Let this be my debut to the forum, I am a total novice to CAD but I use this program for work regularly as a jewelry designer.
I LOVE the VR capability. Really puts an edge on my work that no one else in town can do. I have done maybe 10+ designs, and there only been maybe two times where I couldn’t figure out a certain shape or curve. I know it’s my own limitations I just need to learn more. You’ll notice the prongs are huge, that is due to this being the file that will printed for casting, so I have to include shrinkage and setting tolerances.
Constructive criticism welcome, and any tutorial suggestions deeply appreciated!
It looks great! Could you tell a bit more about your workflow? Are you creating one-off designs and use VR previews with the clients themselves or you use it by yourself? You mention that you use printing and casting – could you go into details about that? Is this something that you do yourself or you work with 3rd parties on this? If you do it yourself, what kind of 3D printer & other tooling do you use?
Sorry for the lots of questions, but it’s such a great use case that I’d really love to understand it in depth.
No problem! So they gemstones are a premade pack I found on grab cad because I could not build all those gems in time for me to start using this for work.
I use a third party casting house to print resins that are the same as the prints for wax casting, I have had a few measurements get wonky on me but I really don’t know why, I suppose it has something to do with exports and sending to them.
I do plan to do my own printing down the line but my volume is too high to really get into that yet.
My flow is a great question, I use sketches and references and typically once I have my ring size and center stone size I got to town. First I build my shank, depending on the style I most likely change it several times after build the center mounting and accents. It varies on each piece.
Honestly I feel like I am just building my legos and putting them into place.
I have no engineering background so it’s all very trial and error. And lots of using the scaling tool.
Once I have my stones arranged, I use the VR for my clients to try on the designs, but it’s also for me to understand how it’s going to sit on their finger and make sure I don’t make it too low that it’s on their knuckle.
