WF 04
Rhino Landform Modeling
Rhino + Grasshopper → InDesign Catalog
Length2 sessions
Sheet11" × 17"
FormatInDesign → PDF
DueThu Oct 22
Learning Objectives
With an agent connected through MCP (see the Rhino guide), Claude can build Rhino geometry for you: it picks the command, wires the inputs, fixes the join. That is button knowledge, and it is Claude's job now. Your job is the two kinds of knowledge after it. Behavior is knowing how surfaces behave: where water goes, how a slope reads. Judgment is deciding whether a form is right for the site and the people who use it. You learn behavior by building by hand, once. It is what lets you work with Claude:
- Specify — say what you want in design terms: breakline, section, peak, grade
- Evaluate — read the contours and see what is wrong: where water goes, where the form misses the intent
- Direct — know which input to change next, and what it will do to the form
All three use behavior. Judgment comes after them: deciding whether the form you directed is the right one for this site. That decision stays with you.
AssignmentA catalog of three landform types built by hand in Rhino, then combined on the 180×300 ft site as a live Grasshopper definition: four 11×17 isometric pages, one per landform and one of the combined site.Updated: one 11×17 page: a small-multiple catalog of twelve landforms on the same slope, each moving water a different way, built from one live Grasshopper definition and laid out in InDesign as a 4×3 grid, exported as a PDF.
Submit to Miro board
Password: "c*****2026", shared via email
Final Integrated Drawing Set (due Dec 21)
The semester's final set is an InDesign document too. Keep this catalog file: the final set is built the same way, with each workflow's PDF placed behind a small chapter page.
Ctrl D places a PDF; tick Show Import Options to choose which pages.
Rhino
→
Grasshopper
→
Bake
→
ViewCaptureToFile
→
InDesign
→
Catalog Grid
Session 1 — One Landform, Two Ways, by Hand
▶
Video Walkthrough — Steps 00–05
A narrated recording of Steps 00–05, with chapters and captions (CC). It varies from the text in places: the section curve is rebuilt and shaped in Front, and the contours are drawn first with Rhino's Contour command.
00–01
File Setup + Base Slope
Rhino
File setup — DocumentProperties → Units → Feet, Absolute tolerance → 0.1. Save as wf04-landform.3dm.
Tolerance = how far apart two edges can be and still join. Patch only approximates its edge, so 0.01 ft is too tight; 0.1 ft (about 1") joins and is invisible at site scale.
Build the base slope — Rectangle → 0,0 to 300,180. PlanarSrf from the rectangle. Press F10 to show control points. Ctrl+Shift+click the short edge at x = 300 to sub-object select it. Single-click the Gumball's blue Z arrow to open its number box, type 10, Enter: that edge rises 10 ft, so the site slopes 10 ft over its 300 ft length, about 3%. F11 to hide points.
Sub-object selection (Ctrl+Shift+click) selects faces, edges, or vertices without exploding the object. Use it whenever you need to move part of a surface.
Ways to Build a Surface
Rhino
Every surface is built from curves. The curves you have decide the command.
| Command | Give it | Landform use |
|---|---|---|
| Loft | two or more section curves | ramp, terrace edge, wall face |
| Sweep1 / Sweep2 | a profile + one or two rails (paths) | berm or swale along a path, channel |
| Patch | a boundary curve + points or section curves inside it | mound or bowl inside a footprint |
This exercise uses Patch: a landform is defined by its edge plus a peak point or a section curve across it.
02
Draw a Footprint + Control
Rhino
In the Top viewport, draw a closed curve, flat: InterpCrv, Ellipse, or freehand. Then add a control inside it: a point or a section curve.
- Point → place it inside the footprint → Gumball Z → drag above the slope for a mound
- Section curve → in the Front or Right viewport, draw an InterpCrv across the footprint, edge to edge, tracing the profile you want. Patch passes through it, so it shapes the whole cut, not just the peak.
- Check heights in the Front or Right viewport
- Copy the slope, footprint, and control 400 ft to the right (Copy, Ortho on). You will build the same landform two ways, side by side.
