Troubleshooting

Fixes for the issues you're most likely to meet with Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD. If none of these resolve your problem, reach out on the McNeel forum — we're happy to help.

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The toolbar is missing after an update

Symptom: After updating Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD (or Rhino.Inside.Civil3D) to the latest version, the commands such as RHINO and GRASSHOPPER work, but the toolbar icon buttons are not visible on the first launch of AutoCAD / Civil 3D.

Quick fix: Restart the application — the toolbar should then appear. If it still doesn't, run the RHINO command once and then restart the application again.

Better fix: Uninstall the previous version before installing the new one. This avoids the problem entirely.

Why this happens

AutoCAD caches each toolbar the first time it loads. If the newer version of RiA modifies the toolbar settings, the problem can appear when the older version of RiA isn't uninstalled first:

• The old, cached toolbar is left in place. When AutoCAD first loads the updated version, it uses that stale cache instead of the new settings.
• Because the cached toolbar points to DLLs that no longer match, AutoCAD can't load it, so it gives up and discards the cache.
• On the next restart, AutoCAD builds a fresh cache from the correct settings, and everything works as expected.

So the fix is either to uninstall the old version before installing the new one, or to simply restart AutoCAD once after the first launch to force the cache to rebuild.

The plug-in didn't load at all

If there's no toolbar and the RHINO command isn't recognised:

• Make sure AutoCAD was fully closed during installation, then reinstall.
• Confirm you're on a supported version — AutoCAD 2024, 2025, 2026, or 2027 (see Prerequisites).
• Confirm Rhino 8 or Rhino 9 is installed and licensed on the same machine. If no hostable Rhino is found the plug-in doesn't load, and the commands report why rather than failing silently. Note that AutoCAD 2024 can host Rhino 8 only.
• Restart AutoCAD and check again.

"This version has expired"

Symptom: Running a command shows a dialog reading "This version of Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD has expired. Please download the latest version."

Why: Beta builds are time-limited — each build expires 180 days after it was released. This helps us keep everyone on a recent build so we can manage and stay on top of bugs.

Fix: Use the dialog's download button, or download the latest version from the product page for your host — AutoCAD or Civil 3D. When updating, remember to uninstall the old version first (see The toolbar is missing after an update).

Rhino licence issue

Symptom: Rhino fails to start inside AutoCAD with a licensing message, or the Rhino window never appears after running the launch command.

Why: Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD loads Rhino's engine into the AutoCAD process, so a valid, licensed Rhino is required even though you're working from inside AutoCAD.

Fix: First, try to open Rhino on its own, independently of AutoCAD:

• If Rhino opens normally on its own but won't run inside AutoCAD, the licence is fine — reach out to us so we can help.
• If Rhino won't open at all because of a licensing problem, the issue is with your Rhino licence itself — please contact McNeel directly to resolve it.

If your Rhino licence comes from a LAN Zoo server, see Rhino can't get a licence from your Zoo server below — that failure looks like a network problem but isn't.

Rhino can't get a licence from your Zoo server

Symptom: Starting Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD reports that a licence could not be obtained, with a message of the form "There was a problem creating a communication channel with 'your-zoo-server'. Please contact your system administrator for assistance." The same licence works in AutoCAD 2024, and in standalone Rhino on the same machine.

Affects: AutoCAD and Civil 3D 2025 and 2026, on Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD v1.2.29 and earlier, when Rhino is licensed from a LAN Zoo (network) licence server. Standalone Rhino licences are not affected.

Fix: Update to v1.2.30 or later from the Bimorph product page. No change is needed to your Zoo server, your licence, or your firewall — the plug-in now supplies the networking components the 2025/2026 runtime is missing, and selects the right ones for your AutoCAD version automatically.

Why this happens

AutoCAD 2024 runs Rhino.Inside on the .NET Framework runtime, which includes the networking components Rhino's Zoo client uses to reach a licence server. AutoCAD 2025 and 2026 run it on the .NET 8 runtime, which does not — and AutoCAD itself supplies only part of that set. The missing pieces were being filled in from a mismatched version, so the connection to the Zoo could never be established.

Because Rhino's Zoo client reports any failure here as the same generic "communication channel" message, the problem looked like a server or firewall issue rather than a runtime one. It is neither: nothing on the network side needs changing.

The wrong Rhino version is being used

Symptom: Rhino.Inside.AutoCAD starts the wrong Rhino, or stops asking you which one to use.

Why: When more than one hostable Rhino is installed you're prompted at startup. Choosing Always use version remembers that answer and suppresses the prompt from then on.

Fix: Open the support dialog and change Rhino Version on the Settings tab — untick Always use this version and stop asking at startup to be asked again. The change takes effect the next time AutoCAD starts; Rhino can't be swapped inside a running session. The choice is stored in %APPDATA%\Bimorph\RhinoInsideAutoCAD\UserSettings.json.

If the version you want isn't offered, check your host can run it: AutoCAD and Civil 3D 2024 can host Rhino 8 only; 2025, 2026 and 2027 can host Rhino 8 or Rhino 9. See Choosing which Rhino to use.

Still stuck?

If none of the above resolves your issue, get in touch on the McNeel Discourse forum. Describe what you did, your AutoCAD / Civil 3D and Rhino versions, and what you saw — it also helps to mention anything from the logs under %APPDATA%\Bimorph\RhinoInsideAutoCAD.

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