Rhinoceros version 2 by Robert McNeel and Associates is a powerful NURBS based 3D modeling program. NURBS stands for Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines. They are mathematical representations of 3D geometry and can describe shapes from simple 2-D lines to complex solids. Rhino shares many features with AutoCad, and I imagine, that if you are familiar with AutoCad, learning Rhino will be relatively easy. I'll start out describing Rhino with a left handed compliment. It has too many options. For the person not very familiar with 3D modeling programs, but who has used some, and not at all familiar with AutoCad, there are too many choices. This, of course, gives the experienced person unlimited freedom. That is why I call it a left handed compliment. While I have used other 3D programs with comfort, I found the learning curve for Rhino very steep.

I will try to describe this program through illustrations, and I will also show the basic command structure. Also, a demo of Rhino can be downloaded from the website whose URL is http://www.rhino3d.com. It will save the first 25 times, and after that it will not; but it will still be functional. This is always great!

The system requirements for Rhino are:

• A Pentium, Celeron, or higher processor
• Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP for Intel or AMD. It will not run on Apple Macs with Virtual PC
• 40 MB disk space
• 64 MB RAM. More is recommended
• IntelliMouse recommended
• 3-D digitizer optional

The cost for the various Rhino bundles is listed below:

Buy Rhino/Flamingo Bundle
• Commercial users US$1,195
• Students and teachers $295.
• School lab license $1,650.

Buy Rhino alone
• Commercial users US$895
• Students and teachers $195.
• School lab license $975.

Other purchase bundles are also available, for example Rhino and Alibre Design. And Robert McNeel and Associates are constantly offering new plugins that can be purchased separately

Rhino comes with two manuals that total over 650 pages. They cover all versions of Rhino and coordinate with the online help menu. The Flamingo bundle, also, comes with a good manual that describes the Flamingo plugin that is tightly integrated with Rhino.

Rhino can construct, edit, analyze, and transform curves, surfaces, and solids. Rhino can also be used to construct Polygon meshes and even has a plugin to enable it to go directly to Right Hemisphere's Deep UV. While Rhino has the ability to construct freeform models, it can also be used to create very technically accurate models as well. Rhino is very customizable. Its viewports can be edited, maximized, changed, etc. Its tool bars can also be expanded, placed in different locations, deleted or added through the Tools>Toolbar Layout. Click on the image to the right to see a default layout of the Viewports and Tool bars.

Commands can be done in a number of manners. Take the Command, for example, Control Points On. It can be executed in at least three ways. It can be done 1) on the Command line or 2) by left clicking a button or 3) by going to the tool bar and choosing Edit>Point Editing>Control Points On. The first two ways are illustrated below.

Command	Button

Since all 3D programs have a different approach, a closer look at some of the tool bars and the menus and sub-menus, I believe, gives a good indication of the strengths of a programs and its parameter of operation. Usually one will start out by creating curves or solids and will access the following two menus:

Curve	Solid

One, then, will probably work on the surface:

Surface

These three menus with their sub-menus should give an example of the number of easily accessible commands and how logically they are setup and organized. As can be seen, this interface is easy to navigate.

The major toolbars are also set up to be easily accessible and to have fly-out sections. The little white triangles in the corner of the individual visible tools show those buttons with fly-outs.

The upper toolbar tools are used for the basic maneuvers. Rhino allows for easy panning as well as zooming in and out. One can look at objects in wireframe, shaded mode and combinations. It is very easy to quickly render an object, and this as well, has its own options, especially if Flamingo - a ray tracing and/or photorealistic rendering engine - is included. This plugin will be discussed later in the review. The lower toolbar, which by default sits on the left side of the screen, is more for specific "manipulative" commands, such as I described earlier using the example, Control points on.