The footprint is the breakline: where the landform stops and existing grade continues. The control sets its height: a point fixes the peak, a section curve fixes a whole profile.
03
Method A: Patch Everything
Rhino
On the left copy, rebuild the whole slope as one Patch:
- DupBorder → select the slope → its edge as a curve
- In the Top viewport: Project → the footprint → onto the slope. The curve now sits on existing grade.
- Patch → the border, the projected curve, and the control → Enter → Surface U/V spans 10 → OK
- Hide the original slope
One surface, nothing to join. But the mound is part of the whole field, so it can shift grade outside its footprint.
04
Method B: Split → Patch → Join
Rhino
On the right copy, change the ground only inside the footprint:
- Project → the footprint → onto the slope
- Split → the slope → with the projected curve. Delete the cut-out piece.
- Patch → the projected curve and the control → Enter → spans 10 → OK
- Join → the slope with the hole + the Patch → "joined into one polysurface"
- Check: ShowEdges → Naked edges. Only the site boundary should highlight.
More steps, but existing grade stays untouched outside the curve, the way a real landform stops at a curb. If Join fails, check the 0.1 ft tolerance from Step 00.
05
Contour Both: A First Look at Grasshopper
Grasshopper
Rhino's Contour command draws contours once. In Grasshopper they stay live. Type Grasshopper:
- Double-click the canvas → type Brep → Enter. Right-click it → Set Multiple Breps → select both results
- Double-click → Contour. Wire Brep → Shape input
- Double-click → Number Slider (0.5–5) → Distance input. Drag it and watch.
Compare A and B. In A, contours bend outside the footprint. In B, they kink at the breakline and stay straight beyond it. Session 2 turns Method A into a definition and builds a catalog with it.
Session 2 — A Catalog of How Landforms Move Water
▶
Video Walkthrough — Steps 06–12
06
Grasshopper Basics
Grasshopper
Every Rhino command from Session 1 becomes a component (see the reference table below).
- Add a component: double-click the empty canvas → type its name → Enter
- Inputs on the left, outputs on the right. Drag a wire from an output to an input.
- Params (Surface, Curve, Point) hold Rhino geometry: right-click → Set One … or Set Multiple … → click it in Rhino
- Hover any input to see what it expects. Orange = warning, red = error.
- Grasshopper geometry is a preview only. It becomes real Rhino geometry when you Bake it.
07
Method A as a Definition
Rhino
Grasshopper
Start a new Rhino file, wf04-catalog.3dm. Set up the inputs in Rhino first, the way you did in Session 1. Grasshopper only references them.
- In Rhino: redo Steps 00–01 (setup, slope). DupBorder the slope. Draw a footprint, Project it onto the slope, and draw its control: a point or a section curve.
- In Grasshopper, save as wf04-catalog.gh. Curve param → right-click → Set Multiple Curves → the border, the projected footprint, and any section curves, all at once.
- Point param → right-click → Set Multiple Points → every control point. Leave it empty if this landform has none.
- Curve → Patch Curves input. Point → Points input.
- Contour → Patch output → Shape; Number Slider (0.5–5) → Distance.
This is Step 03 wired once. Every input stays a Rhino object you can edit: drag a point, reshape a section curve with F10, and the Patch follows. For a new footprint or an added section curve, run Set Multiple Curves again.
08
Build the Catalog
Rhino
Grasshopper
Twelve landforms on the same slope, each doing something different with water. Edit the footprint and controls in Rhino and the definition reruns. When one reads right, right-click the Patch and Contour outputs → Bake → onto its own layer (LF-01-MOUND, LF-02-BASIN …), then hide that layer and shape the next.
- Mound → point above the slope. Sheds water outward.
- Basin → point below the slope. Holds water.
- Swale → curve below the slope, running downhill. Carries water along it.
- Ridge → curve above the slope, running downhill. Splits water to either side.
- Berm → curve above the slope, running across it. Checks water and ponds it uphill.
- Saddle → two points above the slope. Water funnels through the low pass between them.
- Then vary and combine: a berm with a gap, a basin with a low notch that spills, a swale that bends, a mound off-center. Every frame should show water doing something the others don't.
