Rhino 3D Certification: Master 3D Modeling with Rhino

Why is it important to know 3D Modeling?

Being able to translate your idea into a digital representation is a fundamental skill in today’s design toolkit. Whether you are an architectural student, a junior designer or a senior manager at a large firm, knowing how to 3D model and understand what the possibilities and benefits of having a digital representation of your design are, is a valuable skill to acquire.

What is Rhinoceros 3D and why is this software a good fit for me?

Rhino is an open free-form 3D modeling software developed by Robert McNeel and associates. It is a versatile, powerful 3D modeling software and its used to design and engineer products ranging from jewelry and furniture to architecture, marine design and automotive design. In other words, it’s like a swiss army knife. In architecture, it used in the schematic design phases, to quickly and accurately design options — all the way to assist in the process of creating construction documents.

What will I learn in this certification course?

In the first Module of the Rhino Certification Course, we cover the basics of Rhino. You'll go over the Rhino interface and how to set-up, navigate, and organize your model. You'll understand the different types of geometry objects that exist in Rhino and their most common uses. You'll know you how to create and edit objects and understand how they are used in everyday situations. You'll understand how to create simple construction drawings and how to export and import to other software programs. After this course, you will know the basics of Rhino, and become confident to start modeling your first project.

In the second Module, you start with importing the floor plans and sections from the Barcelona pavilion. This exercise is comparable with future sketches you make and want to transform into a digital 3D model. We continue by setting up a 2D base layer consisting of curves and lines from which we'll derive the 3D shape of the pavilion. You use the various techniques and workflows from the first part to do this, and you'll learn some new ones in the process. When you have modeled the pavilion, we look at how we can annotate and document our project. We also take a look at some visualization methods to create a diagrammatic image of the pavilion. This exercise is helpful for you to print out and start sketching on top to create various options quickly or to show to a client.

In the third and final module, you'll learn more advanced methods, commands, and workflows of Rhino. We'll go more in-depth on how to create, edit, and transform any free form shape. We start by getting a better understanding of the inner workings of NURBS geometry and how to perform various analysis methods to check curves and surfaces for their smoothness and continuity. We'll 3D model the roof of the London Aquatics Centre from Zaha Hadid Architects using NURBS geometry, Polygon Meshes and also a newer type of geometry called Subd and we'll take a look at the differences between both. We'll go over some exciting options to enhance Rhino with the help of some useful plugins and other tools. As you know, time is always an essential factor when designing your project, so we spend time understanding best practices to model fast and efficient without losing accuracy and control over your project. We'll look at repetitive tasks and ways to automate those and how to create a set-up to model like a pro.