Rhino - Arkio

Importing models from and to Rhino requires a Pro or Enterprise license. You can learn more about our paid licenses on our website and start a free trial from Arkio to try this. The Revit, Rhino, and Sketchup plugins are all included with our Arkio Windows installer on our download page.

The Arkio Rhino plugin allows you to export and update models from Rhino 6 and 7 to Arkio. We currently support exporting NURB and Mesh models with materials, and textures to Arkio and exporting Arkio creations back to Rhino meshes and components following the original coordinates. 

Rhino to Arkio Locally

To export your models from Rhino you need to have the Arkio plugin installed, choose a 3D view with the elements visible you want to export. If you don't see the Arkio buttons/toolbar you might need to install Arkio on your PC first or enable the buttons by right-clicking your toolbar. (a restart of Rhino might be needed to make the Rhino plugin work as expected)

Clicking Export to Arkio (the icon without the cloud) will export your current 3D view to Arkio and ask for what level of detail you want to export your file in the Rhino console. All 3D geometry visible in your view will be exported to Arkio. You can best start with a small scene and turn off layers or hide geometry you don't want to export to Arkio. 

Level of detail <0.5> (value between 0.0-1.0)

You can use the default setting by hitting enter. If you need fewer triangles for loading models on mobile devices like the Meta Quest you can try exporting with lower values or higher values if your geometry needs more details for round objects.

After the model has been exported locally it's available to load in Arkio on your PC and it can be shared with other Arkio devices using an Arkio meeting.

Rhino to Arkio via cloud

You can also upload your active model directly to Arkio Cloud to access these files on all devices that joined the same cloud group. This allows you to distribute your models to Quest and other devices without needing a PC to start an Arkio meeting.

To export to the cloud you first need to join the same cloud group with your Rhino plugin and devices. After that, you can export the active 3D view similar to a local export. Your exported cloud files will automatically be downloaded on the devices linked to the same cloud group from where you can load the files in your Arkio scene. 

Loading the model in Arkio

Local exports using our plugin will automatically save your prepared files in \Documents\Arkio\Import When you start Arkio on the same PC, the latest available models can be placed in the scene from the create>import drawer. Your uploaded models will also show here if your device is linked to the same Arkio cloud group.

From the import panel you can click on the filename of your import to open the import placement sub-menu from here you can set if you want the placement of this model to be:

Movable - place the model freely as a movable Arkio prop like furniture or a tree that can be pinned later

Pinned at origin - use the model's 3D origin and pin the geometry so it stays in place for round trips

You can also set if you want the placement of the models to be in the current scene or a new Arkio scene.

If the Rhino model has geometry modeled under the origin the terrain can be cut away by making a large void shape in the Arkio terrain to enable teleporting and modeling on the underground geometry. If your model is floating in the air or far away from the center of your Arkio table it means your model is modeled far away from the origin.

It's best to correct the origin position and level of your file in the original modeling tool. You can also place the model as an object and position it manually in your scene and then pin it, this will however export your added Arkio geometry to different coordinates when exporting back to your original design tool.

Model Updates

When a change is made in Rhino you can overwrite your model with a new version using Arkio on Windows by just hitting export again. While a model is imported in Arkio it shows a spinning indicator on the file overview. When the new version of the model is available a yellow update icon will show above the model in the Arkio scene. Clicking this yellow icon with your VR laser or mouse will update that model with the new version. 

Arkio will keep the old versions of your imported models available so you can always revert back to an older version when needed for e.g. comparing design options. You can access all the older loaded  models in the import model dialog. If you select an older import date from the dropdown you can update the model placed in the scene by clicking "Update in scene"

Arkio to Rhino

To import your models from Arkio back to Rhino you can open the Scene overview and click the export button. Here you can prepare the models to various supported tools including Rhino. Once the export is made for Rhino an export confirmation will be shown on your models.

Back in Rhino, you can open our ArkioRhinoPlugin toolbar import to go to the Arkio/Export/Rhino folder and select the file you want to import. All Arkios geometry, components, sketches and 3D map buildings will then be converted to Meshes in Rhino.

If you like to Arkio geometry into editable Rhino geometry you can also use our close intergration with Autodesk Revit to convert your Arkio scene to solid Revit families first and then export to a DWG. You can read more about this workflow here.

Known issues/limitations:

• A restart of Rhino might be required when you run the Arkio plugin for the first time 
• Arkio currently only supports one-sided faces please make sure your Rhino models have closed polysurfaces and single-face surfaces are modeled with the normals facing outward to prevent missing faces or inverted shapes.
• Avoid long processing times, performance issues, and crashes by only exporting the geometry you need when working with mobile devices like the Meta Quest.
  
• If you experience issues loading your exported models in Arkio try to open the glTF exported file in Windows 3D viewer, Blender to see what geometry might be causing the issue.
  
• Try to reduce surfaces with a high number of Isocurves as these will result in unnecessary high polygons. Rebuild surfaces with cut geometry or more than 5 U/V isocurves
• Sometimes failing imported models affect the loading of other files. Cleaning your temporary ResourceCache files can solve most issues.