cad/Cam Designing

We have three CAD designers with a combined 25 years of experience. Our first CAD program in the early 2000's was ArtCam. Several years later we upgraded to Rhino and recently added MatrixGold to our list of programs. There are some other programs that we use to aid in the design process which include ZBrush and Corel Draw.

The process starts when we get instructions from a customer. Our designers look over the instructions and start to form a "plan of attack" in their heads on how to start the job. Most of the time the first step is measuring all loose stones that will be used in the new piece. Then adding the stone sizes into the CAD program and putting them in the general area where they may end up at in the jewelry.

The most difficult part of the design process is getting the metal portion of the piece formed to what the customer wants. This is where most of the time is spent on a piece, however there are some jobs that this has to be the first step. Every job is built from "scratch" and we will not reuse "bits and pieces" from other jobs to produce new pieces.