to be available on the Mac to be officially released (Deelip), but that shouldn’t keep you from the joys of viewing and sharing your Rhino models on another Apple device now should it?
You, gentle Rhino modeler, are in luck. The iRhino 3D app popped up in the app store this week and is available to download for the hoof stomping price of $3.99. Imagine the looks of awe from your friends as you rotate, zoom, and pan your NURBS all over the screen, then email it to them with a flick of your finger. INTENSE.
Here’s an example of a model on the iPhone. You can access models via Google Docs and open them from an email attachment if you have an iPad. Once the model is on your device, you can share the model or screenshot via email.
Features:
- View any Rhino 3DM files from v1.0 thru 5.0.
- Browse thumbnails of the Rhino files on your device.
- Zoom, Pan, and Rotate very large models quickly, even on your iPhone 3GS.
- Stereo mode supported (3D glasses required).
- Download from any web server or Google Docs to the model library on your iPad or iPhone in minutes (usually seconds).
- Open 3DM files attached to an email (iPad only).
- Use iTunes to copy 3DM files directly to your iPad.
- Capture views for markup and emailing.
- E-mail 3DM files directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
Google Docs Access
This is great. Truly great. While other companies are developing portals, repositories, cloud servers and vaults for people to store their data within, Rhino is using something free and available to all, Google Docs. There’s no subscription requirement, nothing locking you in to how you want to access your data. This data storage/access is one area I believe CAD companies need to not over think. Make it open, give people options, Google Docs, Amazon S3, Dropbox or local servers, etc.
Using on the iPad
This is a good example of a program that definitely needs more features on a device like an iPad. (Same for a lot of apps that are ported from iPhone to iPad.) It’s great to view the models on a larger screen, but adding functionality like multiple viewports, rendering options and even some basic selection and movement functions would be top notch. Just sayin. Overall though, it’s nice to see another app bringing the ability to view models on mobile devices.
