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LA117 — Design Communication II — Rhino 3D
Rhino 3D Reference Cards
8 reference cards covering the complete Rhino 3D workflow: from importing and cleaning your CAD file through terrain modeling, site modeling, and preparing your model for Lumion.
How to use these cards: These explain what tools do and why they matter, not which buttons to click. Read the concept, try the workflow yourself, and use the Try This prompts to explore. Your model will tell you when something is wrong — the What Breaks sections help you read those signals.
01
Foundations
Card 01
Rhino Vocabulary Reference
AutoCAD is a drafting environment. Rhino is a modeling environment. The words are different because the geometry is different.
Card 02
Interface and Navigation
Rhino's interface is organized around the assumption that you're always looking at the same model from four directions simultaneously.
Card 03
CAD Preparation for Import
The quality of your Rhino model is limited by the quality of the CAD file you bring in. Fix problems in CAD — they're cheaper to solve there.
Card 04
Importing and Cleaning CAD in Rhino
Importing is one command. What you do immediately after is what determines whether the model is usable.
02
Terrain and Modeling
Card 05
Terrain Creation with Grasshopper
The terrain is the foundation of the model. Everything else is split from it, placed on it, or extruded above it.
Card 06
Modeling from CAD Linework
The terrain surface is a single continuous form. Your design carves it up into discrete, purposeful areas.
Card 07
Advanced Modeling and Custom Elements
A model that only extrudes flat surfaces isn't modeling the design — it's tracing it.
Card 08
Layer Organization and Pre-Lumion Standards
Lumion reads your Rhino model through its layer structure. How you organize now determines what you can control in Lumion.