About Profile-Ize·Turn Rhino curves and surfaces into solid structural members.
What Profile-Ize does
Reads curves and surfaces from a Rhino model and sweeps a chosen architectural profile (I-beam, channel, tube, plywood) along them, producing solid geometry ready for fabrication or rendering.
- Input:
- .3dm curves + surfaces
- Output:
- .3dm solid members
- Sections:
- I-beam · Tube · Plywood…
How it works
Geometry in, geometry out. The profile is swept along your curves in the browser and comes back as real solids on their own layers \u2014 nothing is baked to mesh unless the source already was.
- Rhino files parsed client-side with rhino3dm, so the model never leaves your machine.
- Profiles swept along each curve with the section oriented to the curve frame.
- Output written back as layered .3dm, ready to open in Rhino and keep working.
- Standard structural sections plus sheet-material profiles, dimensioned as you set them.
How to use it
- Upload your model. A .3dm with curves and surfaces on named layers.
- Select a layer. The layer's geometry is what will get profiled.
- Assign a profile. Pick from the library: I-beams, channels, square tube, plywood, etc.
- Anchor the section. Choose where the section sits relative to the curve (corner / centre / edge).
- Rotate / flip. Twist the section around the curve to align flanges where you want them.
- Export. Download as .3dm — ready for shop drawings or renders.
Best used for
- Turning a line diagram of a structure into something you can render or cost.
- Testing how a section reads at scale before committing to it.
- Producing fabrication-ready members from a design curve network.
- Quickly populating a facade or canopy frame from its setting-out lines.
Not a substitute for
- Structural sizing or verification \u2014 nothing here checks that the section works.
- Connection and node design.
- Shop drawings or fabrication issue without an engineer.
Known limits
- A sweep follows the curve it is given: a kinked or self-intersecting curve produces a kinked or self-intersecting solid.
- Tight radii relative to the profile depth will pinch or self-intersect, and the tool will not refuse to do it.
- Members are generated independently \u2014 they are not trimmed or mitred against each other at joints.
- No engineering properties are attached; the geometry is a shape, not a structural member.