SummaryThese are questions that regularly come up on the Rhino support newsgroup.

SuggestionEnter the question as a heading and then provide the answer as text. If the answer is longer than a couple of lines, provide a link to a new page where the problem is discussed.

How to get help....

Post your support questions to the newsgroup if you can't find the info you need in the Wiki:

Rhino Newsgroup (Newsreader, Web version )

McNeel Technical Support

Common Modeling Problems

Boolean Operation Failed...

General explanation of how Boolean operations work. Why Boolean operarations sometimes fail and strategies to help make them succeed.

Meshing problems, information, tips and techniques

One of the most frequently asked questions on the newsgroup:

Why doesn't my shaded model look correct when I was so careful in modeling it? Things look "jagged"! What happened to my nice smooth surfaces?

This is most likely nothing more than your render (display) mesh settings, and it's easy to fix.

Here is the place to look for the solution to your problem and for lots more information on meshing and custom mesh settings, including meshing models for export.

Dealing with Bad Objects

I’ve got a bad (invalid) object, why did that happen and how do I fix it?

"Bad" objects in Rhino are ones that either violate certain NURBS rules, or have a structural problem.

In theory, Rhino is not supposed to produce bad objects, but in practice, it is possible and does happen periodically.

Bad objects can also happen on importing files from other programs.

Once you know how to deal with them, they don’t usually take too much to fix - here are some tips.

Why is my object not closed? How do I get a solid model?

How to go about making sure your objects are closed solids for export.

Based on a post from the Rhino newsgroup from Jeffrey Everett, July 15, 2005.

Why some surfaces do not unroll

Answers to frequently asked questions about deformable surfaces.

Import/Export Problems

Why does my AutoCAD DWG open empty in Rhino?

Why are Rhino 3DM files so big?

Why are 3DM files so much larger than the original imported file used to initially create them?

Common Interface Problems

Where did my toolbars go? I can't find them!

What to do if your toolbar layout (workspace) suddenly doesn't show up when you open Rhino

My Command line (partly) disappeared off-screen. How do I get it back?

Type CommandPrompt (Enter) P (Enter) T (Enter Enter)

That should re-set to be docked at the top. You can then undock it if you wish.

Why does my Logitech mouse (cursor) slow down to a crawl inside Rhino?

Make sure you have drivers (Mouseware) 9.76 or above. Open the Mouseware program,

go to the Motion tab, and UNCHECK the box that says "disable acceleration in games".

Mouseware thinks that any OpenGL enabled application (like Rhino) is a game.

I'm having a problem installing/running Rhino

A few occasional problems experienced with installations and repair instructions.

Unable to communicate with license manager

Tips for resolving the dreaded "Unable to communicate with license manager" error.

Why does my Wacom tablet not work correctly?

Users of Rhino 4.0 who have Wacom tablets often have the following observations:

Viewport panning/zooming/rotating stops working at the border of a view, unlike with the mouse.
Viewport panning/zooming/rotating across the border of a view sends the view off to infinity.

The Wacom tablet must be set to mouse mode, not pen mode. Note, this was also required with earlier versions of Rhino.

But, the difference between V4 and earlier versions is that it wraps the cursor around the active viewport

(earlier versions wrapped the cursor around the entire monitor). Thus you notice the effects describe above quicker.

Why does my Spaceball-type device not work correctly?

Question - After upgrading from Rhino 3.0 to 4.0, I noticed that my Space Pilot doesnt do anything beyond rotate. I have lost the ability to configure my buttons, views, and worst of all, the "fit" button no longer works. I have the latest drivers from http://www.3dconnexion.com.

Answer - The executable file name has changed between Rhino 3.0 and Rhino 4.0. If the driver does not load your Rhino configuration, open the Rhinoceros.scg file under en_us/profiles/default in the 3DxWare directory and change the EXECUTABLES name to rhino4.exe. Then restart the driver and Rhino.

The link for the latest driver fixes this problem: http://www.3dconnexion.com/support/4a1.php

It's definitely worth updating every 8 weeks or so, even just for bug fixes and version updates.

The object snap tooltip indicator is fuzzy or totally unreadable

Display Problems

How to troubleshoot display problems

Rhino relies heavily on OpenGL. Not all display cards and drivers are created equal. Here's how to minimize problems and get the best display performance.

Using two display adapters

A discussion on the ins and outs of using two display cards in your computer.

Far from the origin...

Currently, geometry built in Rhino that is extremely far from the World origin suffers from display and precision problems due to single precision meshes and the very large numbers of units involved. One solution to this problem is to move all of the existing geometry closer to the origin and make the model there. However since it may be that the model needs to be placed to correspond to survey data that uses the very large numbers of units, this is not always possible. You can have it both ways using the this procedure.

Lines in display don't show correctly in 3 orthographic views with Rhino 4 upgrade: Close Viewport Trick

I called McNeel support about this. If your curves and lines don't show correctly in the 3 ortho views, but look fine in the perspective view, start by looking at all views on the monitor at one time. Right click the named window tab (Left, Right, etc) of each view that looks bad and choose Close View from menu. After all bad views are gone, go to View menu, select Viewport Layout, and choose 4 Views. Curves and lines should now look correct.

This problem has been fixed in Rhino V4 SR-3. -John Brock