The Solid Tools of Rhino3D are essentials for those who model mechanical parts as for architects and interior/furniture designers. Very powerful, easy to use, who knows the use of this tools for solid modeling can greatly speed up his works. Here are 10 things to know about the solid tools in Rhino3D.
01 _SolidPtOn
The _SolidPtOn This command allows you to activate the vertices of a solid and modify them to deform the solid. Acting on four vertices on the same face you can modify the size of the object without deforming it. On the contrary, moving just some of the points in a face, you get a smooth deformation on the neighboring faces.
This command is essential in modeling both for mechanics and architecture.
Enables the rapid modification of mechanical parts made for milling, or in metal sheet, as well as can be used to relocate the partitions in interior design or for changing the wall thickness in one shot.
02 _MoveFace
The _MoveFace , similar to the previous one, allows you to change a solid by moving a face. If the direction of the movement is consistent with the geometry (normal) it will result in a change in the size, otherwise you get a skewed geometry. Compared to the previous one is quicker to use and provides an easier selection , but in contrast, it works on a single face at a time, while with solid points you can modify a set of elements simultaneously.
This command, like the previous one, is useful both in mechanics than in architecture, in which is perfect to change the height or the thickness of a floor.
03 _MoveFace _ToBoundary
This is not a real command, but it is an option of _MoveFace . With _ToBoundary , in fact, you can lengthen or shorten a geometry to let it correspond to a specific surface. The power of this command is that the boundary surface should not necessarily be flat, but can be a free-form surface.
The best example is the extension of a perimetral wall to reach the roof.
04 _RoundHole
The _RoundHole allows you to create a hole, even several times,that’s oriented on a surface, by only entering the radius and the depth. This tool speeds up the drilling operations, for cylindrical holes, allowing you, also, to specify that the hole is a through hole. By choosing the _Through options will be sufficient to define the radius for generating the hole. This command has many options.
It is especially useful in mechanical drawings but it is, also, a valuable ally for designers who deal with sheet metal or wood products.
There are two variations of this command: _PlaceHole and _RevolvedHole
The first is very useful in architecture to generate the holes for the fixtures, while the second allows, in mechanics, to define a profile for the hole, including, therefore, chamfer and round.
05 _MoveHole (and Copy)
The perfect companion of the above commands is _MoveHole . This tool allows you to change, freely and directly, the position of the hole within the face. While moving it you can turn on the _Copy to, instead of moving, create a copy, creating multiple copies on the surface, too.
This command is useful both in mechanics that in architecture, allowing to copy several times any kind of hole, the shape not necessarily has to be circular.
06 _DeleteHole
In addition to the hole tools there is the _RemoveHole . As his name, this tool it just removes holes reconstructing the underlying geometry, where possible, on both sides.
The utility is maximum, the use is simple and direct. Always useful for everyone.
07 _Wirecut
Among the many tools, the _WireCut is often underestimated. This tool, at first glance, does not do anything extraordinary, but, instead, it can speed up your work many a times.
The wirecut, as the name says, mimics the process of cutting a block of polystyrene with a hotwire, with the difference that the wire, in Rhino3D, can be a profile of any shape, as long as closed.
The command splits the geometry in two parts, inside and outside the profile, allowing us to decide which part to keep and which to remove. The profile can be on the side or in the center of the geometry. In this second case we can decide to cut from the profile, or, with enabling the _BothSides options we can make a cut through the whole shape.
There is a very similar tool, it is the _MakeHole , which is also able to generate a hole, cut, from a closed profile.
08 _MergeAllFaces
Working with solids, boolean, cuts, Rhino3D it generate many subdivided coplanar surfaces that can be cleaned in a simple click with the _MergeAllFaces . The tool is fully automatic, once started, it analyze the geometry and it merge, cleaning it, all coplanar faces.
Needful!
09 _Shell
The _Shell allows you to generate a thin wall geometry from a solid volume. This command is essential in many applications, mechanical, design, architecture. It may remove one or more faces of the solid, it need just the thickness for the remaining walls. this tool allows you to select if the interior walls should be combined with a rounded shape or sharp edge.
Simply indispensable!
10 _Cap
The veteran of solid tool is the _Cap planar holes. Fully automatic, is able, by analyzing the geometry, to identify the edges of the flat holes in an object, and close them with a face.
A valuable ally in any modeling.
