3ds Max and Rhino 3d - Side by Side

HI,
I think thats great.. this what i really wanted to see, a comparison between Max and Rhino………. Great idea.
Ive been working with max for almost 8 years now and in the last year Rhino started to make a big noise so i really wanted to know which is better, easier more flexible to use.
So well done David and thanks

For me it’s difficult to compare these programs. 3DSMax has a great and flexible modifier stack which is hard to compare with Rhino’s history. Nurbs editing in MAX, however, is awful. (like doing mesh modeling in Rhino). Each program has its strength. I would love to have a tutorial about exchanging data between them. Thanks for the videos!

@Casy: You should check out the T-Splines plugin for Rhino. It can convert a polygon mesh to T-Splines, which then can be converted to NURBS. Here’s a link: http://www.tsplines.com/

Well done, I like the ability to compare the programs side to side versus switching back and forth between 2 different screens. More vids like this would be welcomed.

Regarding converting mesh models to NURBS; if it’s a clean, quad-dominant mesh you can do this with T-Splines for Rhino–and the model can be used for fabrication.

We just posted a blog post at t-splines.blogspot.com demonstrating how to do this with a car model from Dosch Design.

Sincerely,
Matt
tsplines.com

Hi David,

Great idea. Please continue to do more of these, as it clarifies a bit, the processes in the different applications.

Although I agree with Christoph. that it is a hard to compare the two programs, nevertheless it offers a good way to look at similar processes in each.

I think you are talking about two different animals, not really similar products. Price tags too. I do not know 3dmax but i am familiar with what it encompasses. It’s a power house in every aspect. I would say you would compare 3dMax with LW, or Cinema 4D, Maya or in the domain of modeling and rendering to Modo. Especially, to C4D since it has very similar toolesets. Rhino can be compared to formz, solidthinking etc. Rhino is also very easy to script in, construct real buildable objects, something familiar to the BIM type power softwares - Pro/E, Solidthinking, Catia etc. and, as it has been said you can easily mill your prototypes. In addition, rhino can export finished models to any major renderer or it can use its own; a big plus compared to formz or solidthinking. But it does not come even close to UW mapping, texturing, ligting features of 3DMax, Modo or XSI. Animation aside.

Hi david, its a great comparation, thanks. it would be nice compare nurbs in rhino with nurbs in 3dmax, especially when you blend or attach surface degree in the next one is not continous, i really believe is better in 3dstudio and maya. what do you think?

Great idee, I love both programs, each has its own strengths. I have only been recently exposed to 3ds (6 months) and I have one comparison that I would love you to make.

Snapping in both programs in particular intersect, I am aware intersect is not available in 3ds and I am curious as to how you have worked around this. Do you use any particular scripts, or construction geometry techniques?

I look forward to the response!

rhino nurbs - max npower! hahahaha

i think David did show a lot of great features and everybody is about to build his own collection of useful tools in a swiss-army-knife-manner

i started checking out rhino with grasshopper, but found out, that it´s a bit laggy when you start dealing with a bigger amount of geometry…but in general a great approach and especially for non-geeked-scripting-kiddies (although it would be great to know some coding, hahaha) like me…. watched some houdini parametric city modelling dvd….that one really kicked ass, implementation of that node based modelling seems very efficient and fast, even in the case of huge amounts of data, but it seems very complex, but somehow nice too
speaking about max - i miss there some “engineer-like-approach-features” concerning the modelling process, i came from rhino and had to change a lot of paradigms, hahahaha, and concernig rhino - some of the “playing with shape and modifier-stacks-freeform-experimenting-fast-feedback-features that max has to offer would be very great….t-splines is neat too, can compare it to some subd-approach, but it´s goot to be able to work within both of the worlds…… anyway…check out npower-powernurbs and solids for 3dsmax … very nice control over your nurbs-stuff and tesselation options and and and….

Спасибо за статью. Восхищена как всегда

If i understood it correctly, new autocad 2010 has a function to convert mesh to nurbs. Did You tried it?

