Rhino Pen Tool
Draw bezier curves in Rhino exactly like the Pen Tool in Illustrator or Affinity Designer.
Pen Tool for Rhino brings the Adobe Illustrator / Affinity Designer pen-drawing workflow you already know into Rhino3D. Click to place corner anchors, click-and-drag for smooth bezier handles, and edit the whole path live — all in one continuous gesture, without leaving the command.
Free 7 Day Trial
This download is a free, fully featured 7-day trial. Every feature is unlocked; after 7 days the PenTool command locks. Buy the full version to keep using it — it installs right over the trial (same command, no limit):
WHO IT’S FOR:
Designers and illustrators in product, footwear, jewelry, industrial, concept, and graphic design who are familiar with the Pen Tool and want to bring that same intuitive workflow into Rhino. It is especially useful for tracing and drawing complex, irregular, or organic forms, where a single fluid workflow can be much faster than switching between multiple native Rhino curve tools.
WHAT YOU GET:
– A single command, PenTool, for Rhino 7 and Rhino 8 (Windows).
– Corner, smooth, and symmetric anchors with full handle control.
– Illustrator-style live edit mode — hold Ctrl to grab and reshape anchors and handles while you draw.
– Shape-preserving anchor insertion — Ctrl+click on the curve to add an anchor without changing its shape.
– Closed paths with editable handles and anchors until you finalize.
GESTURE REFERENCE — the full click / drag / Shift / Alt / Space / Ctrl gesture list.
– Click — corner anchor, straight segment
– Click + drag — bezier anchor with symmetric handles
– Shift while dragging — constrain the handle to horizontal/vertical
– Alt while dragging — break handles so in/out move independently
– Space while dragging — reposition the anchor, keep the handles
– Click the last anchor — drop its handles (next segment goes straight)
– Click the first anchor — close the path (drag to set the closing handle)
– Hold Ctrl — edit mode: hover highlights anchors/handles
– Ctrl + drag an anchor — move it, handles follow
– Ctrl + drag a handle — smooth edit (opposite handle stays colinear)
– Ctrl + Alt + drag a handle — hinge / break the handle
– Ctrl + click on the curve — insert an anchor, shape preserved
– Ctrl + Z — remove the last anchor and keep drawing
– Enter / Esc — finish as an open curve
INSTALL
Recommended — Rhino Package Manager (auto-updates):
1. In Rhino, run the PackageManager command.
2. Search for “PenTool” and click Install.
3. Restart Rhino, then type PenTool and press Enter.
Manual — from the download on this page:
1. Download and extract the .zip.
2. With Rhino open, drag the .rhp for your version onto the viewport:
Rhino 7 -> RhinoPenTool-Rhino7.rhp
Rhino 8 -> RhinoPenTool-Rhino8.rhp
3. Restart Rhino, then type PenTool and press Enter.