CAD and the city

Good grief!

I am trying to get a simple ring made for a US magazine shoot. I
went to a great lady up here in Toronto. She is very well known. I
asked her to copy a hand-painted picture I had. To look at it boggled
my mind, no resemblance to the original, even after 1/2 hour of
talking “face-to-face”. I’m using it only as a ladies mount, instead
of the wanted man’s ring size/shape. I put my ring to rest for a few
months, I met a Cad designer a few days ago who resides in the
western provinces up here and traveling though our city. I sent him
my picture consisting of 7 needed diamonds, he sent me back 14 little
iddy-biddy diamonds in his return rendering. What does it take to
get a dan ring created?

This ring has to be with the total diamond weight of well over
1.00ct, he gave me only .80 pts. I’m afraid to continue on with this
method of “out-of-sight and province” contacting through the emails.
I must now make contact with another fellow I heard who is now
teaching CAD-designing in this city…So frustrating…

:(…Gerry !

Gerry,

I am 3D cad jewelry designer. There is no design, project or
situation I could not solve. I am sure I can assist you in your
project.

I am located in Montreal, and I do a good deal of my work thru
emails.

I invite you to visit my online portfolio where all published design
are CAD designs.

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/3x

Hope to hear from you.
Best regards.
Fady Sawaya

Gerry, when you asked both of those people you hired to make
something up from your hand-painted picture did you provide the
measurements (and tolerances) you’ll accept? As the paying customer
you will have the ultimate power to refuse their inferior results.

It is so very hard to make things from a sketch and easy for both
parties to assume the other is visualising the same thing. But I
know you, Gerry, you will have made an accurate tech drawing with
dimensions, right? Tell me you did!!

I’m also engaged in getting something done by a CAD man. I want him
to mill me a piece of steel with a raised design, which I’ll
roller-print onto silver. It’s a slow process making sure he’s
singing from my hymn book.

Cheers
Brian
(I turned up on your doorstep one day!)

Auckland
New Zealand
www.adam.co.nz

Hey Gerry,

I can understand the frustration, but as in learning how to
fabricate jewelry or solder…CAD designers are defined by their
talent as well. The knowledge of the tools to get to the end result
will bring you better results.

I teach CAD as well online and can see the “visionaries” fail
because they don’t know how to apply the tools to get the end result.
That is what we instruct here at The Jewelry CAD Institute…what is
the best way to approach the subject design?

All designers are not the same.

Regards,
Russ Hyder
The Jewelry CAD Institute

Gerry,

The problem you face is a common one now days for the jewelry CAD
world.

There are few bench jewelers who know tolerances that also do CAD.

I know three in the Twin Cities who could possibly help you. Contact
me off line for their numbers. They all use Matrix.

I did a demonstration of casting, pricing, polishing and assessment
last week with a man’s signet ring. It was a fairly simple project.
We went from start to finish with the ring. The ring was 6.59%
smaller when the whole ring was finished.

Here’s the point. As far as I know in the current CAD world the
rings are designed to the finished specifications. So if you make the
exact file, your ring and all the exacting parts are too small.

If your CAM operator has any experience he or she will allow for the
loss and make the part larger. This is not the same shrinkage across
all jewelry though. Smaller parts have a different percentage. This
could complicate your project a bit.

Just a thought…
Best Regards,
Todd Hawkinson
Southeast Technical College

Mr. Lewy,

There are dozens of jewellers in Metro Toronto who can do this sort
of work. Contact Gemvision or Delcam in Windsor for the
Artcam/Jewelsmith reps in Toronto and ask for a reference to one of
the many jewellers using cad/cam in that area. May I suggest, to get
a rendering, a quote and ask the Goldsmith to shop for your stones.

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/48

Greg Miller,
Vancouver

Many thanks to everyone who offered to assist me, but I found a local
fellow to whom I can communicate with me in Toronto. He himself
teaches Cad and acts as a tutor-mentor as well.

Gerry !

Some years ago while I was working at a special-order mfg’ing shop
the owners wife who had some knowledge of CAD made a design for a
client. They cast the ring, finished the polishing and went ahead and
gave me the ring to set two Trillium’s and a Princess center. I gave
one good look at the ring and asked the owner himself just how do you
expect me to set the Trillium’s with only one movable "chevron"
outside claw. The other two inside corner claws were a part of the
center’s gallery, duh? She replied whats wrong with this,can’t you
set the stones (or something to that effect?) The owner gave one look
at this ring and shuddered, "What did you do, why didn’t you
communicate first with Gerry, our setter?..all hell broke out after
that!

Apparently she had no clue, or knowledge about stone setting, she
thought if it looks good on a Cad-file then its fine to set…whoops!
Wasted time and much delay in getting the ring finished by that
weekend.

I ask that at least Cad designers have some background knowledge of
setting, or get to know some of our tools. Whats on the Cad-drawing
desktop is not always feasible in the end!

Gerry !

Two Cad-designers and you’ll get 5 different versions. Some are so
far apart in their interpretations, you’ll be thinking that they were
looking at two different rings. What one person (no gender-biased
here) might view, might very well be overlooked by another. It is up
to ‘us’ to amalgamate these many versions into one basic pattern.

When I was at my cad meeting, we found that we must now make the
inside Azure plate into two pieces. WE even decided on how secure the
multiple 3.00 tdw diamonds will eventually sit, security is
paramount! Discussion on the mini-beads/claws was another little
problem.

Now let me ask you Orchid folks, how can such a meeting take place
through emails? Person-to-person is so much better than to start
looking at the out-of-town cheapest price. What good is initial
"cheap" if it has to be made over again? I already ran into
this…:>(

Success is achieved through multiple meetings and p.c.viewings. This
ring will be then promoted in an US very high-end luxury magazine.

Gerry !