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How to Choose the Best Jewelry Design CAD Software
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How to Choose the Best Jewelry Design CAD Software
Digital design processes supported by CAD software have transformed the jewelry industry and taken their definite place in the jewelry designers’ workflow. Together with 3D printing, these digital technologies enable unlimited creative possibilities and customization.To get more news about 3d software jewelry design, you can visit jewelryhunt.net official website.
From general CAD tools to proprietary jewelry design software, there are now dozens of viable alternatives, each with its own pros and cons, modeling approaches, and niche uses. Let’s take a look at the offerings so that you can make the right choice in selecting a virtual jewelry design environment that might stay with you for an entire career.
Jewelry design has traditionally involved a deep sense of craftsmanship and understanding of processes such as wax sculpting, soldering, bending, weaving, and stone setting, but in this age of digital transformation things have been changing. Designs can be fully prepared using modern computer-aided design (CAD) systems and converted to physical models by 3D printers for rapid prototypes, try-on models, and investment casting.
While manual artisanship will still be required for multi-material techniques involving inlays, drusy, or mokumé gané, coloring effects such as sgraffito, selective oxidation, multicolor anodizing, and champlevé enameling, or cloisonné with wires as thin as a quarter of a millimeter, digital jewelry design and 3D printing champions sharp and intricate designs with limitless geometrical possibilities such as filigree meshes, interlocking parts, mechanical joints, and complex mathematical shapes.
Instant 3D previews and same-day fitting models help place the customer in the driver’s seat, which shortens development times for custom jewelry and increases customer satisfaction. Customization enables serving niche markets, which has resulted in an explosion of online jewelry brands, while jewelers can gain self-sufficiency by learning how to design for in-house manufacturing.
A jewelry designer who has decided to jump onto the digital bandwagon has a plethora of choices when it comes to assistive jewelry CAD software. Dictating factors will be the accessibility of the user interface and suitability to the design genre. There are free entry-level solutions such as Tinkercad, CAD environments specifically dedicated to jewelry design such as 3Design and Firestorm, as well as all-purpose modelers such as SolidWorks, Rhinoceros, and Fusion 360 that are geared to a wide range of design work including jewelry.A major benefit of solid modelers is that designs are fully parametric and all modeling operations are stored in a history tree. In constraint-based modeling, all features are determined by dimensioned sketches, leaving the entire design modifiable without having to remodel any major parts. Additionally, it will automatically update the entire geometry in case different base sizes or product variants are required. Other perks of these systems are their integration with renderers like Keyshot, and 3D print preparation software such as PreForm. The main disadvantage with using solid modelers for jewelry design is that models tend to come out too geometrical, lacking the smooth surface transitions and details that can uplift jewelry design to the next level.
For that reason, the preferred CAD software solutions for creating organic jewelry designs are polygonal modelers. Rather than a set of mathematically constructed solids and surfaces, geometry is stored like a mesh consisting of vertices, edges, and faces. These can be individually manipulated using low-level commands or high-level modifiers that globally affect the object. Mesh modelers like Maya and Modo offer limitless potential for designing organic shapes, while Blender and ZBrush add advanced sculpting capabilities.
A jewelry designer will encounter less steep of a learning curve with industry-specific solutions such as 3Design, Firestorm, and JCD. While a wizard-like user interface can impede the construction of truly custom geometry, they allow the designer to focus less on the technical and more on the creative aspect, while still leaving a vast design territory to explore. Being dedicated to the creation of all types of rings, bracelets, earrings, pendants, or colliers, they include options for automatic gemstone insertion as well as advanced duplication patterning, crown and prong settings, 3D texturing, scoop hollowing, multipipe torsades, embossings, and other special effects characteristic to great jewelry design. This dramatically speeds up the workflow leaving the software ideal for creators who like to work directly with the end customer.