AutoCAD vs. Rhino 3D

AutoCAD

559 Reviews and Ratings

Rhino 3D

50 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
AutoCAD	Score7.8 out of 10	N/A	AutoCAD is a CAD product from Autodesk. It allows designers to work in 2D and 3D, and is available on Windows and Mac, but with extensive online collaboration tools.	$245 per month
Rhino	Score9.1 out of 10	N/A	Robert McNeel and Associates headquartered in Seattle offers Rhinoceros 3D (or Rhino 3D), a 3D modeling and design application. Rhino can create, edit, analyze, document, render, animate, and translate NURBS curves, surfaces and solids, subdivision geometry (SubD), point clouds, and polygon meshes.	$995 one-time fee

Pricing

AutoCAD

Rhino

Monthly Subscription: $245
per month per user
Yearly Subscription: $1975
per year per user
3-Year Subscription: $5925
3 years per user

Rhino 3D for Windows & Mac: $995
one-time fee

Pricing Offerings
AutoCAD	Rhino
Free Trial
Yes	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

No setup fee

No setup fee

—

Discount available for students and faculty.

Community Pulse
Key User Insights
	AutoCAD	Rhino
Considered Both Products	Autodesk Verified User Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD is better for drafting construction documents than Rhino. The ability to draft blue print drawings and update them to the specificity we need is a big leg up. Rhino allows me to see the model in 3d instantly where will AutoCAD I need to use a program such as SketchUp to … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD is an industry-standard, and there are no alternatives. Revit is used more often for 3D modeling and document set production, Rhino and SketchUp are used more often for conceptual studies. AutoCAD still has a place in our workflow for drawing details, file conversion, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD is honestly inferior to these products, given their ability to model complex geometries and generate automatic drawings. AutoCAD is the older generation of drafting software, and while still useful, is becoming less and less the go-to software to begin an architectural … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose AutoCAD I think that AutoCAD is much better than all 3 of these programs when outputting 2D drawings and constructions set drawings, but Rhino and Revit are both better for 3D outputs. Revit is a little bit more confined in what you are able to actually design and gives a less original … Incentivized Helpful?	Robert McNeel and Associates Stefan Boeykens Guest Professor in Professional Services at KU Leuven (Construction, 11-50 employees) Chose Rhino Rhino is a generic platform. For BIM, you can combine it with Revit or ARCHICAD or look for extensions, such as VisualArq or the GeometyGym extensions for Grasshopper. Due to its good interoperability, I often use it for reviewing AutoCAD drawings or converting 3D models. … Incentivized Helpful? Andrew Huss Junior Architect in Professional Services at Hollis + Miller Architects (Architecture & Planning, 51-200 employees) Chose Rhino Our company has all of these products listed above. In the design field, it would be misguided to think that one tool is all you need for a collection of staff with varying levels of expertise. It's not a question of 'one or the other', but rather how can they all contribute to … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Rhino Rhinoceros 3D is an excellent tool for quick concepts, as are programs like SketchUp and AutoCAD. However, Rhinoceros 3D excels at being flexible in terms of file exports and the capability to work with other software easily like Adobe Creative Suite, Revit, and more. It is a … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Rhino I think that out of all of these, Rhino is best at having the freedom to design in 3D specifically, and it is a better 3D design tool than SketchUp and Revit. I think it pairs really well with the use of AutoCAD for 2D construction drawings and other 2D outputs. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Rhino Rhino serves a very specific purpose in my work: for any geometry that can't be described simply in plan and section, Rhino offers tools to model and document these geometries. With the Grasshopper plugin, Rhino is my go-to tool for any parametric design tasks, such as creating … Incentivized Helpful?
	Would buy again
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Delivers good value for the price
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Happy with the feature set
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Lived up to sales and marketing promises
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Implementation went as expected
No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic

Features

AutoCAD

Rhino

Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of AutoCAD and Rhino 3D
Feature	AutoCAD 6.1 3 Ratings	Rhino 3D 4.5 1 Ratings
3D Modeling	6.03 Ratings	10.01 Ratings
2D Drafting	9.23 Ratings	2.01 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization	5.13 Ratings	4.01 Ratings
Parametric Design	4.83 Ratings	5.01 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing	5.73 Ratings	1.01 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats	8.33 Ratings	7.01 Ratings
Assembly Design	5.33 Ratings	10.01 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis	1.02 Ratings	1.01 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation	7.83 Ratings	1.01 Ratings
Customization and Extensions	8.23 Ratings	4.01 Ratings

User Ratings
	AutoCAD	Rhino
Likelihood to Recommend	7.3 (84 ratings)	8.0 (9 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.0 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	8.5 (5 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Support Rating	6.9 (13 ratings)	7.5 (4 ratings)
Implementation Rating	8.0 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)