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Introducing Rhino Studio Series: Architecture

Rhino Studio Series: Architecture is a free, multi-season YouTube curriculum from McNeel North America that teaches architectural design thinking and Rhino proficiency together. Rather than touring software features, the series follows studio logic: Start with conventions, standards, and design reasoning—then use Rhino to develop and communicate the work.

Designed for students, educators, and emerging architectural designers, the series treats architecture as a sequence of informed decisions. Each season includes six episodes, a continuity project, and downloadable Student and Educator Toolkits that can support studio teaching, technical coursework, or independent learning.

Season 1: Architectural Drawing

Season 1 begins with a hand sketch of an accessory dwelling unit and develops it into a complete, coherent 2D drawing set ready to print. The work establishes a foundation in representation, drafting standards, graphic hierarchy, and clear documentation—essential skills for any architectural workflow.

The project is a 1,000+ sq ft ADU, capped at 100 sq m, which will evolve through the planned seasons—from initial drawing and massing through later stages of architectural development and fabrication.

The Episode Sequence

Work through the six episodes in order:

• Episode 1 — Drawing Standards & Sketch Import: Turn a hand sketch into a scaled, layered Rhino file.
• Episode 2 — Drafting Site & Context: Establish orientation, boundaries, and a readable site plan.
• Episode 3 — Drafting a Floor Plan: Develop the horizontal cut, spatial organization, and walls with real thickness.
• Episode 4 — Drafting Elevations: Use lineweight, proportion, rhythm, and depth to communicate the building’s vertical faces.
• Episode 5 — Drafting Sections: Draw the vertical cut to explain height, light, material, and spatial experience.
• Episode 6 — Layouts & Annotations: Build sheets, add builder-oriented dimensions, and export a clean PDF drawing set.

Built for Learning and Teaching

The season toolkit includes a guide, episode guides, and templates in feet, inches, meters, and millimeters, with established drawing standards.

The core workflow is plugin-free and supports both Imperial and metric users. For educators, publicly available course plans, assessment rubrics, and critique guides make it straightforward to incorporate the season into a syllabus.

Start Watching

Watch the complete Season 1: Architectural Drawing playlist on YouTube.

Download the files, templates, guides, and educator resources from the Season 1 announcement.

food4Rhino webinar: Build an AI-Native Design Practice (October 14, 2026 at 5 PM CEST)

 

New plugin - SmartMenu brings commands closer in Rhino 8

Discover SmartMenu – a configurable, cursor-centred command interface for Rhino 8.

Rhino offers a vast range of tools, but frequently moving between the model, toolbars and command line can interrupt your workflow. As custom commands and macros accumulate, keeping everything organised can also become a challenge.

Developed by CAD Projects, SmartMenu keeps your most-used tools close to the cursor. Middle-click within a Rhino viewport to open a compact menu containing native Rhino commands and custom macros, organised into colour-coded groups. Create favourites and switch between task-specific menus to suit different stages of your work.

SmartMenu also includes a context-aware command HUD. When an active Rhino command presents options, the HUD displays them directly inside the viewport, helping reduce cursor travel and keeping your attention on the model.

Menu layouts, groups, colours, tooltips and HUD appearance can all be customised. Complete setups can also be backed up and transferred between computers, making it easy to maintain a consistent workspace.

SmartMenu is designed for architects, designers, engineers, fabricators and anyone looking for a faster, more adaptable way to work in Rhino.

Available for Rhino 8 on Windows. Developed by CAD Projects Australia.