Rhino Vs. Blender (Blender is suitable only for box-modelling?)

I’ve been satisfied with overall functions that blender has. Though this might be because it’s the only 3D software I can say I’m familiar with.

There are bezier curves and nurbs in blender, but they arent suitable for modelling (the point is between the lines here). Yes I know that you can use curves to control the mesh etc.

It’s possible that Rhino has some really advanced tools to create 3D models, and perhaps for its price it must be better. But am I right when I see that the only way making complex 3D models in blender is the “box-modelling”. I’ve talked with people who use Max and one of them thought that I’m in the “steam-era” of 3D using my box-modelling tools available in Blender.

Yeah I know that you can do almost 3D miracles with Blender, but I was hoping that someone with the knowledge could give me some insight about the meshmodelling tools. I’m not saying that free blender should be better in everything that others with the “fee”, but I would like to have knowledge if I should consider either buying Rhino, or start learning some new way to model in Blender.

I know that you can import and export between Rhino and Blender, but as far as I know even Max has similiar tools as Rhino using nurms.

Thanks for everyone who cares to answer =)… Hopefully someones knowledge saves me some money =D

there is a thread in news and discussions

for hot Nurbs …

dev’s are developing new Nurbs tools which will be available in 2.5 next release

now there is a SVN that you can download on the Hot Nurbs thread
but it’s not yet very advance
so you may have to wait till the next SVN release
don’t know exactly when may be next month - but check the thread for hot Nurbs
and it will be announced there

i saw some video with some of the new tools and it’s beginning to be advanced
so it’s just a matter of time before yo get very good tools for Nurbs in blender

hope it helps

Hi SoulSake, your question is quite wide and so it will lead to different answers.

NURBS modeling has advantages working with curves and booleans (you can take two object and subtract them, or trim, or intersect, etc.). Boolean operations and curved surfaces are hard to manage in Blender.

Box modeling has advantages on the freedom side, as you can “go wild” and tweak meshes in ways that NURBS don’t permit.

I would advice to learn NURBS for product design and car modeling, while box modeling is useful for… well, all the rest (organic, architecture, nature, terrain, etc.).

In my opinion Rhino is suited for professionals, not hobbyist. If you are just starting I would advice you to look at MoI (www.moi3d.com) an excellent and easy NURBS modeler. Models produced in MoI can easily exported and rendered in Blender or other 3D packages (also Kerkythea, for example).

I’m an hobbyist with nothing mandatory to accomplish, other than feed my passion of 3D graphics, so I’m with Blender all the way!

well…
Blender is a polygonal modeler with subdivision (in fact more mesh smooth) ability. it got basic support for nurbs an bezier. There is actually project to get a better nurbs support. But it s only a project (I pray for it).
But the real question is why are you diving into 3d?
Are you doing some object design? whith precise quotation? and based on precise curvature? If yes so go for rhino, that s the tool.
are you a 3d generalist working on modeling, animation, rendering. Then blender is what you need.
comparing software is a bit like asking if a fork is better than a knife. the response will always depends on what you eat.
And for the one that tell you about the steam aera, as far as i remenber nubs in max are not very good. maya is beter. And Nurms are not nurbs, it’s more a kind of advanced subd (not like blender meshsmooth thought).
By the way box modeling is one of the various techniques to model in polygon. But not the only one.

http://cid-b45ca9fbd6674011.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/REFFE.jpg

Here’s a link to my 4 hours of work. I’m quite pleased with the tools available in blender, but anything and everything speeding my workflow is good. It’s good if there going to be better nurbs tools in future in blender. In my case its all about money. If I wanna keep things legit I pay for my software. And if you can get Blender for free, why would you bother to buy something else?

Thanks for the answers… the outcome is that NOW I’m waiting to see whats on 2.5 release =D

to do a car you don’t need nurbs at all
it can be done with mesh modelling
but you need to practice blender ounce you know most of the tools
then it’s very easy to do a car - i’s not that complicated at all !

and if you check out the thread on hot nurbs
you might not have to wait very long to see another SVN verions with new tools

good luck

RickyBlender - while this is true, simple stuff like cutting a hole in a mesh and actually having it appear round, or having your seams match up, can be rather painful. By comparison, programs like Rhino or MOI are designed specifically to do this type of thing. See the image below (screenshot from the MOI site):

http://moi3d.com/gallery/images/4.Ansichten_sized.jpg

So I guess I’d say “yes, it’s possible to do this in Blender using poly/subdivs”, but it would certainly be easier to use NURBS. I have made 2 cars using polygons - one using Maya and the other using Blender - and I wouldn’t recommend it.

N.B. example of a car from the Blender Guru site which I’m pretty sure is subdiv:

http://www.blenderguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/rx8-new.jpg

zombie thread