Rhino 3D

One-time Design the Building

Professional NURBS surface modeler used for complex massing, parametric design via the bundled Grasshopper visual-scripting environment, and computational architecture; one-time license with native DWG, DXF, and IFC export.

4.2 /5 composite score

C1 5/5 reflects the $995 one-time license with a trial, C4 4/5 reflects 3DM, DWG, DXF, IFC-via-plugin, STEP, IGES, OBJ, FBX, STL, and SKP exchange, and C5 5/5 reflects SketchUp, Revit via Rhino.Inside.Revit or IFC, V-Ray, Enscape, Lumion, and Grasshopper interoperability. Firm-size fit is solo to growing.

Worth it

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion	Score	Evidence
Value for the price	5/5	One-time, from $995
Agent Friendliness	3/5	API: RhinoCommon .NET API, Rhino.Python (IronPython / CPython), Grasshopper SDK
Ease of adoption	4/5	moderate learning curve
Portability & lock-in	4/5	10 file formats Source →
Interoperability	5/5	6 integrations

Pricing

ModelOne-time

Entry price$995

Free tierno

Free viewerno

Trialyes

Visit Rhino 3D →

How we verified this: we checked Rhino 3D against its live site and an independent source — capterra.com. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-02.

Evidence

File formats

Format	Direction	Support
3DM	native	full
DWG	both	partial -- Reads up to AutoCAD 2018 format; polyface mesh/3DFace entities import as polygon meshes, not NURBS; dynamic blocks import as static.
DXF	both	partial -- Same page/caveats as DWG.
IFC (via plugin)	unknown	unknown -- Not documented on Rhino's own file-format index; IFC import/export is only available via third-party plugins (e.g. BEAM IFC, IfcOpenShell-based tools).
STEP	both	partial -- Schema-dependent: black-colored objects lose color on export, AP203ControConfigDesign schema does not support color entities, units/tolerance auto-converted on import.
IGES	both	partial -- Vendor: polygon meshes are not exported to IGES; layer names truncate at the first non-ASCII character.
OBJ	both	partial -- NURBS surfaces export only as meshes; re-imported OBJ files become mesh geometry, not NURBS.
FBX	both	partial -- Creased edges import as smooth edges; limited NURBS curve/surface support; import can destabilize above ~1000 SubD faces.
STL	both	partial -- Imports/exports strictly as polygon mesh objects, not converted to NURBS.
SKP	both	partial -- Vendor: reads and writes SketchUp files up to the 2021 version.

Integrations

SketchUp Revit (via IFC, Rhino.Inside.Revit) V-Ray Enscape Lumion Grasshopper

Adoption

Learning curvemoderate

Sources

Formats

Also covers

Rhino 3D also appears in these sub-categories:

Parametric Design

The parametric placement is anchored by Grasshopper plus RhinoCommon and Python scripting; C2 3/5 reflects the .NET SDK and scripting surface, and C5 5/5 reflects Revit, Grasshopper, V-Ray, Enscape, Lumion, and SketchUp interoperability. C1 5/5 reflects the one-time license model, and firm-size fit is solo to growing.

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