2026-10-08 · NOTE

Rhino to Illustrator

Claude looks at the Rhino model, suggests the drawings it can make, and builds the one you pick in Illustrator: the plan exported from Rhino, cleaned up, sorted into layers and coloured by room. All from the Claude desktop app.

Shown on the Pacific Continental Residence in Rhino 8

Revit × Claude is out: 44 Revit skills, three free to try. See the skills →

1. Connect Rhino

My model is in

The prompt runs through McNeel’s Rhino MCP, a free package that lets Claude read the model you have open and run scripts in Rhino. Keep Rhino open while Claude works.

▸How to set up the Rhino MCPopen

McNeel’s own guide is at mcneel.github.io/RhinoAI.

step 1Add the connector to Claude

1.Download connector.mcpb.
2.Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings → Install Extension, pick the file, then Install.

step 2Add the plug-in to Rhino 8

1.Type PackageManager in Rhino, search for Rhino-MCP-Platform and install it.
2.Restart Rhino and type MCPStart.

Rhino's Package Manager searching for Rhino-MCP-Platform, with two results: corhino, and Rhino-MCP-Platform made by McNeel, which is highlighted — Pick Rhino-MCP-Platform, made by McNeel. The search also shows another package above it.

2. Connect Adobe

Illustrator and Photoshop come through Claude’s Adobe connector: in Claude, open the connectors list under the message box and turn on Adobe. Nothing to install.

To watch the drawings being built in your own Illustrator and Photoshop instead, see the extra at the end.

3. One prompt

My model is in

Open the model in Rhino, then paste this into a new chat.

Paste into Claude

Use the Rhino model I have open, Illustrator and Photoshop.

1. Look at the model and suggest a few drawings it can make
   in Illustrator. Show them as cards and ask me which one.
2. Export the floor plan I have open in Rhino as a DWG, with
   each room's name, area and use. Save them to a folder in
   Documents.
3. Make the one I pick from the DWG: black walls, each room
   filled by its use with its name and area, a legend, a scale
   bar and a north arrow pointing to Rhino's true north.
4. Export the linework and the room names as transparent PNGs
   at 300 dpi, in the plan's own position.
5. Suggest a few ways to render it in Photoshop and ask me
   which one.
6. Build it in a new Photoshop document, one layer at a time:
   paper, floor textures by room, wall and furniture shadows,
   furniture, then the linework and names on top.

Never save the Rhino model.

Claude stops twice, at steps 1 and 5, so you can pick. The rest runs on its own.

4. What comes back

A plan exported from Rhino is messy. Everything in the model comes along: the terrain’s triangles, the edges of every tree, loose stubs, one flat line weight.

A floor plan buried in a web of terrain triangles and tree outlines, every line the same weight — An example: Rhino's plan export opened in Illustrator. 6,532 lines on 38 layers.

Illustrator cleans it up step by step: what is not floor plan goes, and the rest is sorted into a few named layers, each with its own line weight.

The same floor plan with only the house left: black walls, windows, doors and furniture in lighter lines — An example: 2,435 lines gone, the rest on seven layers (walls, windows, doors, fixtures, furniture, lower walls, floor edges). The black walls are cut from the wall solids: Rhino’s cut lines do not close.

Then each room is filled by its use, named and measured.

The floor plan with rooms in flat colours by use, room names and areas, a legend, a scale bar and a north arrow — An example: the colour plan, with a legend, a scale bar and a north arrow to true north.

5. And in Photoshop

The same plan, without the colour, goes to Photoshop as transparent layers for the part that needs pixels.

The floor plan rendered with oak, tile and concrete floors, soft shadows under the walls and furniture — An example: oak, tile and concrete floors by room, with soft wall and furniture shadows.

6. Revit or Rhino

Revit knows what a room is. Rhino does not. Revit can hand Claude every room’s name, area and use; in Rhino, Claude only finds rooms if someone drew them as named outlines or text.

For AI, and for automation most of all, that difference decides what can run on its own. Know what each tool is good at before you hand the work to AI.

7. Extra: live in your own Illustrator and Photoshop

You don’t need this for the prompt. It is for watching Claude build the drawings layer by layer in the Illustrator and Photoshop on your own computer. Both run through free MCP servers that need Node.js 20 or newer; keep the two apps open while Claude works.

▸How to set up the Illustrator and Photoshop MCPsopen

step 1Install Node.js

Install the LTS version from nodejs.org.

step 2Add both servers

Paste this prompt to add the two MCPs.

Paste into Claude Code, or any coding assistant

Connect two MCP servers to Claude Desktop on Windows.

1. Check that Node.js 20 or newer is on PATH.
2. Add two entries to the mcpServers block of my
   claude_desktop_config.json, each run with npx -y:
   - "illustrator": the npm package illustrator-mcp-server
     https://github.com/ie3jp/illustrator-mcp-server
   - "photoshop": the npm package @alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp
     https://github.com/alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp
3. Tell me when it's done, and remind me to quit Claude Desktop
   completely and reopen it.

After reopening, switch on the Rhino connector, illustrator and photoshop in the connectors list under the message box.

I hope this one helped, even a little. If it did, the skills and the handbook will help a lot more: the Revit jobs that come back every day, done with Claude, in the model that is already open. Only what I have run myself and found useful on real projects goes in.

David

Rhino to Illustrator