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 instances |
list all live sessions with pid, port, active document |
bim rhino status |
plugin state, active document |
bim rhino open --path FILE |
open a .3dm in the running session |
bim rhino install |
register the plugin via Windows registry |
bim rhino exec --code "C#" |
run C# against the live RhinoCommon API |
bim rhino exec --file script.cs |
run a .cs file |
For agent use: /rhino/llms.txt