Development Platform - New in Rhino 6 for Windows

Overview

Rhino is more than just a modeler. With a rich ecosystem of plugins and an open set of development tools, Rhino is quickly becoming the development platform for those seeking to push the envelope of design. Rhino 6 brings major improvements to our free SDKs, with API refinements, better documentation, and more access to Rhino commands from Grasshopper.

Major Updates

Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a stable development target that is included with Rhino.

Developer Docs

Developer documentation is online with guides and API references.

Food4Rhino Revamped

With a completely new design and search system, as well as new resource types like scripts, definitions, tutorials, materials, and toolbars.

Real-time Rendering SDK

Real-time Rendering SDK added to the Renderer Development Kit.

Enhancements

RhinoCommon

• .NET 4.5 support (including support for older .NET runtimes)
• Major changes to accommodate cross-platform plugins
• Eto included for cross-platform User Interface (UI) development
• Grasshopper and Kangaroo are accessible from RhinoCommon
• Compatibility testing to make sure your plugin loads
• NodeInCode allows you to call Grasshopper nodes from RhinoCommon
• New Annotation Objects are supported
• SVG, OBJ, and PDF support classes
• Rhino.Geometry.Mesh improvements: Mesh.CreateFromLines, Mesh.Ngon, and more.
• Geometry calculations are now thread safe
• Make2D: HiddenLineDrawing and Silhouette classes
• ViewCaptureToFile/Clipboard classes
• Snapshots support classes
• GetCancel() for async tasks
• Mouse callback system is now easier to use
• Rhino3dmIO for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android

C/C++ SDK

• Now 100% MFC free!
• Support for the latest Visual Studio 2017
• Multi-document support
• Model Components class for managing common properties
• New Annotation objects for Text, Leaders, Dimensions, etc.
• C++11 scoped and strongly typed enums
• New settings system accessible from C++

Rhino.Python

• Support for IronPython 2.7.5
• Python editor has a new module tree organized in method sets for easier navigation
• API documentation now includes more details
• Python editor output window has better context help
• Debug window is formatted for high DPI screens
• Improved performance of the GHPython component, up to 10x faster than the Rhino 5 component
• New functions to create common Rhino types, including CreatePoint(), CreateVector(), CreatePlane(), CreateColor()
• New, updated guides on Rhino.Python and GHPython

RhinoScript

• 50+ new methods added
• Editor is now high-DPI aware

And More