RE: Mstn for Rhino Users

Brenden Roche — Wed, 08 May 2019 12:17:44 GMT

Thanks Dominic a really interesting read.

RE: Mstn for Rhino Users

Marc Thomas — Wed, 08 May 2019 12:06:41 GMT

Hi Dominic,

Thank you, that is a useful list, we'll circulate it to our colleagues.

RE: Mstn for Rhino Users

Stuart Milne — Wed, 08 May 2019 11:06:43 GMT

Dominic. Good discussion topic and thanks for posting the table. Very interesting. I certainly do get your point and the below has certainly has not gone unnoticed.

"there seems to be a trend of using a separate tool for scheme design"

RE: Mstn for Rhino Users

dominic SEAH — Mon, 06 May 2019 21:36:54 GMT

Attached is a quick table comparing Rhino and Mstn tools. The yellow cells are where Mstn is missing an equivalent tool. The table is based on Rhino's available tools. There are of course a lot of tools that Mstn has that Rhino doesn't.

When you are exploring/roughing out a design, it pays to have the freedom that comes with something non-parametric and less BIM/plan-based.. ie more CAD-like. Rhino has a reputation as being a robust 'swiss army' knife modeling tool that is well suited to 'sketching' concepts... that can be reinforced by Grasshopper and a large ecosystem of addons, if desired. Nevertheless, Its main strength is its NURBS-based modeling tools and handling.

OTOH, Mstn is also a long standing NURBS modeler that has much better solids and mesh modeling tools, due to all those civils roadway splines and terrain modeling verticals.

I started the table above as means to spare Rhino users getting frustrated when using Mstn/Aecosim. These users will spend a lot of time looking for tools they are accustomed to.... and occasionally disappointed in not finding any equivalent.

I found that there are:

Very few Rhino tools that do not have workable Mstn equivalents. Some of this I suspect is down to Mstn's long standing support of roadway design workflows, and not ship/product design like Rhino. Rhino's curve/surface generation tools tend to recognise that they have to sit on surfaces, or recognise adjacent surfaces' continuity/orientation. For example, Mstn has no equivalent of OffsetCrvOnSrf which is a Copy Parallel that generates an offset curve that lies on the surface supporting/hosting the curve (think openings in a ship's hull, for example). ArcBlend also reminds me of all that time you spend closing curves when modeling in 3d. Tween curves / surfaces are tools that I wished I had on many occasions when 3d modeling in Mstn. Rhino's Connect is a lot more useful than Mstn Extend Surface because to recognises that the user would very likely need to extend to another surface when modeling in 3d... etc etc etc. I wonder if Bentley's Maxsurf team could help platform out, here?
Some Mstn tools are very close but are not quite as intuitive or aimed at architectural 3d modeling. For example, Rhino's ExtrudeSrfTapered is very close to Mstn's Solid by Extrusion Along Path. The difference is that the taper in Rhino is defined by an angle (and not a scale factor) which makes it much more meaningful/usable for architectural design.
Some key Rhino tools like Symmetry are simply without equivalent in Mstn. Again, I suspect this is something a shipbuilding app like Maxsurf would have.
A small number of tools have equivalents that have been 'deprecated' (Boss) or in a vertical (Slab). Easy fix?
A number of Rhino tools like Mesh Cones/Cylinder/Ellipsoid etc, Contour, CSec, MeshOutline, PointCloudSection, Silhouette require a two or multi-step process in Mstn. It would be good to provide equivalent Mstn tools that are more 'quick on the draw', if it is to appeal as a schematic design tool.

As mentioned above, there seems to be a trend of using a separate tool for scheme design with either Rev*t or Aecosim for the later stages... for various reasons. It would be helpful to be able to transition Rhino users onto Aecosim as early and easily as possible to avoid the costs of paying for two licenses and the translation overheads.

RE: Mstn for Rhino Users

Dervalcanny — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 11:09:42 GMT

Hello,

i would recommend posting your ideas on our Ideas page:

https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/i/

Regards

Derval Canny.