Dunno, i am not a Revit user, you can use Archicad tho for that. Doing it all the time…
I don’t know Archicad but I do know Revit, as I unfortunately have to use it every day. There, 2D is only used for detailing. Drawing completely in 2D would be possible but not practical and slow, so I would rather use AutoCAD 98.
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The last time I have used AutoCAD is 12 years ago. But I remember that you could set constraints. Now you could argue, Rhinos history functionality is similar, but I found it somehow more intuitive if you see them. I do have to say that my daily job is very different to what I did 12 years ago, so I’m not missing it. But I also remember that working with large datasets was also a bit more convenient with AutoCAD. But again, time flies and nowadays both apps are different.
and you can’t draw smaller than 1mm.
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Yes, I also wish Rhino would get a history stack, the history is great but unfortunately you can’t see the connections, which is annoying to me.
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Oh yes, sometimes Revit complains even at 2-3 mm, especially when creating families. I usually draw things in Rhino and link the dwg in Revit to trace them there, but Revit has problems recognizing lines or with accuracy. Very annoying and embarrassing for a program in this price range.
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just like autocad it has very easy to solve problems. At this point I think Autodesk is doing it on purpose to keep both apps alive.
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Just on this point, my workflow is this:
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I individually open all the dwgs I want to ‘xref’ in rhino to clean them up and strip out unwanted layers/information. I make a new layer named “CIVILS” or “ARCHITECTS GF PLANS” e.g. and pull all the dwg layers into this as sublayers. This keeps the ‘xref’ layers nicely organised under this master layer in the compiled Rhino file and enables me to quickly turn off the entire ‘xref’ if/when I need to.
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I insert these ‘xref’ 3dms into my compiled Rhino file as linked blocks.
This is the best way I’ve found to achieve something like Autocad xrefs with Rhino.
Something that works well with this is that I can double click on an ‘xref’ block in my compiled Rhino file and edit the block in another instance of Rhino, save and close and the block will update in my compiled Rhino file.
A useful thing that is possible with autocad xrefs that as far as I know isn’t directly possible with this rhino linked block approach is that as far as I know there isn’t a direct equiv for the autocad “ncopy” command to copy selected linework/hatches from a linked block in Rhino.
Perhaps the major disadvantage of this approach is that because I ‘prepare’ the ‘xref’ dwgs in Rhino and save them as 3dms before inserting into my compiled Rhino file, I have to run through this process every time we receive updated issues of the ‘xref’ files. I feel it’s worth the hassle to keep layers organised in my compiled Rhino file, but perhaps not everyone would agree…
Happy to hear if anyone has improved on this approach or has any tips for optimising
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how do you manage the origins of the files that come from different consultants?
When we have to coordinate information from multiple clients, we usually run it through the revit model to align/position any updates before exporting a dwg to Rhino. Otherwise, opening a dwg in Rhino will fling each of the consultant’s drawings far away from each other due to different origin settings.
Yeah coordinating origins & coordinate systems (excuse the pun) is a key step in optimising collaboration between consultants.
The way we approach this is to ensure consultants are sending us geolocated dwgs, generally taking an OS basemap and/or a topographical survey as the agreed reference. I’m a landscape architect so often working between - & coordinating to lesser or greater extent - architects and civils.
Revit doesn’t work with large cad extents, so Revit models/outputs generally have to be geolocated manually, but we try to do this once, and then organise our filing system so that linked models/drawings update ‘in place’ automatically.
On this point a couple of issues I’ve come across are:
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AutoCad doesn’t recognise the ‘horizontal in view’ option for annotations in Rhino
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Various complications relating to text/annotation size/scale when working between Rhino and Autocad
Perhaps development work to improve Rhino’s annotation functionality could/should also feed into a more fully featured dwg export menu addressing some of these annotation compatibility issues. I doubt export into autocad can ever be completely seamless, but it’d be good to work in that direction!
Rhino 8: You COULDN’T Do THIS Before in Grasshopper
Maybe a good alternative to Autolisp… What do you think?
It is a very interesting video to watch, a bit long but open up a bit the potential of Rhino 8 (Nurbs) on its rivals… Now we hope Rhino 9 will refine a bit more the 2D aspect (CAD) of it and their workflow with a project browser!
They seem to get better each year so no reason to doubt they will not outperform their earliest versions… a bit slow in the making and a lack of vision for the field of architecture but eh… they are still the most affordable one with a perpetual licence with a very powerful 3D software!
Are you still working on your files for a better workflow on Rhino?
The video looks like a really good exercise to get better at Grasshopper. I had to skim through it a bit as I’ll have to leave for work soon. I don’t know if you’d be able to use this in a real-life scenario. I have a feeling that AI will be getting close to being able to automatically dimension stuff before anyone comes up with a versatile enough solution in GH for everyday use.
LISP versus Grasshopper: They are way different. The closest thing to replicating the functionality of LISP in Rhino would be Rhinoscript (basically Python with Rhinoscript imported).
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Agree with better reference management. Currently you can do it through block manager, but it needs a true reference manager. The files should not be inserted balooning the file size up. Worksessions are not that great either with an additional file being created and making a bad workflow for making layouts.
It is not that missing these features makes Rhino a write off, but it is really important in my area (Bridges) to align my project with the roads team, so referencing from other softwares is a really important part of that. Rhino already supports importing an impressive amount of formats, so I am hoping for an improvement for referencing.
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I really wish the basic interoperability between Rhino and ACAD was better. I am so much faster and cleaner at drafting in Rhino than I am in ACAD. But when I need to send a file to a contractor that doesn’t have Rhino it’s never as simple as exporting the line work as a dwg.
Invariably all my blocks and annotations are broken and I have to go in and redo all the text and dimensions and run ATTSYNC on all the blocks.
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We need a simple-as-possible 3DM that saves to DWG incorrectly.
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Which AutoCAD are you using?
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Be specific about what you see and what you want. Send images describing what you see and what you want instead.
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Also attach DWG that includes the corrections that you have made to the imported DWG file.
We will log a few defects and hopefully get some resolution for you.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier
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A new issue arose from our AutoCAD team, saying that Rhino Blocks produce issues with Draw Order parameters.
I checked myself, and that’s true:
If I want the lines inside a block to go in front of a hatch,
a) I select the block, type “BringToFront”, no success, hatch still in front.
b) I go into the block, select the lines type “BringToFront”, exit the block, no success, hatch still in front.
Only workaround is to send the hatch “SendToBack” but causes other order issues with all other lines in the drawing. It should be easier to move the block forward or backwards, any solution?
Thanks
@ells.architects
When I export Rhino drawings as DWG, I have no problems with the blocks created in Rhino in AutoCAD; I can move them forwards or backwards and they cover the lines behind or are covered by the lines above.
Does that behavior work in Rhino too? I believe the issue is Rhino-only in this case. Still relevant to turn Rhino into an AutoCAD killer 