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MCP

Connect RhinoArtisan to your AI

RhinoArtisan speaks the language every major AI assistant is adopting: the Model Context Protocol. Connect your assistant once, and your whole workflow turns into a conversation:

“Design a solitaire ring with a 1 ct round diamond, give me its price in 18k gold, and export the STL for printing.”

That conversation works today — design, manufacturing, pricing and reporting through one connection, with the assistant able to look at your viewport, work with what you have selected, and script anything beyond the typed tools. Your assistant picks up every new tool automatically. Everything it does lands in your document as a normal Artisan operation you can undo with a regular Undo.

Before you start

You only need two things:

  • RhinoArtisan 7 (on Rhino 8 or 9), installed and licensed. The AI bridge ships with the RhinoArtisan 7 installer — there is nothing extra to install.
  • An AI assistant — see Connect your AI for the full list.

Step 1 — Start Rhino

That’s it, really. RhinoArtisan quietly runs a private server on your computer that assistants can talk to. It starts with Rhino, it is only visible to programs on your own machine — never to the internet — and you can switch it off at any time with the ArtisanMcpStop command (and back on with ArtisanMcpStart).

Changing the port

The server listens on http://127.0.0.1:9280/mcp. If that port is taken on your machine — a second Rhino instance, or another MCP server — pick a different one:

ArtisanMcpStart Port=9281

Rhino restarts the server on the new port, remembers it for the next sessions, and prints the address to use. Configure your assistant with that address instead of the default one.

Step 2 — Connect your assistant

Pick yours in Connect your AI and follow the two-minute setup:

Step 3 — Ask for jewelry

With Rhino open and your assistant connected, try:

“Create a round 1 ct diamond.”

The stone appears in your viewport — right layer, right material, correctly sized for its carat weight. Then try “put a bezel on it, make the wall 0.8 mm, and show me” — the assistant edits the setting and sends you a picture of the viewport. From there, explore what else it can do in Tools.

Troubleshooting

  • The assistant doesn’t see RhinoArtisan — make sure Rhino is running; when Rhino starts, the command line should show ArtisanMCP 7.0.0.1 loaded, MCP server on http://127.0.0.1:9280/mcp (with your version number). If it doesn’t, run ArtisanMcpStart.
  • The server didn’t start because the port is busy — Rhino says port 9280 is not available. Usually a second Rhino instance, or another program, already owns that port. Either run ArtisanMcpStart in the Rhino you want to use, or move this one to a free port (see Changing the port).
  • You changed the port — the address in your assistant’s configuration must match the one Rhino prints. Update it and reconnect.
  • Claude Desktop doesn’t show RhinoArtisan — run ArtisanMcpConnectClaude in Rhino again, then quit Claude completely (File → Exit or from the system tray, not just the window) and reopen. If you set the entry up by hand with mcp-remote, it also needs Node.js installed.
  • Claude Desktop shows RhinoArtisan but no tools — Rhino is not running, or its MCP server is stopped. Start Rhino (or run ArtisanMcpStart): the tools appear in Claude automatically, no restart needed.
  • Tools fail with a license message — AI assistants work through RhinoArtisan itself, so they need your RhinoArtisan license to be active.
  • Tools say automation is not available on Windows Server — you are running Rhino on a Windows Server edition. The Scripting API, Grasshopper and MCP are disabled there under a standard seat; contact us about an Automation license.