# Rhinocommon DLL in commercial software

**URL:** <https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rhinocommon-dll-in-commercial-software/46224>\
**Category:** openNURBS\
**Created:** [July 31, 2017, 9:57am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rhinocommon-dll-in-commercial-software/46224 "2017-07-31T09:57:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ayoub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/ayoub/32/148057_2.png) [@Ayoub](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/Ayoub)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 9:57am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rhinocommon-dll-in-commercial-software/46224/1 "2017-07-31T09:57:32Z")

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Hello there!  
I am a little bit confused with the licensing model of the Rhinocommon/OpenNURBS.

From what I understood, OpenNURBS is open source and free to use in commercial software and Rhinocommon is an implementation of it in the .NET. Does it mean that you can use Rhinocommon in a commercial software (Not a Rhino Plugin)?

In short, can I use/ship rhinocommon.dll within my .NET application? If not, is there any other licensing model that I am missing?

Thank for your answers!

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**Author:** ![eddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/eddi/32/514714_2.png) [@eddi](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/eddi)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 11:34am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rhinocommon-dll-in-commercial-software/46224/2 "2017-07-31T11:34:54Z")

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> [@Ayoub](#):
>
> In short, can I use/ship rhinocommon.dll within my .NET application? If not, is there any other licensing model that I am missing?

> **[Rhino3dmIO Toolkit (OpenNURBS build)](https://github.com/mcneel/rhinocommon/wiki/Rhino3dmIO-Toolkit-(OpenNURBS-build))**
>
> RhinoCommon is the .NET SDK for Rhino5 / Grasshopper - mcneel/rhinocommon

> NOTE: This is NOT meant for any Rhino plug-in development. You should only be using this library if you are attempting to read/write 3dm files from an application other than Rhino!

I think for 3d kernel functions you have to look at other places…

> **[Geometric modeling kernel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_modeling_kernel)**
>
> A geometric modeling kernel is a solid modeling software component used in computer-aided design (CAD) packages. Available modelling kernels include:
> The kernel market currently is dominated by Parasolid and ACIS, which were introduced in the late 1980s. The latest kernel to enter the market is KCM. ShapeManager has no presence in the kernel licensing market and in 2001 Autodesk clearly stated they were not going into this business.\[citation needed\]
> The world's newest geometric modeling kernel ...

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**Author:** ![dale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/dale/32/685184_2.png) [@dale](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/dale)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rhinocommon-dll-in-commercial-software/46224/3 "2017-07-31T16:31:26Z")

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Hi @Ayoub,

Here is the landing page for openNURBS, which includes some legal stuff:

[http://www.rhino3d.com/opennurbs](http://www.rhino3d.com/opennurbs)

On this page is a link to the …NET openNURBS SDK, which puts you here:

[https://github.com/mcneel/rhinocommon/wiki/Rhino3dmIO-Toolkit-(OpenNURBS-build)](https://github.com/mcneel/rhinocommon/wiki/Rhino3dmIO-Toolkit-(OpenNURBS-build))

This is the version of RhinoCommon you are allowed to distribute with your application.

Note, this page has a link to a NuGet package, which makes it easy to integrate with you app.

Also note, you are **not** allowed to distribute any component that ships with Rhino.

Does this help?

– Dale