Rhino 8/beyond Developments | As an Architect & Designer

Hello Folks! First of all, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank McNeel and all the developers who are working tirelessly to build a better rhino for all of us. In this topic, I’d like to outline a few suggestions for Rhino 8 from my end as an architect/designer who has been using Rhino for 7 years. Most of these suggestions would be highly beneficial to many rhino users, so please hear me out.

The list is not in any particular order.

Block Management and Workflow

I haven’t been using blocks very often in my workflow until very recently. One thing stood out to me, Block workflows are extremely slow and underdevelopment in rhino. There is so much room for improvement, such as:

  • A better block management system with organization/customization tools including the ability to structure and name blocks comprehensively.
  • The ability to double click to open blocks nested in other blocks.
  • I noticed when the rhino file contains many blocks, especially nested blocks. Opening blocks becomes very slow for my liking. I’d like the ability to open and close blocks to be as fluid and fast as possible to speed up the workflow.
  • Last but not least, we designers love to do hundreds of design iterations. Many times, when we make new iterations, we wish to keep a non-destructible backup of all previous iterations for reference. But when using blocks, this process becomes a little tricky. One would have to copy a block instance, then explode it, then create a new block instance with a new name for each of the design iterations. I wish there was a way to make this more dynamic, where if you wished to make an iteration or design options for 4-6 related block instances. Rhino would give you the option to automatically copy and detach this new block series from the parent. Otherwise, this literally defeats the whole purpose of blocks in the first place. Because if everytime, we had to either explode & recreate a new block or replace block, for tens of instances manually. This makes the process very tedious.

Sub D Improvements

  • Rhino should take a serious look at Maya 3D polygonal modeling tools. There is so much room for improvement. SubD feature in rhino should be a serious contender to other 3D sofrwares in order to completely eliminate the need to jump between different software for different needs.

Include a Render Node Editor

  • One reason why most professionals prefer rendering in 3DsMax, Maya or Cinema4D. Is because all of these software have a solid rendering tools. Inlcuding Node Editor. If combined with Vray, I think Rhino could become a very attractive One-for-all comprehensive software.

Improvements in UV Mapping

  • Similarily, there should be more options and control over UV editing. Compared to other softwares like 3ds max and Maya, Rhino needs to catch up on that front.

Performance Improvements and ability to handle extremely large files

  • I understand rhino is a predominantly NURB modeling software and all that comes with it. But there has to be a way to improve rhino’s ability to handle large project files. I know this issue has many variables including one’s own computer hardware and specs. But regardless, rhino should find a way to make processing geometry much smoother. One thing that comes to mind, although its a completely different area of specialization is Unreal Engine 5. They recently announced a technology incorporated into Ue5 called Nanite. Refer to it here: Unreal Engine 5 Revealed! | Next-Gen Real-Time Demo Running on PlayStation 5 - YouTube Which allows the reading of billions of mesh triangles seamlessly without crashing or slowing down the workflow among many other things. Similarly, rhino should come up with a tech that could help users build ultra-detailed large 3D models without the need to break the model apart using Worksessions, blocks…and whatnot.

Teamwork and Work Syncrhonization

  • What if rhino would allow design teams to work simultaneously on the same project just like in Revit, with functions and tools to allow the project to be saved in a server and everyone would synchronize to save their portion of work…etc. This is a more advanced method than worksessions that involves some form of server-based project files and the ability to restrict editing of portions of the model that other team members are actively working on.

Groups and Layers

  • The ability to group objects and assign them to a new layer without changing the grouped individual object’s original layers.Just like with blocks.
6 Likes

Agree with most of the points.
Big upvote for a node editor. Editing materials is cumbersome when things get a little more complicated. Not only V-Ray but every renderer including Rhino’s own will greatly benefit from it. And imo it’s much easier to learn, read and work with and has become industry standard.

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At this point, I think Rhino needs to integrate the entire node editor the way it is in Blender. It has a great UI/ UX, something that I doubt we’ll be seeing if McNeel develops this in-house. Can’t have any better way to further enhance cycles integration and interoperability with Blender than to bring its node system into Rhino.

As for UV unwrapping it also definitely needs some love. I think this, just like the node editor would require a dedicated editor. I don’t like UV manipulation in the viewport at all. It adds additional clicks and I find it hard to manage.

By the way @abdullahtahseen, a block manager rewrite is already listed as target for Rhino 8 here: Rhino WIP Features

2 Likes

Exactly!

Hi @abdullahtahseen,
about your issue with working with blocks: You might be interested in AdaptivePartsEnvironment which gives you the possibility to create your own dynamicBlocks :slight_smile:
Yours
Dominik

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