Hi all, I really dislike subscription based software so I am considering buying Rhino. I’ll be working on lots of furniture and some timber frames/buildings. Timber frames that I’m interested in have all wood to wood joinery, etc. Think Japanese Joinery/Chinese/Korean and some more traditional mortise and tenons, etc.
Some of the modeling later will involve working from 2d while I build out the 3d form.
Is Rhino worth it for someone like me? I’m a one-man shop, currently doing this on the side. I’m not entirely sure where to begin learning for my next projects. Any input or direction is appreciated!
Hi Chris, There are lot of people in your craft using Rhino along the entire process, from design to cnc.
In feature terms think of Rhino 2D as a lot like Autocad; paper space/ model space. The 3D modeling is fun and fairly intuitive (use gumball with snappy dragging). Typical components can be made into blocks or groups. There are more advanced workflows available as well once you get familiar with the basics.
If you have a particular issue or question on how to do something feel free to contact me or post to the forum. If you post with an image, file and good description of what you are trying to do you’ll find everyone here really helpful.
The biggest problem with Rhino is not drawing and modeling, but data manipulation - assign, extract, organize and export. I work in the furniture industry and there are no tools for banding, project tree, extracting object sizes for export to cutting programs especially if they are not aligned with the world axes and etc. SketchUP is a lot better in this regard, but it cannot export 3d solids to be used by other contractors. For one-man shop SketchUP is better - MasterSketchUp - YouTube Design. Click. Build - FineWoodworking Nathaniel Wilkerson - YouTube sketchup timber frame plugin - YouTube
Fundamentally Rhino is not a BIM software in the traditional sense (relational database), this in a way constrains what is possible in advanced workflows.
At an entry level Rhino has UserTexts, Key Value pairs that are managed by the User.
I should’ve been more clear in that my interests start and stop with solid wood. I’m not interested in banding/veneer or many of the automated approaches to the industry.
If Chris has neither SketchUP nor Rhino experience its probably worth an investigation of the learning curve and available plugins specific to the industry to determine which is a better choice.
If SketchUP is better workflow wise, and the only issue is that it cannot produce a solid model, then I’ll be the devil’s advocate and suggest that the mesh results exported from SketchUP for Chris’ application could likely be easily converted to solid models in Rhino as they will have mostly planar surfaces.
I think a consideration would be how to fit a true circle or radius to those features in the mesh so the results would be recognized as such in CNC software.
Just make the same project in Rhino and in SketchUp and You will see the difference - especially if You use this amazing free plugin - What’s New in OpenCutList 5.0.0 ? - YouTube
Yes, this is the main problem if You have to send files down the road for further use. But for one-man shop using CNC there is Vectric - it imports SketchUp files directly. SketchUp Files (vectric.com)
Can You show the csv file? It is a big mess - I had to wrote a script to use user data properly, but still not easy way to get part sizes if they are not aligned with world axes. Not to mention this csv cannot combine identical parts and etc. At the end easy BOM and Cut List for us is more important than any advanced modeling tools.
An example of what you want to create would be invaluable.
I totally get your comment about all the automation and other things. Small projects don’t necessarily benefit from a lot of that stuff. And much of it can be quite intensive to learn. Not to mention that many such programs don’t handle ‘uniqueness’ well; modelling a custom 1-off joint is probably better suited for Rhino.
Let’s say I got into woodwork (or millwork) drafting starting next week, and I had to create standards, my own presentation style, etc… with the sole purpose being to earn $$$ and create drawings as fast as possible: I’d actually just use boring old CAD (AutoCAD or one of it’s cheaper variants). I’d do the 3D modelling in Rhino and thereafter import the 2D views into AutoCAD. Creating cut sheets and bills of materials would be manual, but not really an issue on small projects. Modelling small projects that contain a small amount of pieces, but with lots of unique complexities
After getting going, I would (try to) start shifting more and more tasks to Rhino. I’d maybe try to implement Grasshopper as well as gradually tweak my presentation standards, etc… The thing is I really like working in Rhino. It’s both a hobby and a potential revenue source in the future, so I don’t mind putting in the time.
Sketchup might be a good option but it doesn’t meet your “no subscription fee” requirement. My conclusion is that the cost of Sketchup is basically the same as Rhino when you consider that you’ll probably be upgrading Rhino every so often (it’s not a requirement but Rhino actually improves substantially every release). Sketchup has a fairly large woodworking community with lots of nice examples of finished projects (Google image search “Sketchup Woodwork” or something similar). Rhino has some very good examples too but literally only a couple (check them out in the gallery!!). I would say that Sketchup is similar to my AutoCAD example above: Easy to get into but a low ceiling. If you find that Rhino suites your style, your workflow (Sketchup kind of dictates the workflow so you’ll need to develop your own workflow with Rhino), you can achieve very good end results using Rhino and only Rhino, no need to learn 800 different programs.
I would recommend doing a small little test project in Rhino. Take advantage of the help available on this forum and asking questions as needed. Give it a chance (I kind of hated Rhino at first but part of that was because I was winging it) and after a while you’ll know if it suites you or not.
My designs will be built by me. No cnc routing as of now and I don’t have any plans to move in that direction. When you say “other milling” what exactly is meant? All of my projects require numerous stages of milling until a finished project emerges.
Rhino is very appropriate for your purposes. Some of the other comments are more relevant for large complex projects.
If you have not already done so take advantage of the free 90 day trial. Take time to go through the relevant parts of the Rhino User's Guide and Level 1 Training. Rhinoceros Help These include tutorial exercises.
Hi all, I’m back after taking a detour into some other software but not finding exactly what i wanted.
I have a related but distinct question: Is there any provision for creating a group of joints that can be applied to different projects down the road? Basically creating reusable components that have editable values so all faces/mechanical fitting could be edited based on hard values or percentages to be applied to each stick in a furniture design?
i.e - Imagine designing one of these joints for a project and wanting to apply it to a separate project down the road but on a stick with different dimensions: could be an 8"x8" for a timberframe or it could be 2"x2" stick used in furniture.
These are not my images, I grabbed them from a quick search for the question:
