Rhinoceros is a 3D modelling program; with it you can model anything from a heart value to a ships hull and from a mouse to a monster. Of course it's never as easy as it sounds but Rhinoceros provides a flexible, accurate, and fast working environment at a fraction of the cost of some of its more traditional competitors.

Rhinoceros or Rhino I found to be an extremely well packaged piece of software, it's extremely easy to use. Although saying that when you first open the software package up after installing it, you'll wonder what you've let yourself in for as the screen is split into four different work areas: top view, front view, right view and perspective view, these can be changed as mentioned later, not to mention the vast array of menu controls.

However sit and work your way through one or two tutorials and it all starts to make sense and you start to fully appreciate the work that has gone in to developing Rhino. It really is a joy to work with and the interface soon becomes second nature.

Now that's a pretty big statement to make about any software, but what I really like about Rhinoceros and Robert McNeel & Associates is the total quality solution they seem to have adopted. Not only have they produced a first class product, but they have also produced an extremely easy to understand manual, and going even further they provide first class support services. The newsgroup being my personal favourite method of support, as there is nothing quite like being able to ask any sort of question on the product and its' use and getting it answered in this fashion. A few other software companies offer similar levels of service but few offer them better packaged and presented.

Rhinoceros is a 3-D NURBS modelling program for Windows. It's a what? I hear you say.

NURBS is an acronym for Non-uniform rational B-splines. Non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) geometry is a mathematical representation that can accurately define any shape from a simple line, circle, arc, or box to the most complex 3-D free-form organic surface or solid.

As NURBS models are extremely flexible and accurate they can be used in any process from illustration and animation to manufacturing. NURBS geometry has five important qualities that make it an idea choice for computer aided modelling.

• There are several industry standard ways to exchange NURBS geometry. This means that you can and should expect to be able to move your valuable geometric models between various modelling, rendering, animation, and engineering analysis programs. You can store geometric information in a way that will be usable twenty years from now.
• NURBS have a precise and well-known definition. The mathematics and computer science of NURNS geometry is taught in most major universities. This means that specialty software vendors, engineering teams, industrial design firms, and animation houses that need to create custom software applications, can find trained programmers who are able to work with NURBS geometry.
• NURBS can accurately represent both standard geometric objects like lines, circles, ellipses, spheres, and tori, and free-form geometry like car bodies and human bodies.
• The amount of information required for a NURBS representation of a piece of geometry is much smaller than the amount of information required by a common faceted approximations.
• The NURBS evaluation rule (the evaluation rule uses a mathematical formula that takes a number and assigns a point,) can be implemented on a computer in a way that is both efficient and accurate.

Rhinoceros Features

User interface: extremely fast 3-D graphics, unlimited viewports, working perspective views, named views, named construction planes, customisable icons and toolbars, extensive on-line help, electronic updates, newsgroup support.

Construction aids: unlimited undo and redo, exact numeric input, object snaps, grid snap, ortho, planar, construction planes, layers, background bitmaps, object hide/show, object lock/unlock.

Create curves: point, line, polyline, free-form curve, circle, arc, ellipse, rectangle, polygon, helix, spiral, conic, TrueType text, point interpolation, control points (vertices), sketch.

Create curves from other objects: extend, fillet, chamfer, offset, blend, from two views, cross section profiles, intersection, contour, section, border, silhouette, extract isoparm, projection, pullback, sketch, wireframe, detach trim, create 2-D drawings, flatten developable surfaces.

Edit curves: control points, edit points, handlebars, smooth, fair, change degree, add/remove knots, add kinks, rebuild, refit, match, simplify, change weight, make periodic, adjust end bulge, adjust seam.

Create surfaces: from three or four points, from three or four curves, from planar curves, rectangle, extrude, ribbon, rule, loft, sweep along a path, sweep along two rail curves, revolve, rail revolve, blend, patch, drape, point grid, heightfield, fillet, chamfer, offset, TrueType text.

Edit surfaces: control points, handle bars, change degree, add/remove knots, match, extend, merge, join, untrim, rebuild, shrink, make periodic, Boolean (union, difference, intersection).

Create solids: box, sphere, cylinder, tube, pipe, cone, truncated cone, ellipsoid, torus, extrude planar curve, extrude surface, cap planar holes, join surfaces, TrueType text.

Edit solids: fillet, extract surface, Booleans (union, difference, intersection).

Create polygon meshes: from NURBS object, from closed polyline, face, plane, box, cylinder, cone, and sphere.

Edit polygon meshes: explode, join, weld, unify normals, apply to surface.

Edit tools: cut, copy, paste, delete, delete duplicates, move, rotate, mirror, scale, stretch, align, array, join, trim, split, explode, extend, fillet, chamfer, offset, twist, bend, taper, shear, orient, flow along curve, smooth, project, object properties.

Analysis: point, length, distance, angle, radius, bounding box, normal direction, area, area centroid, area moments, volume, volume centroid, volume moments, curvature graph, geometric continuity, deviation, naked edges, nearest point.

Rendering: flat shade, smooth shade, render with materials and shadows and customisable resolution.

General

So that's the software explained to some extent, however the real judge of any software package is to see exactly what users of the software have created and this is exactly what's shown on the Rhino Web site, visit the gallery area and view dozens of pieces of work and then while your there download a trail version and see for yourself.