Rhino 8.21 crashing while loading plugins

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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1

Hi
I updated to the latest SRC (8.21.25161.18001) last night, and also updated my system to windows 10 22H2 19045.5965

Now when I try to load rhino, it fails to load plug ins and crashes. It appears that even the rhino shipped plugins such as 3dxrhino.rhp, Colorpicker, Displacement are all failing to load.

I am able to open rhino into safemode so this is my system info:

Rhino 8 SR21 2025-6-10 (Rhino 8, 8.21.25161.18001, Git hash:master @ d1727ccd678f61173f568509b05829e0850184bf)
License type: Commercial, build 2025-06-10
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 10 (10.0.19045 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 64GB)
.NET 8.0.14

Computer platform: DESKTOP

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (NVidia) Memory: 10GB, Driver date: 5-14-2025 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: (null)
> Accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port 0

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: On
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On (but disabled due to other settings)
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL (null) (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: Unknown
Render version: (null)
Shading Language: (null)
Driver Date: 5-14-2025
Driver Version: 32.0.15.7652
Maximum Texture size: n/a
Z-Buffer depth: n/a
Maximum Viewport size: n/a
Total Video Memory: 10 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.21.25161.18001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.21.25161.18001

1 Like
2

Hi Benji,

I haven’t seen any similar reports. Lets try a repair install. Go to Add/Remove programs and Modify the Rhino 8 install / Repair.

3

Hi Japhy
I tried Repair and it did not resolve my issue. I uninstalled and went back to 8.20 and it seems to be working now.

4

Its definitely an issue with 8.21

After uninstalling, installing 8.20 it worked again.

After upgrading to 8.21 on the clean install it crashes again while loading plug ins.

5

Thanks, hopefully we can spot the pattern soon.

Can you post your SystemInfo from 8.20?

6

FYI Mac Version 8 (8.20.25157.13002, 2025-06-06) crashing when loading grasshopper
oh, I’ll post in the Mac section, ok…

1 Like
7

Hi Benji -

When Rhino crashes, does the crash reporter pop up? If it does, please send in that report.
-wim

8

Hi, so for me only version 8.20 crashes after running a clean instance of the program. I tried reinstalling x times, at one point the program started but didn’t load Grasshopper at all, which was not available. I went back to 8.19.

9

this ended up being an old windows plugin causing the issue..

10

Here it is:
Rhino 8 SR20 2025-6-6 (Rhino 8, 8.20.25157.13001, Git hash:master @ 73b00899cf43922900a763212f167c03dc6f27cc)
License type: Commercial, build 2025-06-06
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 10 (10.0.19045 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 64GB)
.NET 8.0.14

Computer platform: DESKTOP

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (NVidia) Memory: 10GB, Driver date: 5-14-2025 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 576.52
> Accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 5-14-2025
Driver Version: 32.0.15.7652
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 10 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\Users\benji\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\7.0\ColorPicker\6.0.0\ColorPicker.rhp “ColorPicker”

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Users\benji\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0\PanelingTools\2024.8.20.677\PanelingTools.rhp “PanelingTools”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.20.25157.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”

11

No it doesnt pop up. Rhino disappears from task manager quietly

12

Benji,

What happens if you switch to .DotNetFramework?

To start Rhino in .NET Framework once:

Caution: only recommended if you have a plug-in that doesn’t run in .NET Core.

  1. Create a new shortcut for Rhino in Windows
  2. Edit the shortcut
  3. Add command line argument /netfx
13

with netfx enabled i get a crash dump. I just sent it in.

1 Like
14

The crash is in cycles.

Lets do a clean install of the video drivers

  1. Open the Nvidia Driver that you downloaded and let it extract the files and folders.
  2. Accept the licence agreement.
  3. Select “CUSTOM”.
  4. Install what you need but preferably just the graphics driver so there’s less chance of error.
  5. Make sure “Clean installation” is checked.
  6. Let the installation begin!
15

Ok- Did a clean install of Nvidia’s studio drivers. went down to 8.20 and up to 8.21 and its showing the same crashing behavior.

16

Hi Benji -
What happens when you launch Rhino 8.21 in Safe Mode, then run PlugInManager, and answer “No” to loading RhinoRenderCycles.rhp? Then in the Plug-in Manager, Find the RhinoCycles plug-in and remove the checkmark in the Enabled column. Restart Rhino in normal mode.
-wim

17

Actually, before completely disabling RhinoCycles:

  1. Start Rhino in safe mode
  2. load RhinoCycles plug-in
  3. Run the command RhinoCyclesDisableGpu
  4. Close Rhino
  5. Start regular Rhino
18

Hi Nathan
I tried your steps and as soon as run the command it asks me if i want to enable RhinoCycles, I say yes. then it does the command and reports next time i run regular rhino it will launch with the updated setting.
However, once regular rhino opens it does the same crash behavior.

Wim
I tried your steps and Rhino regular is able to open once RhinoCycles is disabled.

19

Nathan Sorry I should also report that as soon as it reports that I need to restart into regular rhino, it quietly crashes.

20

Just to make sure: the command RhinoCyclesDisableGpu told you on command-line that GPU is now disabled?

If so then I don’t understand why there would still be a crash in the query for available devices, as only CPU device would be checked.