LA 280 DESIGN COMMUNICATIONS 1 RHINO TUTORIAL
“Continuum,” Chicago Design Office + Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape (2020).
Link to tutorial (recorded in class): On Box
Link to full list of Rhino commands: McNeel
Link to software help page: Rhino Support
RHINO COMMANDS TO EXPLORE:
LINE and POLYLINE
PLANE (a rectangular surface defined by clicking two opposite corners)
SRFPT (a surface defined by three or four corner points)
EXTRUDECRV (creates a vertical extrusion of a curve; the extrusion can be closed into a solid with the CAP command)
EDGESRF (creates a surface from two, three, or four curves)
PLANARSRF (creates a surface from a series of planar curves, all located on the same horizontal or vertical plane)
OFFSET (offsets a curve a designated distance)
OFFSETSRF (offsets a surface a designated distance; creates a solid)
BOX, CONE, CYLINDER, PIPE, PYRAMID, SPHERE, TORUS, TUBE (solid modeling commands)
ROTATE, MIRROR, COPY, SCALE (changes the size, orientation, and location of objects in the modeling space)
BOOLEANUNION (combines intersecting solids)
BOOLEANDIFFERENCE (subtracts intersecting solids and surfaces from one another)
BOOLEANINTERSECTION (converts the intersection between solids into its own object)
BOOLEANSPLIT (splits one solid along the boundaries of another)
LOFT (creates a surface between two or more curves; useful when using section cuts)
PATCH (creates a surface between two or more curves; useful when using contour lines in plan)
REBUILD (changes the grid density of a surface and produces control points at each intersection)
POINTSON (turns on control points for a surface, which can then be manipulated independently)
VIEWCAPTURETOFILE (creates a JPEG image of your selected view)
ASSIGNMENT
Start a new Rhino file and set UNITS to inches. Save your file early and often.
Rename three layers in the Layer Menu by double-clicking on the layer names. Call them “Linework,” “Landforms,” and “Solids.” You can make layers current by double-clicking next to their names in the “Current” column.
Make sure your “Linework“ layer is current. In the Top view, draw a closed polyline that is 20 feet x 20 feet square. Use OSNAP to make sure your object is completely closed.
COPY the polyline twice in Top view so that you have three identical squares with space in between them. These will become your “sites” for building different topographies.
In Front view, draw 2-4 section curves and place them along the edge of one of your squares. Refer to the tutorial recording if needed. Connect the curves with a surface using the LOFT command. Try out a few versions and see what you like best.
Within the second square, draw a series of closed curves in Top view that might resemble a simple contour map (2-5 curves total). Using the GUMBALL function, move some of the curves vertically in the Z direction (using the blue arrow). Connect these contours with the PATCH command. Again, test out different versions, contour heights, etc. until you like the result.
In the third square, use the boundary to draw a planar surface (PLANARSRF or SRFPT). Using the REBUILD command, subdivide the surface into a denser grid (10-20 divisions in each direction). Set your “degree” to at least 4, or higher. Once the rebuild function is complete, select the surface and type POINTSON. Select individual points, or groups of them while clicking and holding down Shift, and move them in different directions with the gumball widget. Use this strategy to create landforms and valleys of different shapes and sizes across the surface.
Using the solid modeling tools, add different solids at different sizes to each of your landforms. This is abstract, so they don’t have to resemble buildings or infrastructure. Experiment with the different solid types, using ROTATE, MIRROR, COPY, and SCALE to adjust their location and orientation. Use the different BOOLEAN functions to join, intersect, and subtract your solids in different combinations.
Using VIEWCAPTURETOFILE, save 3 JPEGs from the Perspective view, one showing each of your landforms. Each file should have the naming convention “LastName_View1” and so on.