Is it really Rhino?
Some more context:
Puts tin foil hat on*
Twilight Zone music on*
What am i seeing here chief?
More context: It’s the command line in AutoCAD. You can actually type AutoLISP code directly into the command line. Imagine being able to type Python into Rhino’s command line? At first it might be hard to se ethe usefulness in that. In the case of AutoCAD LT it happens to be a good debugging technique especially in AutoCAD LT since we don’t have access to a built-in debugger.
Rhino being present in the installed apps might be some legacy from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day when Rhino was actually a plugin for AutoCAD (full version - likely before an ‘LT’ even existed).
Interesting history
back in the day during V5 someone had a code which could directly paste into command line and it would generate geometry
Not sure if relevant but interesting…
Same way binary code can be programmed into cnc steering systems
I was able to cope and paste this into the command line: ! -_RunScript (
Rhino.AddPoint Array(0,0,0)
)
Old news…
This “Rhino” app exists in my AutoCAD LT 2025 install. I’m not sure how that relates to your link (which is by admission over my head).
I pondered if back in the day Autodesk bought some of McNeel’s nurb tech and used it in their base product. They did this with lots of AutoLISP code back in the day (“express” tools are mostly AutoLISP). Splines can be controlled very similar to Rhino’s. I know it’s not a unique approach even outside of AutoCAD/Rhino. If AutoCAD had splines pre-McNeel it would have lessened the business case for the original plugin (at least for curves maybe not surfaces).
Nothing hidden, and nothing Autodesk licensed from us. We’ve never sold any technology to Autodesk.
Your screenshot is the drawing’s Registered Applications table (AcDbRegAppTableRecord). Any program that attaches extended data (XData) to DWG entities registers an app name there. When Rhino exports DWG/DXF it registers “Rhino” and stores object user strings as XData under that name.
RegApp entries stick to drawing content. If anything in that drawing came from a Rhino export, even one block or a copy/paste from a file a consultant sent you, the “Rhino” entry came with it. Start a new drawing from the stock template and it won’t be there.
To remove it: -PURGE → R (Regapps). It only goes once no entity still carries Rhino XData.
On splines: NURBS is standard, published math that predates both products. AutoCAD’s splines and Rhino’s look alike because they’re the same math, not shared code.
