Summary: A few interesting dates

• May 1992 - First meeting with AG. Applied Geometry (AG) came to us for assistance in integrating their AGLib, NURBs geometry library, in AutoCAD. AG customers included Alias Research, Spatial, Honda, and Tecnomatix.
• Jul 1992 - First prototype in AutoCAD after about three days of work
• Nov 1992 - McNeel/AG agreement to develop AccuModel, NURBs modeling for AutoCAD. McNeel would do the marketing and AG would do all the development. McNeel would provide AutoCAD development support as needed.
• Nov 1992 - Michael Gibson hired as an intern. He brought Sculptura, a mesh modeler that he had done as a class project.
• Mar 1993 - Sculptura released
• Mar 1993 - McNeel takes over as the lead on the AccuModel development
• Jul 1993 - First prototype of Sculptura 2 ready for NURBs
• Nov 1993 - Sculptura 2 nicknamed Rhinoceros
• Jan 1994 - New McNeel/AG agreement. McNeel licensed AGLib from AG and AG was to provide the needed AGLib enhancements and maintenance.
• Apr 1994 - Rhino beta released on the Graphic Alternative BBS. This was our first version of a public beta program.
• May 1994 - Dr Dale Lear hired from AG. We had found that we needed in-house geometry expertise to develop the functionality and usability needed by our clients.
• May 1994 - Alias Research agrees to purchase AG. Alias was AG's largest customer and they felt that one of their advantages was the geometry technology.
• May 1994 - First commercial products completed using AccuModel. Ed Monk & Son Naval Architect released an 82-foot sports fishing boat.
• Jul 1994 - Geometry development begins in earnest. Alias didn't seem to be interested in the geometry library business.
• Aug 1994 - Sculptura renamed Rhinoceros after it was determined that we would not be able to resolve the trademark problems with AccuModel
• Aug 1994 - Private showing of Rhino at SIGGRAPH
• Nov 1994 - Sale of AG to Alias final
• Mar 1995 - McNeel provides Alias with first installment of geometry technology
• Jun 1995 - Alias purchased by Silicon Graphics
• Jun 1995 - McNeel receives the last update of AGLib
• May 1997 - Last build of AccuModel for AutoCAD. As the Rhino product progressed we decided that it would be better to focus on the Windows version.
• Sep 1997 - 50,000 beta sites and growing fast without any promotional effort on our part
• Jul 1998 - 100,000 beta sites
• Jul 1998 - Announced October release at SIGGRAPH
• Oct 1998 - Rhino version 1.0 released
• Dec 1998 - First 5,000 shipped
• Jan 1999 - Japanese version released
• Jan 1999 - First public beta of 1.1 released
• Jan 1999 - First European reseller meeting in Barcelona
• Mar 1999 - First third-party book on Rhino published
• May 1999 - Korean version released
• Aug 2000 - First public beta of Rhino 2.0 and Flamingo released
• Aug 2001 - Rhino 2.0 shipped
• Dec 2001 - Flamingo shipped
• Nov 2001 - Inside Rhinoceros published
• Nov 2002 - Rhino 3.0 released
• Dec 2002 - Flamingo 1.1 released
• Jul 2003 - Penguin 1.0 released
• Jul 2004 - Bongo 1.0 released
• Feb 2007 - Rhino 4.0 released
• Dec 2007 - Penguin 2.0 released
• Mar 2008 - Added Grasshopper to Rhino for Windows
• Sep 2010 - First Rhino FabLab opened
• Apr 2011 - Online training launched
• Apr 2012 - Flamingo nXt released
• Oct 2012 - Rhino 5 for Windows released
• Jan 2013 - Zoo 5 released (completely rewritten)
• Sep 2013 - Bongo 2.0 released
• Feb 2015 - Electronic shipping begins worldwide
• Jun 2015 - Rhino 5 for Mac released
• Jan 2016 - First beta of Grasshopper for Mac
• Feb 2018 - Rhino 6 for Windows released
• Jul 2019 - Rhino 6 for Mac released