Rhino Basics, Study Guide

The final exam for the Rhino Basics class will consist of a written short-answer test, a tools quiz (e.g. “show me how to hide an object”), and an in-class modeling challenge based on a Dieter Rams classic design. The following material will be covered in the test. Important vocabulary words are emphasized.

A full study guide follows:

Rhino is CAD:

• Rhino is a NURBS based surface modeling package.
• Rhino is best-suited for design and conceptualization. It is not ideal for engineering, but it can be used for light engineering in certain situations.
• Rhino is NOT a parametric design application.
• Rhino and Autodesk StudioTools (aka “Alias“) are the most common NURBS based surface modeling packages in the consumer product design industry.
• SolidWorks and Pro Engineer (aka “ProE“) are the most common parametric solid modeling applications in the consumer product design industry. It is a good idea for an aspiring consumer product designer to learn one of these two in addition to Rhino.
• Subdivision (aka “Sub-D“) surface modeling packages like Maya are primarily intended for visualization, and are NOT ideal for modeling with great precision as required for industrial design, prototyping, and engineering.
• It is very common to model geometry in a CAD application like Rhino, and then export the resulting geometry to a visualization package like Maya, Modo, Cinema 4D, Lightwave, or 3DStudioMax for rendering and/or animation.
• V-Ray is a rendering engine with a plug-in for Rhino. This means that it is not a part of the Rhino application, but is sold separately by a different software company.
• It is not true that CAD companies “want” for students to pirate their software. Student pricing is made available to make the software affordable for those who would like to learn it. Piracy is illegal and unethical, even for students.

Why Rhino?

• We teach Rhino because it is simple, manual, versatile, and inexpensive.
• Knowing Rhino makes it easier to learn more specialized CAD packages.
• Rhino is very useful to have around, even if it is not your primary modeling tool, because it can work with a wide variety of file formats–more than almost any other application. For this reason, most design studios have at least one license of Rhino.

NURBS:

• Generally speaking, consumer product designers will work with degree 3 NURBS curves and surfaces.
• If a curve or surface is not degree 3, we can change its degree using the ‘rebuild‘ command.
• Every curve and surface in Rhino, no matter how simple or complex, is NURBS.
• When NURBS curves or surfaces get too heavy (i.e. too many control points), there are three main disadvantages:
  • file size goes up, and application performance goes down
  • curve or surface quality degrades
  • it is difficult to control curves and surfaces with too many points
• To simplify a curve or surface that is too heavy, use the ‘rebuild’ command.
• All NURBS surfaces are rectangular. All.
• As coordinates in space are measured in “X” and “Y”, coordinates along a surface are measured in “U” and “V“. For example, U may refer to a measurement along a surface’s length, while V may refer to its width, or vise-verse.
• All NURBS surfaces are one-sided. Every surface has a front face and a back face, and can be flipped using the ‘flip‘ command.

Tools:

Students should be familiar with the following tools:

Curves

• Polyline
• Control Point Curve
• Circle: Center-Radius
• Circle: Diameter
• Ellipse: From Center
• Arc: Start, End, Point on Arc
• Arc: Start, End, Direction at Start
• Rectangle: Corner to Corner
• Rectangle: From Center
• Polygon: Center, by Radius

Curve Tools

• Fillet Curves (pronounced “fil-let”, rhymes with “skillet”)
• Chamfer Curves
• Adjustable Curve Blend
• Offset Curve
• Rebuild
• Insert/Remove a Control Point
• Curve Boolean

Surfaces

• Plane: Corner to Corner
• Extrude Straight
• Loft
• Sweep 1 & 2 Rails
• Revolve

Surface Tools

• Fillet Surface
• Chamfer Surface
• Blend Surface
• Offset Surface
• Rebuild Surface
• Insert/Remove a Control Point (srf)

Solids

• Box: Corner, Corner, Height
• Sphere: Center, Radius
• Ellipsoid: From Center
• Tube
• Extrude Closed Planar Curve
• Text Object

Solid Tools

• Boolean Union, Difference, Intersection, Split
• Cap Planar Holes
• Wire Cut
• Move Face
• Rotate Face
• Variable Radius Fillet
• Variable Radius Chamfer

Tools

• Project [curves] to Surface
• Intersection
• Duplicate Edge
• Join
• Explode/Extract
• Trim/Untrim
• Split
• Group/Ungroup
• Control Points on/off

Transforms

• Move/Copy
• Rotate 2D
• Scale 1D, 2D, 3D
• Mirror
• Rectangular/Radial Array

Analysis

• Curvature Graph On/Off
• Show [naked] Edges
• Analyze Direction
• Distance / DimAligned
• Angle
• Radius

Navigation

• Rotate/Pan/Zoom with mouse and keyboard
• Zoom Fit
• Zoom Selected
• Shaded/Wireframe Viewport
• Maximize/Restore Viewport
• Hide/Show Objects

Snaps & Precision

• Snap [grid]
• Osnap
  • End
  • Near
  • Point
  • Midpoint
  • Center
  • Intersection
  • Knot
  • Project
  • Disable
• Set CPlane World Top, Bottom,Right, Left, Front, Back
• Set CPlane to Object
• Set CPlane by 3 Points

Layers & Properties

• Edit Layers
  • New Layer
  • Hide/Show Layer
  • Lock/Unlock Layer
  • Set Layer Color
  • Move Objects to Layer
  • Copy Objects to Layer
  • Rename Layer
  • Delete Layer
• Object Properties
  • Object Color
  • Assign V-Ray Materials
• V-Ray
  • Import Studio Scene
  • Import Materials
  • Edit Materials
  • Assign Materials
  • Render 1920×1080, save as PNG

Modeling Challenge: Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams is one of the great founding fathers of modern industrial design, primarily through his extensive work with Braun. His design philosophy is held up as a model for many of the world’s most important design teams, not least of which being Apple, who has taken much of its entire design strategy from the teachings of Mr. Rams.

After completing the written portion of the exam, each student will model a Dieter Rams classic design from loose dimensions and images provided at the beginning of class. The models will not be expected to be dimensionally perfect, but proportionally and formally correct. The more detail the student is able to incorporate, the better. At the end of class, each student will be given 20 minutes during which to import their model into the V-Ray photo studio, assign simple materials, and generate a final render.

Grading will be based on the following criteria:

• proportional correctness
• visual cohesion
• attention to detail
• proper use of modeling tools and techniques

about adam: Adam O'Hern is an industrial design consultant specializing in visual brand languages, and has designed products ranging from laptops to power tools, classroom toys to bathroom fixtures, and robots to lint rollers. He has published with 3DWorld Magazine, CGTuts+, and Luxology, and works with Josh Mings of SolidSmack.com on EngineerVsDesigner.com.