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What’s New in Rhino 7

The release of Rhino 7 is the most significant in the 30 years since Rhinoceros3D was first introduced. At its heart, RhinoCommon offers a powerful geometry engine with high mathematical accuracy, and with new features like SubD modeling and Clash Detection, it is only getting better.

If you haven’t already purchased a license of Rhino 7, I hope that by the end of this article you are convinced that it provides huge value out-of-the-box and great potential in the future.

Rhino3d.com/7/new/ lists all of the new features and capabilities of Rhino 7. For ease of navigating, links to some of the best features are listed below:

SubD Modeling

Explore organic shapes quickly and easily

Rhino.Inside Revit (beta)

Rhino 7 can now be used as a plugin for Autodesk Revit, expanding the possibilities for both programs. More info below…

Quad ReMesh

Quickly create a Quad Mesh from existing geometries, including SubDs

Clash Detection

Detect and resolve clashes quickly.

Package Manager

Installing and managing plugins for Rhino+GH is now easier than ever, right from Rhino itself!

Grasshopper Player

Grasshopper was packaged as part of Rhino 6, and now with the GH Player, Plugins can be built to receive User Defined Inputs without the need to open and run the Grasshopper definition.

Presentation Tools and Display Pipeline

    • The Render Engine received a major update
    • Raytraced Viewport allows for interactive rendering
    • PBR Materials and Multi-threading with OpenGL, optimized with certain hardware

Documentation

From Enhanced Text Fields that work with Formulas to Layout Management tools, it is easier than ever to document your designs

New Commands in Rhino 7

A full list of all of the new Commands that are available. For quick reference and similar to past versions, there is a tab called New in V7 which has some of the best new commands.

In addition to all of these new and enhanced features that come with Rhino 7, there is much effort afoot to bring the capabilities of Rhino into almost any environment (Rhino.Inside).

Development Platform

The foundations of Rhino are ready for broader and deeper applications of its capabilities. As plugins for Rhino have been developed over the years, it has spurred a thriving developer community with advanced tools for data and geometry manipulation.

In Version 6, Rhino was made into a Dynamic Link Library (DLL), which allowed for a couple of things to happen in the development of Rhino 7:

A. Plugins (particularly C++) developed for Rhino 6 will work with Rhino 7 and possibly later versions without breaking the SDK.

  1. For scripters, this provides a more solid footing for the development and support that would be necessary for plugins.
  2. For Firms and BIM/VDC Managers, this gives more long-term reliability in the tools that are incorporated into certain workflows

B. Rhino can be run as a plugin within other applications

  1. Standalone Console Apps / .NET Web Servers (Rhino Compute)
  2. CPython
  3. Revit (Rhino.Inside.Revit)

Rhino Compute lets Rhino run on a .NET Web Server, effectively bringing Rhino to the cloud. Startups such as Hypar are working to bring Grasshopper scripting and much more to the web browser, allowing for design input to come from anyone, anywhere.

The most popular flavor of the Rhino.Inside technology is Rhino.Inside.Revit (beta, free), which has effectively made Rhino 7 the largest possible plugin for Revit. Not only is it the full version of Rhino running within Revit’s memory space, but all of the plugins are compatible with Rhino 7 as well. Plugins that had been developed for Rhino 6 remain compatible, so the functionality that is part of many scripts and workflows can endure.

There are new Grasshopper Components found in V7, with the majority available within Rhino.Inside.Revit, in the Revit Tab.

For more information on Rhino.Inside.Revit Technology, please refer to our other blog posts and our Microsol Resources’ Youtube Channel for additional resources and webinar recordings.

Rhino 7 provides a framework with minimal barriers to entry. From the lone wolf coder to the multi-national firm, Rhino 7 can be very powerful if leveraged properly. A great conversation with Steve Baer, Luis Fraguada, and Will Pearson of Robert McNeel & Associates can be found on ProArchitect’s Youtube page. They discuss the rationale and forward-thinking concepts behind Rhino 7 and the Rhino.Inside technology, but for the most part, opine on Rhino Compute.

Want to upgrade to Rhino 7 or have any questions about any of the New Features? Feel free to contact us at rhino@microsolresources.com. 

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