Drive a running Rhino 6 session from the command line. Execute scripts, inspect geometry, and control the application without touching the UI. Same pattern as the Revit driver — your AI assistant can script both in the same pipeline.
Rhino 6 automation via an in-process plugin. Every command is a JSON request over localhost — no keyboard, no mouse, no Rhino window in focus required.
Requires: Rhino 6 running with the rhino-cli plugin loaded. Run bim rhino install once, then restart Rhino.
The rhino-cli plugin binds to a dynamic port at startup and writes it to %LOCALAPPDATA%\bim-cli\instances\rhino-<pid>.json. bim-rhino reads that file, sends JSON requests, and the plugin executes them in Rhino's UI thread. Multiple Rhino instances are supported — use bim rhino instances to list them and --pid to target one.
These variables are pre-injected into every bim rhino exec snippet:
| Variable | Type |
|---|---|
doc |
Rhino.RhinoDoc (null if no document open) |
app |
RhinoAppProxy (wraps static RhinoApp) |
| Verb | What it does |
|---|---|
bim rhino launch [--timeout N] | Launch Rhino and wait for the add-in to register; returns immediately if a live instance already exists |
bim rhino instances | List all live Rhino instances |
bim rhino quit [--pid N] [--all] | Close a Rhino instance. Auto-selects when exactly one instance is running. |
bim rhino kill [--pid N] [--all] | Terminate one or all registered Rhino instances (alias for quit) |
bim rhino exec [--code CODE] [--file FILE] [--no-transaction] [--timeout N] [--pid N] | Execute arbitrary C# against the live RhinoCommon API |
bim rhino export --output FILE [--sheet SHEET] [--timeout N] [--pid N] | Export the active Rhino view to a bim-pdf package (PDF + elements.json + marks.json) |
bim rhino open --path FILE [--timeout N] [--pid N] | Open a .3dm file in the active Rhino instance |
bim rhino status [--pid N] | Rhino + add-in state (running, document, port) |
bim rhino install | Copy the add-in DLL to %APPDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros and write HKCU registry keys for each detected Rhino version |
bim rhino doctor | Driver health check |
bim rhino version | Driver version |
For agent use: /rhino/llms.txt