Hello Out There, Does anyone know of some good programs for drawing
jewelry on the computer? I am a full time jeweler and a part time
autocad draftsman and I want to get into designing jewelry on the
computer. I heard Rhino 3d Nurbs is a good program. Any info would be
helpful. Thank You,
George
First, figure out what you want to do with your computer designing
and then figure out what platform you want to use. Also, determine if
this product will be used by others then yourself and if they have an
abnormal fear of a product. My personal preferance is for pc
products. My partner believes that if he touches anything other than
a mac he will be immediately struck down by a bolt of lightning.
Thus, we either own or have working agreements with other firms to use
the following softwaRe: Photoshop, print shop, Corel draw and paint,
Autocad, 3d studio, Rhino 3d, Pro-e, plus several others that I have
forgot. All can be used to design jewerly. All have advantages and
drawbacks. All have different design intents and preferences. Once
you figure out the answer to your question, please let me know, so we
can get rid of all the other software. You will find as your
business growes so will your libruary of software. There is no more
ideal piece of software for the jewelry profession as their is the
ideal car or the ideal stone.
George,
I am a jewelry designer and I find that Rhino is excellent for doing
mechanicals of jewelry designs with the added plus (for you) of a lot
of similar to identical commands as in AutoCAD. I prefer this
program for mechanical drawing as the curve commands are so simple
and the trim and snaps are so quick and uncomplicated.
Corel Draw is also used for mechanical drawing as well as more
freehand sketching and has a bezier tool as well. In this program
you can also incorporate bitmaps into your designs if you want. Use
of a graphics tablet with this program can be very useful for
freehand sketching.
For real freehand sketching, if you want to do that on the computer
as well, Corel Painter used with a graphics tablet is very powerful.
This program has the additional benefit of an interactive painterly
coloring of your sketch a la traditional design rendering. One
option with this program is the interactive coloring in of line art
imported from programs like Rhino and Corel Draw.
I hope this helps you out.
Dana