The History of Rhino

SummaryA few interesting dates

May 92 - First meeting with AG. Applied Geometry (AG) came to us for assistance in integrating their AGLib, NURBS geometry library, in AutoCAD. AG customers included Alias Research, Spatial, Honda, and Tecnomatix
Jul 92 - First prototype in AutoCAD after about 3 days of work.
Nov 92 - McNeel/AG agreement to develop AccuModel, NURBS modeling for AutoCAD. McNeel would do the marketing and AG would do all the development. McNeel would provide AutoCAD development support as needed.
Nov 92 - Michael Gibson hired as an intern. He brought Sculptura, a mesh modeler that he had done as a class project.
Mar 93 - Sculptura released.
Mar 93 - McNeel takes over as the lead on the AccuModel development.
Jul 93 - First prototype of Sculptura 2 ready for NURBS.
Nov 93 - Sculptura 2 nicknamed Rhinoceros.
Jan 94 - New McNeel/AG agreement where McNeel was licensing AGLib from AG and AG would provide the needed AGLib enhancements and maintenace.
Apr 94 - Rhino beta released on the Graphic Alternative BBS. This was our first version of a public beta program.
May 94 - Dr Dale Lear hired from AG. We had found that we needed geometry expertise in house in order to develop the functionality and usability needed by our clients.
May 94 - Alias Research agrees to purchase AG. Alias was AG’s largest customer and they felt that one of their advantages was the geometry technology.
May 94 - First commercial products completed using AccuModel. Ed Monk & Son Navel Architect released an 82 foot sports fishing boat.
Jul 94 - Geometry development begins in earnest. Alias didn’t seem to be interested in the geometry library business.
Aug 94 - Sculptura renamed Rhinoceros after it was determined that we would not be able to reslove the trademark problems with AccuModel.
Aug 94 - Private showing of Rhino at SIGGRAPH.
Nov 94 - Sale of AG to Alias final.
Mar 95 - McNeel provides Alias with first installment of geometry technology.
Jun 95 - Alias purchased by Silicon Graphics.
Jun 95 - McNeel receives the last update of AGLib.
May 97 - Last build of AccuModel for AutoCAD. As the Rhino product progressed we decided that it would be better to focus on the Windows version.
Sep 97 - 50,000 beta sites and growing fast without any promotional effort on our part.
Jul 98 - 100,000 beta sites.
Jul 98 - Announced Oct release at SIGGRAPH.
Oct 98 - Release Rhino version 1.0.
Dec 98 - First 5,000 shipped.
Jan 99 - Japanese version released.
Jan 99 - First public beta of 1.1 released.
Jan 99 - First European reseller meeting in Barcelona.
Mar 99 - First third party book on Rhino published.
May 99 - Korean version ships.
Aug 00 - First public beta of 2.0 and Flamingo released.
Sep 01 – Shipping Rhino 2.0.
Nov 01 – Shipping Flamingo.
Nov 01 – “Inside Rhinoceros” published