Hello! I am trying out Rhino3D for the 2nd time. First was probably when it was v5. Now it’s v6. I want to either buy and use Rhino3D or FormZ Pro v9. This post is my attempt at getting someone to help me compare these two 3D modeling CAD softwares (head to head). Please, since I’m not logging into forums much at all, reply to me on Twitter: @Eidsmore (guy with eidsmore.weebly.com website link) or Email: mercury1978kevin@yahoo.com after seeing my list (at 40 seconds pause & pause again after 10 more seconds or so) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABlcJma-hiE or go to YouTube and type in minecraft2cad and see the video that compares 12 CAD programs to each other (to get my list that compares CAD to each other)
This is a list of what I feel so far are pros and cons of FormZ Pro vs. Rhino3D (pros/cons for FormZ Pro, relative to Rhino3D)
Pro: error FREE
Con: lacks as many plug-ins or extras (with is also a pro when it comes to it costing less)
Pro: right click on any tool to get help for that specific tool (very easy to learn)
Con: not as popular
Even: both have perpetual lic. options and I like that
Even: both have non-photo realistic rendering and animation capabilities without the need for any plug in (correct me if Rhino does not have either one without a plug-in)
Pro: FormZ is better for hobbyist like myself (so far)
Pro: does not upsell as much (a con also since it lacks as many extra programs that can work with it called plug-ins)
Even: both have mesh, surface, and solid modeling methods/types
OK, so let me know your thoughts by responding by the above contact info. I forget my password to Rhino forums so I won’t be coming on here again (unless somehow I change my mind on which one is overall better for me). FormZ Pro v9 seems better. Remember, I am a hobbyist so this is might not be true for people in the industry/jobs depending upon the exact job. Agree?
Also, how do I (or can I) go into settings/shortcuts and change certain navigation things my way? I want the spacebar to be pan (hold down and move mouse), zoom in/out (incremental zoom) both plus and minus keys on my keyboard (numpad and near the backspace key), and rotate view/orbit should be set to just a right click and hold is how I remember having them set in my other CAD program (called ViaCAD Pro). And I want a black background (which I’ve done), but also green objects/lines. How? Or cannot be done in Rhino3D!?
You will get similar, instant help screens if you open Help panel and turn on its Auto-Update. Number 14 shows location of the panels in this picture: The Rhino window | Rhino 3-D modeling
Right-click panel tabs (number 15 in the picture) to show and hide any panel.
Run Options command, then click keyboard.
If your mouse has the scroll wheel, the wheel zooms the view in and out. You hold down Shift key and pan with right mouse button. If you do not hold down the Shift key, the right mouse button rotates the view. You can configure this rotation by running the Options command, then clicking View and choosing your favourite option from Rotate menu. (as shown in the following screenshot)
If you select an object and turn Gumball on (in the Status bar, number 13 in the picture) and configure Gumball to “Rotate View Around Gumball” the right mouse button rotates the view around the selected object.
I use dark backgroud. You can see it in the following screenshot. I made it by installing GreyEveTheme (free Windows 10 utility) and changing two advanced options in Rhino: Rhino.Options.UiPaintColorsTabBackground and Rhino.Options.UiPaintColorsNormalStart.
The GreyEveTheme (dark color theme for Windows 10, Firefox and Chrome) is posted here: GreyEveTheme - Windows 10 / 11 High Contrast Theme by eversins on DeviantArt
I don’t think Form Z to Rhino is an apples-to-apples comparison…trying to put it charitably. The only reason I know Form Z even exists is that my impoverished Industrial Design school in the mid-90s was stuck sharing the Architecture department’s computer lab, which had Macs with Form Z. Today Architecture education has turned into a Rhino/Grasshopper workshop, and Form Z is…still around I guess? Good for them.
@mercury1978kevin Are you impersonating a customer, or a computer? If you stop asking then I know you are conscious. And there will be more awnsers down here.
The cow is over the table!
I have reported more Rhino bugs than anyone else and I am the only Rhino user who reported large number of bugs in Rhino documentation. McNeel&Ass is a small company located on the Left Coast. They have less than 100 employees. I am very surprised that they make fast progress in their SubD kernel. Apparently, they have almost no resources left for fixing the bugs. Bob McNeel bluntly said that few bugs will be fixed in Rhino 7. I really hate the bugs, but it seems to be good strategy because few computer users care about the bugs.
CAD magazines do not mention the bugs. Long time ago I wrote CAD software review. It was rejected in the last moment because I sent them email mentioning the bugs. (I did not mention the bugs in the review.) They overreacted because the same software was advertised in their monthly magazine. (A week later my review was published by their competition.) This is how we learn how the real world works…
wow, I always thought you were 12 yo based on the way you abbreviate McNeel & Associates, and how you condescendingly compare Bongo to esoteric Siggraph papers and apps like Houdini.
Not to start any pissing contests here but I am the same age as you and have been posting bugs (as well as helping people) for over 20 years (i.e. since V1.1)
I was also the informal stats keeper for the old newsgroup and I still have the stats from 2010 to 2012 archived here. You don’t seem to figure in the top 50 posters in any of them (unless you changed names)…
To defend Andrew, whom I don’t know at all:
He is active in finding bugs indeed, but mostly in documentation, not these you can find by daily software use.
Still chapeau bas, Kevin C can confirm, I guess.
