LandsDesign adds landscape-design tools to Rhino 3D, connecting terrain modelling, planting, hardscape, irrigation layouts and project documentation. Landscape architects and designers can develop the site in three dimensions while producing the plans and schedules needed to communicate the proposal. Ready to buy? See the LandsDesign and RhinoLands licences.

RhinoLands brings Rhino and LandsDesign together in a complete package, with a simplified landscape-focused interface available alongside the original Rhino interface. LandsDesign is the plugin route for existing Rhino owners; RhinoLands provides the same landscape toolset with Rhino included.

Develop Terrain From Site Information

Terrain can be created from contours, elevation points and meshes, or imported from digital elevation models. Map-based import tools also provide routes to terrain, buildings and roads, helping establish surrounding context for a site.

Once the terrain is established, modification tools support grading, cut-and-fill operations and volume calculations. This connects the proposed landform with an assessment of how the site changes, rather than treating the ground as a background surface beneath the planting.

Select Plants From a Botanical Database

The plant database contains more than 8,000 species, with botanical information and filters to support selection. Criteria described by the developer include soil type, wind resistance and flowering characteristics, helping designers narrow the library around a planting brief.

Plants carry 2D and 3D display options, allowing the same planting design to support plan production and visual presentation. Editable plant files also provide a route to adapting existing content or developing plants with particular characteristics.

Arrange Planting at Different Scales

Plants can be inserted individually, in rows or in groups using the Forest tool. Shrub and groundcover tools support area-based planting, including density settings, while rows and forests can combine species.

These methods suit different design intentions: a specimen tree can be placed deliberately, a row can follow an edge or route, and a larger planting area can be developed as a coordinated group. The resulting objects remain part of the model’s planting information and documentation workflow.

Communicate Growth and Seasonal Character

Customisable plant representations and seasonal-change tools help show how a landscape may read at different times. Growth and seasonal displays provide ways to communicate the intended development of the planting rather than relying on one fixed view.

For a client presentation, this can help explain how vegetation contributes to enclosure, shade and the character of a space. Use those visualisations alongside horticultural judgement and the site-specific information guiding the planting design.

Connect Planting With Hardscape

The landscape toolset extends to paths, stairs, walls, hedges, fences and other civil-work elements. Bringing these into the same modelling environment helps coordinate the relationship between movement routes, level changes, boundaries and planted areas.

Rhino’s wider modelling tools remain available for bespoke geometry, allowing custom details to sit alongside the specialist landscape objects. This supports a coherent site model that can be developed from overall arrangement towards more detailed design.

Lay Out Irrigation and Produce Schedules

Irrigation tools place individual sprinklers or arrays, with controls for symbols, types, radii and sweep angles. Piping can be developed from polylines, with section diameters and other design information recorded, and selected sprinklers can be linked to pipes automatically.

Schedules quantify items such as pipe lengths, sprinkler counts and types. These tools support layout and documentation; hydraulic design and equipment selection should be assessed against the requirements of the actual site and system.

Generate Documentation From the Landscape Model

Automatic lists cover planting, furniture, terrain, irrigation, walls, paths, fences and zoning. They update with project changes and can be exported to Excel, connecting the model with the quantities and information needed for review and delivery.

Setting-out plans, planting information and 3D presentation can therefore draw on the same project. The benefit is a closer relationship between what is modelled, what is shown in drawings and what is counted in schedules.

Try the Landscape Toolset

Explore the official 60-day evaluation downloads and select the LandsDesign or RhinoLands route to suit your current Rhino setup.

LandsDesign forms part of the landscape design toolset covered on this site. The Rhino 3D plugins guide by discipline sets out what each tool covers, which ones need their own Rhino licence, and how the options fit together.