Post #370978 by Polly Neezsa the one eared Whaine on Wed, Apr 2, 2008 10:52 AM

Hello All, Jen here, the female side of Skinny Dog (I guess that would make me the bitch!),

I have never posted before. YIKES!!!!

Thanks Tama, Robin and VampiressRN for the props. Thanks Babalu for posting the photos of our wares! Bezart, isn't it amazing where jewelry has gone?

And Harro, glad to find another modeling geek. Just to expand on Scott's descriptions of my end of the process a bit...

WARNING, WARNING, ONLY INTERESTING TO GEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reference is placed in Rhino3D (check out there website to see all of the cool applications of the software) and a NURB model is built using polylines which you convert into polysurfaces using the 4 isometric views. We use the Matrix plugin which is for jewelry and allows you to place stones (and has a bunch of builders that I don't use). Then for sculpting the 3dm is exported as an stl to ClayTools which turns the model in to virtual clay using voxels (volumized pixels). In claytools I use the haptic arm to digitally sculpt the virtual clay. Then export the clay out of ClayTools as and obj and import back into Matrix/Rhino to tweak and sprue to write a g-code file (Desk Proto is the program that is ghosted in Matrix as a builder) which is downloaded to our CNC wax mill.

It is not that easy to use existing 3d models that you can purchase online because our jewelry world is done with tolerances up to .001mm. Not to mention that they have to be little engineered structures to support stones, hang properly, be castable, etc.

So that's what you get when you put a toy designer (me) and a master goldsmith (Scott) together. And they thought 3-stone rings would come out!

Jen