I’m working on designing a kitchen layout using Rhino and would love to hear your tips and favorite tools for this project. What are the best practices for modeling kitchen cabinets, countertops, and appliances to ensure accuracy and smooth workflow? Any recommended plugins or scripts that help speed up kitchen sculpting or visualization? Also, how do you manage details like material finishes and lighting to create realistic renders?
Looking forward to your advice and examples!
– Mista Eats
Hi @Mistaeats
Most kitchen cabinets are standard sizes and or modular. I would first gather spec sheets on what cabinets you might want to use. Many suppliers have models that you can download.
Some people use Grasshopper and create scripts for custom work.
Having worked in that industry for many years almost all kitchens are designed from 2d plans. It’s mainly for the client that 3d work is done. Kitchens are so standardized it was set in stone before computers were invented.
There are a few people on this list who have designed their own kitchens. Check the gallery.
Also one nice and generous soul recently posted free models of glassware. Sorry can’t find the link maybe they’ll chime in.
My First Kitchen Design: Feedback on My 3D Prototype Created with Rhino 8 - Gallery - McNeel Forum
Some free models…
Kitchen Free 3D Models download - Free3D
RM
+1 for designing the layout in 2D first. Draw the room outline to scale and overlay a grid related to the steps in cabinet sizes (in the UK that’s 100mm; I’d guess the US would use 4"). Then snap cabinet-sized rectangles into the grid. I’ve gone as far as cutting out stacks of paper rectangles in different cabinet widths and juggling those on a printed plan for the initial exploration - it’s quicker than editing a drawing.
Use existing services as anchor points: e.g. basin wastes have to reach drains - a radical basin relocation that requires you to move a drain is adding significant cost.
If you haven’t been trained in kitchen design, read up it and on ergonomics generally. You want to move efficiently in a kitchen and you need sufficient space in front of units to be able to access cupboards, drawers and appliances while you are in front of them, standing, squatting, bending or stretching as appropriate.
While you have a standard lateral grid, it can be helpful to work with non-standard depth. I put a Bora hob in my kitchen, which required space for low-level extraction ducting. I left a gap between back-to-back cabinets to accommodate part of this. A bespoke worktop catered for the extra depth.
Once you’ve got your layout pretty much nailed, you can move on to 3D. First decide whether you want laid on or recessed doors - it’s tedious redrawing cabinets to swap styles. Don’t overdetail - unless you really need to render interiors, cabinet bodies can just be blocks. Put items on layers according to their materials so you can, say, recolour all the doors with a single change at layer level. To render your kitchen you will need to use a wide angle lens on the camera and probably hide sections of wall as well to get reasonable views.
HTH
Jeremy
I tend to grab cabinets and equipment directly from the manufacturers in DWG, or Trimble 3d warehouse or Grabcad. Rhino can read many file formats so the models can be used from those. Most of the time they are quite accurate.