What do you wish you knew earlier?

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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Yesterday I went down a crazy rabbit hole of inspiration triggered partly by this post. And then got lost in this thread showcasing real like design examples.
I mentioned in a reply that I feel like I’m only scratching the surface even after nearly a decade of full-time work in Rhino (I know I’m just a baby compared to many here). There’s so too much to learn.

It got me thinking. What do you wish you knew earlier? What were you hitting yourself for not learning sooner? It could be about Rhino, Grasshopper, Rendering or 3D modelling in general? It can even just be a component or command like QuadRemesh, for example. Maybe some tutorials?

And finally, what’s on the top of your list to learn this year?

I’d love to download the best bits from this beautiful hive mind.

I’ll start.

I wish I knew earlier:

  1. Spacemouse - I feel absolutely useless without one now. Buy it as soon as you can afford it. You won’t regret it. Go with Object Mode! It can be a tough few days forcing yourself to use it, but you feel like a god when you get the hang of it.

  2. CPlane hotkeys - This was a game-changer to set up for me. These are my most used shortcuts by far. Auto Cplane is a really nice addition! Hotkeys and aliases in general FTW.

  3. Blocks - I’ve been using block instances compulsively for years now. But it always shocks me when I open other (otherwise competent) people’s files, and they’re labouring away on complex files using only groups! If you’re one of them, please do yourself a favour and learn to use blocks.

  4. Template files and well-structured layout templates. Set it up so that a perfectly organised file with a layer structure opens up automatically every time you open a new file.

  5. Grasshopper is indispensable. I use it in so many weird ways, including creating precise and complex 3D LED mapping files.

  6. Enhanced Text Fields - I’m only using the basics. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot.

What do I want to Learn?

  1. I only discovered Maxwell renderer yesterday. It looks really interesting for lighting. Does anyone prefer another option?
    I’m particularly interested in rendering light art concepts. I’m a VRay user.

  2. Scripting custom components for grasshopper. I’ve only got basic programming skills but I feel like I’m missing out in a big way here.

  3. SubD

Show me what you’ve got…

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Now I have Rhino 8, I am quite keen to learn more about shrinkwrapping and espectially the inset function. There is an enormous amount of stuff I want to inset in my work, and this will make it much easier than dupborder and offsetting everything.

I am definately guilty of over-grouping. I also wish I knew about the block function earlier. In addition, there have been many scripts that others have sent me that I really wished I knew existed before. Mostly simple but powerful editing.

I also want to get better renders, and I require much work to get better. If you like the look of Maxwell, go and give bella renderer a try, it’s fantastic.

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Also a fan of blocks and very space mouse curious.

I have been looking for some sort of layout template to get started with. Any idea where I could find such a thing or is the answer to build my own?

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if you like maxwell, (which is great) give Bella a try. @jdhill was the man behind getting Maxwell to work with Rhino is now behind the scenes at Bella…

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I always build my own depending on the job I’m working on at the time.

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:point_up_2:

Trackballs - Wow, I could have avoided a year of rehab from RSI if I started out with these, but like many others I went “I’m so used to the mouse why do I have to be slower using a trackball”? Well, when the pain becomes so intolerable that you barely want to move your arm, the slowness of a trackball start not seeming so bad. Today, the pain is gone and I’m just as fast with a trackball as I was with a mouse.

So that’s what I wish I knew ealier, but other recommendations would be Xnurbs (though be aware of their horrible DRM) and realtime renderers like Unreal Engine or Blender Eevee (you’ll never want to wait for another picture that will need changes anyways again).

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Shrinkwrap could have saved me weeks of faffing around with crappy meshes a few years ago! :sob:
Awesome addition. Did you see the Rhino tutorial shelling a mesh with inset?

Bella also looks incredible :astonished:

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I would build it to suit your needs. It takes some time and mental effort, but it’s worth it. Mine evolves all the time. Not sure I can share it at the moment unfortunately. Maybe someone knows of a good tutorial or download?

