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Rhinoceros 3D - An AEC software in a league of its own
November 10, 2021

Rhinoceros 3D - An AEC software in a league of its own

Antoine Carpentier, E.I.T | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Rhinoceros 3D

My organization uses Rhinoceros 3D in different ways:
  • When quickly iterating through different designs during the schematic design phase of a project.
    Rhino is perfect for parametric modeling. It allows to easily change for example the span of a bay, or the number of joists between two girders simply by using a slider.
  • As a presentation software.
    Most modeling software quickly feel sluggish when a project starts to grow big which can be a problem when sharing our model with stakeholders during live presentations. Rhino is always fast and smooth, making it ideal for this purpose.
  • As a programmable bridge between different AEC software we use.
    Thanks to Grasshopper (which is a user-friendly v    isual programming language and environment included in Rhino), it is possible to automate various repetitive tasks and save time and some sanity when putting together construction documents.
    Rhino quickly becomes the central hub linking all your analysis models and Revit models together, allowing you to overlap them to highlight differences and even import elements from one model to another.
    There is a learning curve to Grasshopper but it allows the user to gain full control over the workflow of their modeling tasks.

  • Parametric modeling
  • Fully programmable
  • Lightweight models
  • Integration with other AEC software
  • Sharp learning curve
  • Not meant to create construction documents - need for another software
  • grasshopper
  • Rhino.Inside.Revit
  • Parametric
  • Customisable/Programmable
  • 2 hours saved per week and per model when comparing our structural Revit models to the weekly architectural Revit models we receive
  • Reduce by 90% the time needed to import elements from other AEC software
  • A LOT of sanity preserved, which is invaluable
It's hard to compare Rhino to other modeling software as Rhino is in a niche of its own. No other software (to my knowledge) is as customizable/programmable and has such a large community and such a large amount of free, open-source addons.
Rhino (and Grasshopper) can be intimidating at first but once you get familiar with it and grow your toolbox with your own scripts, so much time will be saved.

Do you think Rhino 3D delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Rhino 3D's feature set?

Yes

Did Rhino 3D live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Rhino 3D go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Rhino 3D again?

Yes

Rhinoceros 3D is very well-suited for buildings with repetitive bay layouts as a design can be quickly be updated (span, number of bay, height etc) simply by updating a couple numerical sliders.
It is also well suited to quickly update one model (for example Revit) based on the changes in another model (either another Revit model or an analysis model).

Rhinoceros 3D is not well-suited for teams that are not interested in learning GrassHopper as most of Rhino's value is in GrassHopper.