Create surfaces
A surface is like a rectangular stretchy rubber sheet. The NURBS form can represent simple shapes, such as planes and cylinders, as well as free-form, sculptured surfaces.
All surface creation commands in Rhino result in the same object: a NURBS surface. Rhino has many tools for constructing surfaces directly or from existing curves.
All NURBS surfaces have an inherently rectangular organization.
Even a closed surface such as a cylinder is like a rectangular piece of paper that has been rolled up so two opposite edges are touching. The place where the edges come together is called the seam. If a surface does not have a rectangular shape, either it has been trimmed or the control points on the edges have been moved.
Closed and open surfaces
A surface can be open or closed. An open cylinder is closed in one direction.
A torus (donut shape) is closed in two directions.
Create surface primitives
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3DFace
Creates mesh or SubD faces that can be standalone or added to an existing mesh or SubD.
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Plane
Draw a rectangular planar surface.
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Box
Draw a solid box.
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Sphere
Draw a solid sphere.
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Ellipsoid
Draw a solid ellipsoid.
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Cone
Creates a surface cone.
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TruncatedCone
Draw a NURBS truncated cone.
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Cylinder
Draw a polysurface cylinder.
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Torus
Draw a NURBS torus (donut shape).
Create a surface from points
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PlaneThroughPt
Fit a rectangular planar surface through points.
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SrfControlPtGrid
Draw a surface from a grid of points that represent surface control points.
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SrfPt
Draw a surface from three or four corner points.
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SrfPtGrid
Draw a surface from a grid of points that lie on the surface.
Create a surface from curves
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DevLoft
Creates a single developable surface between two rails.
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ExtrudeCrv
Drive closed planar curves in a straight line.
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EdgeSrf
Create a surface from two, three, or four curves.
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Fin
Extrude a curve on a surface in the surface normal direction.
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Loft
Fit a surface through profile curves that define the surface shape.
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NetworkSrf
Fit a surface through a network of crossing curves.
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Patch
Fit a surface through curves and point objects.
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PlanarSrf
Create a planar surface from planar curves.
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RailRevolve
Revolve a profile curve around an axis and along a rail curve.
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Revolve
Create a surface or SubD by revolving a profile curve around an axis.
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Ribbon
Offset a curve and create a ruled surface between the curves.
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Sweep1
Fit a surface through profile curves and one edge curve.
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Sweep2
Fit a surface through profile curves and two edge curves.
Create a surface from other surfaces
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CutPlane
Create planar surfaces through objects at specified locations.
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Drape
Create a surface through the intersections of objects and points projected toward the construction plane.
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OffsetSrf
Copy a surface parallel to the original.
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VariableOffsetSrf
Copies a surface in the normal direction with different distances at specified locations.
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UnrollSrf
Flatten (develop) a surface or polysurface with curvature in one direction to a planar surface.
Other methods
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Heightfield
Create a surface based on gray-scale color values in an image file.
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MeshToNURB
Duplicate each mesh face with a NURBS surface.
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Symmetry
Mirror a copy of a curve or surface with continuity.