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Coming from Rhino

If you know Rhino, you'll feel at home — same command-line workflow, same aliases, same object snaps, and it imports your Rhino shortcuts. Not every command is here yet, but the ones that are work the way you'd expect. This page maps your habits over and is honest about the gaps.

What's the same

  • The command line. Type a command, answer its prompts, click points or type coordinates (10,5,0, relative @5,0,0, polar 10<45). Tab completes, Enter or Space repeats the last command, and Space is Enter everywhere it is in Rhino.
  • The mouse. Right-drag orbits, Shift pans, Ctrl zooms, and a right-click is Enter.
  • Aliases. l, pl, c, m, co, mi, o, f, … work as you'd expect, and you can import your own (below).
  • Command options. The words in a prompt's parentheses are choices, as in Rhino: arc offers Center and StartEnd, circle offers 2Point, 3Point and Diameter, rectangle Center and 3Point, line BothSides, box Center, sphere 2Point. Type the word (a prefix is enough) or click its chip beside the command line.
  • Object snaps — end, mid, cen, quad, int, perp, near — on a persistent osnap bar, plus a construction plane (cplane).
  • Tab direction lock. Aim, press Tab to freeze that direction, type the distance. Object snaps keep working while it's held. The lock releases on Tab again or at the next point.
  • Ctrl-click elevator. Click a point on the construction plane with Ctrl held to stand a vertical up from it, then set the height with the mouse or by typing it — the way you place a point off the CPlane in Rhino.
  • Maximised viewports. Ctrl+M, or a double-click on a viewport's title, gives the pane you're in the whole window and puts your layout back on the second press. max does it from the command line.
  • The gumball for move / rotate / scale, with numeric entry and Alt-drag copy; Ctrl+Shift-click faces and edges for push/pull and fillets.
  • Layers, display modes (wireframe / shaded / ghosted / rendered / technical), and linetypes per layer or object.
  • Surface isocurves and edges are yours to switch off, as they are in Rhino's display mode settings. Each mode starts where you'd expect (rendered has isocurves off), and the Display panel, beside Properties and Layers, overrides that for the pane you're in. isocurves and surfaceedges do the same from the command line.
  • Two-space drafting — model space plus paper-space layouts with detail views, associative dimensions and hidden-line output. See Make a drawing sheet.
  • Interchange — reads and writes .3dm for Rhino 5–8 (curves stay exact NURBS; surfaces write as meshes — use STEP for an exact surface round trip), STEP, and more. See File formats.

Bring your Rhino settings over

In Rhino, export your aliases (Options → Aliases → Export) to a text file, then in Serpentine3D:

  • Settings → Aliases → import that file. Known Rhino commands are mapped to their Serpentine equivalents automatically; simple macros ('_Zoom _Extents, -Osnap _Mid _Toggle) are translated too.
  • Settings → Keyboard → import a keybindings list (F5 zoomextents per line, or JSON) and bind any key to any command.

Command map (a sample)

Most Rhino command names and aliases resolve directly. A few worth knowing:

Rhino Serpentine3D
Line Polyline Curve InterpCrv line polyline curve interpcrv
Circle Arc Rectangle circle arc rectangle
InsertKnot RemoveKnot InsertControlPoint insertknot removeknot insertcontrolpoint
Dir Flip dir flip
ExtrudeCrv Revolve Loft Sweep1/2 extrude revolve loft sweep1 sweep2
FilletEdge ChamferEdge Shell filletedge chamferedge shell
BooleanUnion / Difference / Intersection booleanunion booleandifference booleanintersection
Move Copy Rotate Scale Mirror Array move copy rotate scale mirror array
Trim Split Join Explode Offset trim split join offset
Layout Detail Make2D Dim layout detail make2d dim
Zebra CurvatureAnalysis DraftAngleAnalysis zebra curvature draftanalysis
UndoView RedoView LockOther undoview redoview lockother

The in-app help (or F1) opens a searchable command reference with every command and its aliases.

What's different

  • Units default to millimetres; set them with units (mm/cm/m/in/feet & inches), with an optional model rescale.
  • A right-click in the viewport is Enter — it runs what you've typed or repeats the last command.
  • AI-native: an MCP server and in-app assistant can see the viewport and run every command — Rhino has nothing equivalent built in.
  • Headless: the whole engine scripts and batches without a GUI.

Not here yet

Serpentine3D is a young, focused modeller — it does direct NURBS/BREP modelling and drafting well, but it is not a full Rhino replacement. Notably absent today:

  • Grasshopper / visual programming (and full history-based parametrics — recordhistory covers loft/extrude/revolve only).
  • SubD modelling.
  • A production render engine (rendered is a lit preview, not a raytracer) and Rhino's materials/lighting depth.
  • The long tail of specialist commands, and the third-party plugin ecosystem.

If a command you rely on is missing, it's probably on the roadmap — the project tracks requests, so it's worth asking on GitHub.

Next: Install → your first model.