CAD Modelers Share Their Favorite Tips

Compiled by Steven Adler, A3DM.com

Every CAD modeler has more than a few tricks up his or her sleeve. I reached out to my peers in the jewelry CAD community to compile a series of helpful tips that anyone who designs on-screen can use in their daily work.

• Whether you are a student of CAD or a seasoned professional, it’s important to have a good grasp of the virtual realm and the real world of jewelry when designing on-screen. To keep things in perspective when working on a large monitor, you should compare the dimensions of your model to that of cast products. Use dividers and calipers to see how your measurements translate in the real world. –Steven Adler, Portland, Oregon

• Don’t take anything for granted when modeling a new design. I once built a ring model for a specific head only to find out after completing the design that the manufacturer had discontinued that head. Know the availability of specific vendor parts or stone sizes that you intend to use, and make sure they can be supplied on a consistent basis. –David Dorian, Watertown, Massachusetts

• It’s important to consider in how many component parts you want to break down your CAD design. Think about how each component will be finished and how the entire piece will be assembled and with what techniques—soldering vs. laser welding, for example. Only once you’ve planned out exactly how the piece will come together will you be able to break it down in the most suitable component parts. –Kevin Fertenbaugh, Grants Pass, Oregon

• When designing a piece that has small stones (about 3.5 mm or smaller), don’t Boolean-Subtract out the azures in the CAD design. By eliminating these sharp thin walls beneath the stones, your castings will be more uniform and less subject to ceramic inclusions. Instead, just model the seats and ask your setter to drill out the holes in the metal. –Ian McAskill, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

• Precious metals casters and Formula One racecar drivers have something in common: They both hate sharp corners! Whenever possible, apply a radius to sharp edges when designing for investment casting. Deep, sharp, and narrow crevices in your designs are places where the investment will fail and be carried into the molten metal. These ceramic inclusions can become a nightmare further downstream in the final polish.–Steven Adler, Portland, Oregon

• This may sound obvious, but it’s so important to save your work incrementally and often to avoid losing hours of time spent modeling. When the design is complete, remove the extra files so they don’t slow down your software. –Tim Staton, Fairbanks, Alaska

• When I show renderings to clients in my store, I use only 640 dpi by 480 dpi. Previously when we used larger renderings, the customer would zoom in on the picture until the ring was the size of a basketball, resulting in a skewed perception of the tiny components in a piece. I cannot tell you how many times I had to make adjustments to a design for rendering purposes only. Now, using a smaller render, the client cannot zoom in too far before it blurs, keeping unnecessary headaches to a minimum. –Richard Kerkau, Comstock Park, Michigan