How to Install Rhino 4 Automatically

Details on what gets installed and where for Rhino 4.

Note: This article is not for the current version of Rhino. Other versions of this article are available:

Installing Rhino

Rhino 4.0 MSI Deployment with Active Directory or SMS

These instructions are most useful for System Administrators who want to deploy Rhino 4.0 throughout an organization using Active Directory or SMS.

These techniques will also work for automated installation by running the MSI from a folder that contains a customized Rhino4Setup.ini. See Rhino 4.0 Scripted Install with INI File. This does not require Active Directory, SMS, or other deployment tools.

Documentation of application deployment is beyond the scope of this article, so most deployment-specific instructions have been omitted.

Requirements

  1. Please download Rhino 4.0 SR9. Releases older than SR1 do not deploy properly using Active Directory or SMS.
  2. Extract the downloaded file into folders by uncompressing the EXE into folders.

Uninstalling previous installations of Rhino 4.0

Note: If you try to deploy the MSI with Rhino 4.0 already installed on the target system, it will fail. This includes previous installations of evaluation and beta releases. You must first uninstall any existing release prior to deployment, these command lines will uninstall Rhino 4.0 versions (SR0 through SR9) silently: 

   msiexec /x{5C2CBFFD-FC3B-4AA9-993B-CE2B8DA25B87} /qn
   msiexec /x{D6F64D4F-B539-448E-A5D7-B57EE89193B8} /qn
   msiexec /x{761EC7CE-E646-4A8C-95DA-A24C6CDACF3F} /qn
   msiexec /x{D7960C39-E3FD-4B46-8E97-A1E9D128F913} /qn
   msiexec /x{D57F1897-D0F5-4E5F-99BA-80815B43283A} /qn
   msiexec /x{5BC8DBE1-75C0-45A8-AEE8-34B301AA02A4} /qn
   msiexec /x{6B9DD988-5ECB-4623-BBFF-8A8F2DA3ED16} /qn
   msiexec /x{5B9E1A73-6A74-4DAF-AF1C-DDEBD79C942E} /qn
   msiexec /x{CCBC3666-5199-4702-B052-2C58FCA6EFF9} /qn
   msiexec /x{D686199B-882E-4550-92C4-BD99A8C295D0} /qn
   msiexec /x{ECC0CADD-0491-4FB0-AAB8-5DC6C371890E} /qn
   msiexec /x{95E1E426-EE9E-4F68-8F02-58A5A09B38F3} /qn
   msiexec /x{E3355E5C-965C-4f67-8A8C-E9A0FA9FD80F} /qn

Deployment preparation

  1. Perform an administrative install to your network share location. For this example, we'll assume the location E:\Rhino 4.0 SR1. For example, if you uncompressed the Rhino 4.0 SR1 download in the E:\ drive, you can perform an administrative install from the command line: msiexec.exe /a E:\rhinoceros\rhino4_setup.msi
  2. Edit the Rhino4Setup.ini file and place it in the same administrative install folder. Change its name to match the name of the .msi file. Note: All characters following a # sign are ignored by the installer, even if the # character appears in the middle of a line. For more configuration details, see Editing Rhino4Setup.ini
  3. Download MS-VC80.msi and save MS-VC80.msi in the administrative install folder.

Deployment configuration

  1. Open Active Directory Users & Computers.
  2. Right-click the Group or Organizational Unit that contains the users or computers that will receive Rhino 4.0, then click Properties.
  3. In the Group Policy tab, add a new Group Policy Object named Install Rhino 4.0
  4. Select the Install Rhino 4.0 Group Policy Object, then click Edit…
  5. Determine whether you will be installing per-computer or per-user. (Read up on Group Policy to determine which works best for your organization.)
  6. Under User Configuration or Computer Configuration (depending on how you chose in the last step), expand Software Settings, then right click Software installation, then click New → Package.
  7. Select E:\Rhino 4.0 SR1\MS-VC80.msi to install. This must be installed before Rhino 4.0 SR1 or above.
  8. Select E:\Rhino 4.0 SR1\Rhino4_Setup.msi to install.
  9. In the Deploy Software dialog box, select Assigned, then click OK.
  10. Right-click Rhino 4.0 SR1 in the right pane, then click Properties.
  11. Select the Install this application at logon checkbox. (Or customize the deployment options to fit the needs of your organization).

Deploying Rhino 4.0 Service Release Patch via Active Directory or SMS

Note: You must have Rhino 4.0 SR1 or earlier already installed on the target machines to use this technique. You must also have a rh40sr.exe patch installer available.

