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Question

Rhino4 plug-ins can be written using either the standard C++ SDK or the Rhino.NET SDK. Which one should you use?

Answer

It really depends on which programming language you are proficient at and what you are trying to do.

If you are a C++ developer, or you have a large C++ application that you would like to convert into a Rhino plug-in, you should probably be using the standard C++ SDK.

If you are thinking of using Rhino.NET instead of the standard C++ SDK, here are some advantages / disadvantages to choosing Rhino.NET over the standard C++ SDK.

Disadvantages to choosing Rhino.NET

• The Rhino.NET SDK is a wrapper around the standard C++ SDK. Because of this and the fact that .NET is somewhat slower than native compiled code, there will be a slight decrease in performance when using Rhino.NET versus C++. My experience from this is that the performance loss is pretty minimal and you probably won’t notice a difference.
• There are some classes in the C++ SDK that are very hard to wrap for .NET so they may be missing from the Rhino.NET SDK. Most of these classes are not commonly used by plug-in developers and I could wrap them if there was an overwhelming need by a .NET developer.

Advantages to choosing Rhino.NET

• Free compiler – The C++ SDK requires a version of Visual Studio that must be purchased from Microsoft, where plug-ins for the Rhino.NET SDK can be created with the free Visual Studio Express Editions. This is great for people who want to try out plug-in development.
• Familiarity – If you already know VB.NET or C#, it isn’t as big of a jump as learning a new language (C++) and learning a large SDK
• Similar to C++ SDK – The classes and functions in Rhino.NET have extremely similar names and functionality. This means that if you get to a point where you need to convert your Rhino.NET plug-in to a C++ plug-in, you should be able to easily translate your .NET code to C++ within a short period of time.