hundreds of different plugins, some very general, some very specific. Some (a LOT) are free, some not. Most of them can be found at www.food4.rhino.com, where there’s also a lot of plugins for Grassshopper.
2: That really depends on what business you are in. I’m a product designer, so for me it’s mostly SolidWorks, Inventor, NX and similar mechanical design programs, both upstream and downstream; meaning where we get data from (clients and suppliers) and send data to (clients and manufacturers). We also do quite a bit of architecture, where most of our data come from ArchiCAD, gets detailed and set-up in Rhino and then we use Keyshot for rendering. Others will have different work flows, so it really is a matter of which industry you are in.
3: Are we talking apps like Duet or similar - where the iPad is tethered to your PC or Mac via cable and can then be used as a secondary monitor/digitizer? I’ve never tried it, but I guess it would work. I know there are some users here on Discourse that use Wacom pads as their primary Rhino-input, which can be of use if you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome or similar. Other than that, most of the input in Rhino is more precise - at least in my line of work - and therefore better suited for mouse input. Freehand sketching is primarily done by hand or using Procreate or Sketchbook on the iPad.
That’s our current work flow, but as mentioned, there are probably almost as many work flows as there are Rhino users. It really depends a lot on which industry you are in and personal preference.
HTH, Jakob
Hi @Normand
Many thanks for the detailed reply!
I am thinking of using ipad like a wacom tablet and I did see apps that allow it to do this function. I will have to try it out after I get everything set up.
I am thinking of getting a machine at least a gtx 1660 graphics card with 6 gb vram, so I wonder if that would suffice for product, architectural and landscape concepts?
Hi @Cheerygirl
GTX 1660 should be more than capable 
-Jakob
Hi @Normand
Thanks for the confirmation! Much appreciated!
I just saw a machine that cost a little more but with a RTX2060 6GB VRAM, would this be far better?
Cheers
Hi @Cheerygirl
I have no personal experience with the RTX cards, but if you look at this comparison, I would say it is indeed a superior card - at least gaming wise. How much of a difference it’ll be in terms of rendering, I don’t know, but surely better; 1920 CUDA cores vs. 1408 CUDA cores is quite the difference. Maybe someone who has actual experience with the RTX cards will chime in?
-Jakob
@Normand no idea, but I too think its way superior. Only downpoint is the weight… i am planning to use another mobile device if I get this. Will be great if anyone here has personal experience with this card. My bet is its pretty solid.