Page 1 of 4
Despite being named as an incremental upgrade, the new 1.1 version of Rhino the Windows based NURBS surface modeller from Robert McNeel & Associates offers significant enhancements to the original release.
As a conceptual and free form modelling tool, ease of use is vital and there are plenty of tweaks to improve existing tools as well as new interface functionality.
Most important amongst a wide range of new modelling tools is the NetworkSrf command that creates a new surface from a curve network even if the curves do not exactly touch by using the new Gazelle technology of high speed non linear optimisation.
Rhino does not set out to be a comprehensive engineering modeller but rather a companion product for rapid concept work and creation of complex surfaces sufficiently accurate for integrating into the final design data.
The range of supported file formats has been extended and despite the comprehensive modelling capabilities Rhino will still give responsive performance with a minimum 32MB RAM under Windows 95, 98 or NT.
Rhino sports a full CAD interface with toolbars and command line interface, layers and coordinate input for accuracy when required.
Multiple views can be displayed simultaneously and the elevator mode allows two axis coordinates to be specified in one view and the third in an orthogonal view.
The input elevation can be set to minimise the need to create numerous construction planes.
Usefully a construction plane can be created perpendicular to a curve.
Behaviour of the middle mouse button can be set to pop up a list of recently used commands or a customisable toolbar.