At the end of your tutorial you made the comment that you don’t know why designers would need to use nurbs as poosed to spline surfaces in max. The main reason is UV space that nurbs provide. Not only can you get implicit mapping coords, but a nurbs surface acts as a scaffold for launching other surfaces via scripting. That’s the power of nurbs. I am a max user who looks to rhino for its nurbs and scripting power. If Max could do nurbs well (i have really checked out power Nurbs yet) and could script nurbs modeling, then it would eclipse the usefulness of rhino. It would be interesting to see how you would do procedural and scripted modeling in max.

david:

thanks for the site and everything you are doing. had a question- and its a bit off topic but would love to hear your thoughts, either here or in another post.

im a huge fan of using procedurals in 3dstudio in the way you are doing. my question had to with other architectural applications for procedurals that have less to do with skin. are there techniques you have developed and worked with that use procedural to generate say a buildings internal logic? for example a procedural technique applied to programming or developing an array of responsive conditions in a large site, say for urban design or something like a campus?

Great idea but…I wish we would move from the slightly “geeky” concerns of digital forms, that we all love to discuss endlessly, to a more comprehensive approach of form fabrication resolution. In that respect we could use a reverse logic to really compare softwares. You can take an actual physical shape that exists or that you want to create with real measurements and constructive constraints or other physical factors. AND THEN see how each program approaches a common problem and how it can be solved. I think the kind of software we use influences our production and there is little doubt in the end that both RHINO and MAX can create the same stunning “in-a-vacuum-shapes” but is there a certain software logic more appropriate to a certain kind of shape, scale, material, etc…I don’t know that’s my question!
Anyway, great idea David, fascinating stuff you all do at DR! Thanks!

thanks so much im from mexico is really usefull your tutorial, im never use rhino only 3d max but im understand more about this software thanks.

…opps! didn’t watch the whole video before commenting! Record history was shown…my mistake.

i’m sorry but i think there is no way to compar max with rhino “max is big”

Don’t see what the point in comparing the two is - Rhino is Nurbs-centered, MAX is anything else BUT that. True, it offers some functionality in that field but its only a minuscule facet compared with the rest functions.

PS Thats not Nurbs what you are showing in Max, but patches…
As for the question whether architecture or design or anything needs nurbs or not - it all comes down to whether you want to actually produce it or not. Every engineering CAD out there uses NURBS and there are reasons for that

Great vid - and with respect to the comments as to whether this is a useful comparison - Architectal modelling is principally orthogonal (see the invasion of SketchUp into architectural studios). However the language of built form has been evolving in recent years and so requires more advanced spatial modelling such as NURBS. Clients look for innovative forms, suppliers are able to make the materials and architects therefore look to other software. As they more out of their traditional market dominated by Autodesk they need good advice so to transition well and be aware of what this implies. It is therefore really useful to have these side by side tutorials for these .

Thank you so much for sharing you insights!

What is the best 3D program for creating counterclockwise phi spiral coming down to meet a clockwise phi spiral coming up meeting and the disk created by the intersection of the two spirals?

Thank you again!

thanks for the time u pay , but if u make a video to show the import &export with two program i think it will be more helpful . it gives us the ablty to use the best thing in etch one . and thank u agin

Very useful and a great idea.
This is exactly what is needed. Too often instructors only know “their” software while students come from a wide verity of software backgrounds. Through this non-judgmental contrast and comparison method not only can students confirm their understanding of what they are familiar with… but leverage that experience and understanding to learn a new skill. Congratulations

well can anyone tell me how can we give exact distance between tow points of a curve in 3dmax and does 3dsmax have useful osnap .
these things are essential in architectural modeling on the other hand rhino doesn’t have suitable render and animation engine and plugins in case of animation are week or take time.
converting decrease the quality of geometry and also file gets heavy . it was great if i could send rhino file directly to 3ds max. i heard that autodesk is providing a rhino plugin for revit and maybe for 3dmax in future .
if rhino make a strong rendering and animation kit it will be a complete package for product and architectural design

VERY HELPFUL, thank you please do more