  1. Open the patch installer (such as rh40sr_en_20071017.exe) using WinZip.
  2. Extract Rhino4_Patch.msi and save it.
  3. Follow the MSI deployment instructions above. Do not uninstall previous installations of Rhino 4.0, or the resulting Rhino installation will not work properly.

Rhino 4.0 Install with Script (batch file)

The lines below can be executed manually, or more conveniently, as part of a batch (.bat) file.

1. Make sure Rhino 4.0 is not installed on the target computer, or execute these lines before the install: 

   msiexec /x{5C2CBFFD-FC3B-4AA9-993B-CE2B8DA25B87} /qn
   msiexec /x{D6F64D4F-B539-448E-A5D7-B57EE89193B8} /qn

2. Download MS-VC80.msi and install it on the target with 

   msiexec /i"E:\RhinoInstallScripts\ms-vc80.msi /qn

3. Execute a line with content like this (this assumes you are installing from the Rhino 4.0 CD on your D drive): 

   msiexec.exe /i"d:\Rhinoceros\Rhino4_Setup.msi" AUTOINSTALL=1 FOLDER="C:\Progs\Rhino4" RMA_CDKEY=AAAABBBBCCCCDDDDEEEE INSTALL_EN=1

For an explanation of these parameters, and the other possible ones, see Editing Rhino4Setup.ini

Rhino 4.0 Install with Script and INI File

You must have a full MSI installer file for Rhino 4.0 Service Release 1 (3-Jul-2007) or newer to use this INI method. If the installer you have is an .EXE file, unzip it to get the .MSI file. If your installer is on CD, copy all the files from the Rhinoceros folder of the Rhino 4.0 CD into a folder on your hard disk or shared network disk.

1. Edit the Rhino4Setup.ini file to uncomment the parameters of that you want to set for the installation process. Rename the INI file so it has the same filename (before the file extension) as the MSI file, and put them in the same folder.

Note: All characters following a # sign in a line are ignored by the installer, even if the # character appears in the middle of a line.

2. Make sure Rhino 4.0 is not installed on the target computer, or execute these lines before the install: 

   msiexec /x{5C2CBFFD-FC3B-4AA9-993B-CE2B8DA25B87} /qn
   msiexec /x{D6F64D4F-B539-448E-A5D7-B57EE89193B8} /qn
   msiexec /x{761EC7CE-E646-4A8C-95DA-A24C6CDACF3F} /qn
   msiexec /x{D7960C39-E3FD-4B46-8E97-A1E9D128F913} /qn
   msiexec /x{D57F1897-D0F5-4E5F-99BA-80815B43283A} /qn

3. Download MS-VC80.msi and install it on the target with 

   msiexec /i "C:\RhinoInstallScripts\ms-vc80.msi" /qn

4. Launch the MSI file and it will automatically find the INI file in the same folder, read the parameters from it, and run the installer silently.

Example:
    msiexec.exe /i "C:\RhinoInstaller\Rhino4_SR1_20070808.msi"

Advanced Customization for Rhino 4.0

Several settings are configurable from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive. These settings must be modified outside the MSI:

Note: All registry keys are specific to the build and language of the Rhino you installed. For a build 3-Jan-2007, <BUILD_DATE> would be 2007-01-03. For English installations, the <LANG_ID> is 1033.

All settings are in the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\4.0\<BUILD_DATE>\<LANG_ID>\

Template file location

Change the registry value Default Template Folder to have the full path to the folder where your users will select template files.

Default template

Add a string value titled Default Template File with the full path to the default template file.

Other settings are also available. See the registry key listed above for other configurable settings.

Deploying Rhino 4.0 Lab Licenses with SysPrep

If you use Microsoft's SysPrep, Norton Ghost, or some other tool to image a machine and then deploy the image to multiple machines. Your users will likely see a license dialog the first time they start Rhino.

This is because the Rhino.key file is encrypted on the hard drive using a combination of system-specific information as the encryption key.

To prevent this license dialog from appearing, you'll need to save a clear text version of the Rhino.key file (Note: This only works in conjunction with the Zoo. Rhino will not recognize stand-alone licenses saved in clear text).

To save a lab-license Rhino.key file in clear text

  1. Run notepad as administrator.
  2. Open C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 4.0\System\Rhino.key
  3. Paste the following code into the key:
    :4:VR=4&NT=1
  4. Save the Rhino.key file as ANSI. (Rhino doesn't properly read UTF-8 or Unicode encoded Rhino.key files)

Note: