What is CAD?

This article will help you to understand what exactly CAD is and also what it is not!
Lets help you really know what you are talking about when visiting your jeweller!

CAD - Computer Assisted Design

CAD is the software tool used by jewellery designers to create a 3-dimensional graphic
representation of the design to be made.

Modern computer technologies have revolutionized the process of jewellery design, (especially in the hands of an experienced bench jeweller and gemmologist like Liana!) The Invention of jewellery CAD design has been a big step in forward in the design part of jewellery production. One of the main advantages of this method is the possibility to collaborate more closely with the client and easily make changes to the jewellery designs.

When completed, the 3D design can be rendered to
produce a photo-realistic representation of how it will look when created in precious metals.
This visualisation allows the customer to see the bespoke design before any major expense in
manufacture has been made as well as cutting down the time needed for hand sketching which of course adds to the labour and in turn the cost of your final jewellery piece.

Modifications can easily be made to the CAD drawing to ensure
the design meets the customer’s expectations.

Greater precision and avoiding ‘artist interpretation’ and skill levels means you will know exactly what you will be receiving with your final product.

The use of CAD software is a highly specialised field, taking many years of training and knowledge of the programs used.

Another great benefit of CAD design is that the software used can accurately calculate the ammounts of metal used, stone sizes and tolerances to give a highly accurate estimate for your finished piece.

MYTH BUSTING – CAD created jewellery is infeior to hand crafted items.
This simply is not true as CAD stands for computer assisted design, not to be confused with CAM (Computer assisted manufacture)

Even though the modern methods of Comptuer Assisted Manufacture and casting are precise and heirloom quality these days, also saving time (Which means saving your money on labour!) – whether due to preference or required by the specific job, traditional methods of hand crafting jewellery can greatly benefit from CAD design and 3D printing (Which has rapidlly replaced time consuming wax casting).