You could start with an ISO drawing template or some other architectural standard (which I prefer visually).

  1. Make the drawing template in a separate Rhino file (bob_Footer.3dm)

  2. Import it as a linked block instance into your Rhino template file (bob_Rhino Template_Millimeters.3dm), and put it on a layout page.

  3. Make it pretty, add some standard info and enhanced text fields and document user text…

  4. In your template file, set up a standard organised layer structure.
    I try to make sure there is at least one item in each layer on the layout page so that when you Purge, these layers aren’t lost, sending your file back into chaos. I put these to the right of the layout page so that they don’t print or get in the way of your model views.
    Here I also have a bunch of standard symbols and title blocks to copy and use. This keeps everything nice and uniform. You can go deep here, grids, guides, alternate layouts…

  5. Save both in a templates folder. I have them on a server.

  6. Then finally press File>New…
    It will ask you to open a template file. Make sure to tick “use this file when rhino starts”
    Navigate to your “bob_Rhino Template_Millimeters.3dm” file and open it.
    Now, this template is the default whenever you open Rhino.
    Now you can edit the drawing template so that it updates across all of your files without any extra effort!

On the drawing topic - Another amazing command I discovered the other day is SetDimensionLayer. So good!

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Thank you for these pointers, very helpful.

And whoa, SetDimensionLayer :scream_cat: I’ve wanted that without knowing it for many years!

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This is true 100%, but until the future makes them plug and play, and more intuitive and more fluent, you will always be limited by your own perception and imagination. Hence, your mind is where the real power is.

The more you exercise all the peripherals, tools, features etc., as you work, you’ll empower your mind as you dream.

The time will come, if not already, when you will imagine everything in your mind and project onto the future with potential things you can do with CAD’s such as Rhino.

Kinda like a mathematician that solves an equation in their dreams. You exercise your mind, and your mind will work like a brain storm on many things that can be done in CAD’s. You almost wont have to be at the keyboard to imagine what’s possible.

In other words, sometimes when I don’t have my ‘spacemouse’ or if I’m not using it, I’ll sit back and imagine the project in my mind, moving around :sweat_smile:

Sometimes I’ll use the ‘regular mouse’ to rotate or pan, to see what the silly ppl do without the spacemouse :joy: jk

Yeah, I guess this has been on my mind more lately. I used to just purge and vaporize them :joy:

But my assemblies are needing to become evermore complex, so I’ll need to practice them.

Yes, indeed, I need to work on this discipline as well.

This is one of my priorities as I continue with Rhino into the foreseeable future. This is, I believe, the wave of the future.

Yeah, I’m not sure I’ll ever invest in that, but I’m sure it’s cool.

I’m open to anything GH, but I’m focused on ‘constraint’ based modeling stuff, even though I heard loops aren’t prevalent enough yet, so I’ll probably have to engineer some new components or something…

Yes, subd’s omg. I’m soo grateful Rhino went subd! It means I have direct access to that technology now with my Rhino! I’m so glad I don’t have to use some other program to use that tech now!

Such an amazing direction Rhino has gone now. I’m convinced there are no limitations going forward. There’s nothing Rhino can’t do. The future is very bright.

For my two cents, I began using Rhno in 2004-2007 as a file format converter. The university at the time that I was at had an outdated version of Rhino and they never taught classes on it.

The only reason I discovered it was cause I was searching the whole world for answers, basically, and so coincidentally I saw it on the computers in the CAD lab there.

Now, by the time I went to work full time in 2007-2010 I’d already become very advanced in solid modeling programs.

But the work I was doing, demanded the skills of ‘free form surface modeling’.

I felt very new to something I should have already been familiar with.

So, I wish I knew more about free form surface modeling earlier. Since those days, I’ve learned alot. And some reason I continue to feel like I’m just getting started :sweat_smile:

Some ppls here are starting to make me think about using degree 5 srf’s, but idk I think deg 3’s are fine :smile:

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