In addition to all of these toolbars, menus, command lines, etc., the right mouse button also can perform various functions. In some instances, it has specific controls such as Control points off; in other instances it will bring up a context sensitive menu, and it has still other functions depending on the circumstances when it is clicked. Unfortunately, here is a good example of where I tended to get confused by too much input. This, however, is not even the end of the options. Below are two more screenshots of menus. In my opinion, this is one of the great strengths of the program, but if you are learning the program and trying to follow tutorials, you can get lost with so many options unless I am an exception.

I find it interesting that some programs handle Boolean functions easily and some with difficulty. In Rhino, it is a snap to hollow out a bowl, for example.

Using Osnap to Position 2nd Sphere	Front View After Boolian Operation	Shaded Front View	Shaded Perspective View	Wireframe Perspective View

One of the strengths of Rhino is the number of file formats it will handle. One can edit and work with almost any format as well as export in almost any format.

Save As

Open

In addition, in the extensive Help Menu, if you click on file formats, you can see a detailed explanation of all the options available when you are saving the file in many of these formats.

Since I had not used Rhino 1, I had to go by the list on their website of the major differences between version 1 and version 2. They state that "The main focus of version 2.0 is the ability to add plugin applications to Rhino." However, this is not all. New lights have been added, VBScript and JScript Support, Flamingo, new import/export formats, etc. For a complete list, click on the underlined word New.

It is also, obvious, that I cannot list all the features. In addition, we all look at important features from our own perspective. For a list from the Rhino website click on the word Features.

The program comes with a number of tutorials as well as online tutorials from the Rhino site that can be downloaded. While the tutorials describe Rhino for a newcomer and lead one through basic steps to learn the program, in many of them they leave out critical steps and, thus, lead to confusion. Obviously, to whomever wrote them, the steps were second nature and thus easy to leave out. Thus, after a while, I just put them aside.

Once one is familiar with Rhino, there are a wealth of tutorials on the web. There are also many forums in Renderosity (www.renderosity.com) in RuntimeDNA (www.runtimedna.com) and in other graphic online communities. There is also a 3rd party book by Ron K. C. Cheng entitled Inside Rhinoceros. It is published by Onword Press.

If you want to purchase the Rhino/Flaming bundle, Flamingo integrates flawlessly with Rhino. If you look on the screenshot of the Option's Menu above, you will notice a Flamingo section. Flamingo, also has its own toolbar which can be added to the interface. For those not familiar with Flamingo; Flamingo is a plugin whose purpose is to create lifelike images from Rhino models through raytrace and radiosity rendering technology. Flamingo comes with its own material editor, its own lights to give the impression of daylight, and other realistic options. It also includes certain environmental additions such as clouds, sky, plants to give more naturalistic settings to models, and it contains two rendering modes - Raytrace Render and Photometric Render.

The Flamingo manual suggests that Raytrace Rendering be used for product shots where lighting is controlled and does not necessarily have to look realistic. A product might be highlighted, for example.

Photometric lighting is used when a scene is needed to look realistic and there is a wide range of lighting conditions. Here, according to the manual, the intensity of the lights is measured in watts and exposure adjustment is possible after the image is created.

The following table shows the sample soccer file from Rhino against a Flamingo background. All settings, including lights, are default as are the rendering settings. I am really not sure the table shows much since one never leaves these settings default, especially lighting; however, it does show gross differences. The Two Flamingo renderings show the soccer ball against a background from the Flamingo plugin as described in the next paragraph under the "rendering" screen captures.

Rhino	Flamingo Raytrace	Flamingo Photometric

In addition, one can copy Flamingo images into Adobe Photoshop and other similar programs as well as use them in word processing documents. Below are pictured some of the features Flamingo adds to Rhino other than its Rendering capabilities. Notice the number of options.

As does Rhino, Flamingo, also, has other ways to access its various options.

For a more detailed list of features, click on the word Flamingo.

Thus, one can see Flamingo can be used to complement a scene in more ways than through just rendering.

Before purchasing an expensive program, I always suggest downloading the demo and trying it out as well as lurking on the forums that deal with Rhino paying special attention to the questions of newbies.