Change one thing at a time and read the contours after each change. Try the control higher, lower, off-center; try the footprint longer or narrower. Keep the version where the water behavior is clearest.
09
Capture the Catalog
Rhino
One image per landform, all framed the same way. A small multiple only works when every frame matches.
- In any viewport title, right-click → Set View → Isometric → SW, SE, NE, or NW, whichever reads best
- Zoom → Extents on the slope, then NamedView → Save as catalog. Restore it before every capture.
- Show one landform layer at a time
- The surface and its contours share a layer, so set the viewport to Rendered (the ▾ next to the viewport title → Rendered) before you capture
- ViewCaptureToFile → 6 × 4 in, 300 dpi → uncheck Grid and Axes → check Transparent background → Save as PNG, named lf-01-mound.png and so on
ViewCaptureToFile renders the active viewport at any size, so it stays sharp in print, unlike a screenshot. Same view, same size, same settings: then the only thing that changes from frame to frame is the landform.
10
Set Up the Sheet
InDesign
New document: one page, 11"×17" landscape, 0.125" bleed, 0.5" margins. Define paragraph styles and apply them every time, so no text is formatted by hand.
- Paragraph Styles F11: Title, Caption, at minimum
- Title strip along the top: the catalog's name, your name, the course
11
Build the Grid
InDesign
A small-multiple grid: twelve equal frames, four across and three down, each with a caption underneath.
- Rectangle Frame tool F. Start the drag at the top-left margin corner and keep the mouse held down: → adds a column, ↑ adds a row (← ↓ take one away). Stop at 4 columns and 3 rows, then let go: one drag makes the whole grid.
- Still dragging, hold Ctrl and press the arrows to change the gaps: ← → for columns, ↑ ↓ for rows. Leave room under each row for a caption.
- Select the image frames → Ctrl D → select all twelve PNGs → click each frame in turn to place them
- Select the image frames → Ctrl Alt Shift E (Fit Content Proportionally). The captures share one size, so they land at one scale.
- Caption format: landform · what water does · one observation
The grid does the comparing for you. Order the frames so neighbors make a point: mound next to basin, swale next to ridge, each row a family.
12
Export + Submit
InDesign
- Ctrl E → Adobe PDF (Interactive). It is fine for screens and for everyday printing.
- Use Adobe PDF (Print) when the sheet goes to a print shop or into a bound book: it adds bleed, crop marks and print color settings
- Package Ctrl Alt Shift P to collect the InDesign file and every linked image in one folder
- Submit the PDF to the Miro board
Rhino Command → GH Component
| Session 1 (Rhino, Method A) | Session 2 (Grasshopper) |
|---|---|
| click the border, footprint, control | Curve / Point params → Set One |
| Project | stays in Rhino; the param references the projected curve |
| Patch (border + footprint + control) | Curve + Point → Patch |
| redo the steps for each landform | edit the inputs; the definition reruns |
Same steps, different medium. In Rhino each command runs once. In Grasshopper the steps stay connected, so changing an input reruns them all.
▸ Optional — Add a Retaining Wall Grasshopper
A smooth landform blends into grade. A retaining wall stops it with a hard edge. This example combines Method B with a wall:
- In Rhino: Split the slope with the projected footprint and delete the cut-out. The Surface param holds the slope with its hole.
- Wall face: Loft → two curves, the wall's foot on existing grade and its top edge raised to the wall height
- Landform: Patch → the wall's top edge + the rest of the footprint + a section curve across it
- Join Breps → slope + wall + Patch → Contour
At the wall face, contours crowd into a tight band; on a vertical wall they stack exactly. That band is how a wall reads in a contour drawing. Patch only approximates its edges, so it joins at the 0.1 ft tolerance from Step 00. If its edges stay naked, raise the Patch spans. The geometry is stored inside the definition, so it opens without a Rhino file.
InDesign and Coding Agents
InDesign can also save as IDML (File → Save As → InDesign Markup). IDML is XML, a plain-text markup language, so a coding agent like Claude can read and edit it: restyle every caption, rebuild the grid, reorder the frames. Open the edited file back in InDesign.