3D Renders and CAD for Custom Jewelry

CAD, computer-aided design, is the shop's way of making the piece measurable before it exists. A photo of someone else's pendant is a mood. A model has a height in millimeters, a thickness, a bail opening, a gram estimate and a stone count. Those numbers are what the price uses. If the numbers change, the price changes. That is the whole point of drawing on a computer instead of describing the piece in adjectives.

You still start with an idea: a sketch, a photo, a letter, a ring you want heavier. We send the model and an exact price. Agreement comes next. The bench does not cast from a text message that said "you know what I mean." The model is the sentence both sides can point at.

A render is a picture of the model, usually from the front, the side and an angle. The front is what you show your friends. The side is what tells you whether the piece is a thin shell or a block of gold. People approve fronts and regret sides. Look at both before you agree. The process around the model is on how custom jewelry works.

A pendant drawn full-frame on a phone looks huge. A 15 mm charm and a 50 mm face can fill the same screen. The model is only honest if a dimension is printed on it: height, width, thickness, and for a ring the finger size and the face width. Ask for those numbers on the image, not in a separate chat you will lose. When you compare two versions, the numbers should be visible on both.

Put the piece next to something you already understand. A catalog pendant is a good ruler. The Classic Oval Locket is a small 10K piece at $365. A mixed natural diamond pendant at $5,800 or $9,500 is a different object, even before you know its millimeters. If your render is "about the size of that locket," say so with a measurement, because "about" is how orders drift. Chains teach the same lesson. A 1.50 mm Miami Cuban Link at $495 and a 5 mm Miami Cuban at $4,260 are both "Cubans" in a caption. The millimeter is the truth.

On a ring, scale includes the neighboring fingers. A wide signet that looks perfect in a floating render can crowd the pinky and the middle finger on a size 9 hand. The men's rings in the catalog, from the Apollo Diamond Ring at $3,465 to the Round Baguette Signet at $8,680, are finished examples of faces that already fit somebody. Your model should show your finger size, not a generic mannequin hand that flatters the face.

The model can report a volume, and volume times the density of the alloy is a gram estimate. That estimate is how a gold-heavy piece gets a real price instead of a shrug. 10K gold is about 41.7 percent pure gold, 14K about 58.3 percent, 18K 75 percent. The same volume in 18K contains more gold value than in 10K, and 18K is also softer. The render does not make that choice for you. It shows the volume. The quote applies the karat you picked.

Hollow or open backs are a volume decision. Removing metal from the unseen side drops grams and can make a large face wearable. It also changes strength. The model should show the wall thickness, not only a pretty front with the back hidden. If you want both a solid version and a lighter version, they are two models and two prices. Approving "the light one" without grams is how the light one comes back heavier than you pictured, or thinner than is wise.

Do not confuse the stone field "solid gold" in our catalog with this construction talk. In the product file, "solid gold" means no gemstones. A chain can be tagged that way and still be hollow in construction. The Hollow Cuban Chain at 8.5 mm is $4,870 and is named hollow on purpose. The render for a custom chain should use the construction word, hollow or not, and a gram estimate, so you are not buying a caption.

A stone map is the part of the model that places every diamond: shape, size, and where it sits. From that map you can total the carat weight. A pave that looks "full" in a render might be 0.75 carat or 4 carats depending on stone size and whether the sides are included. The price follows the total, plus the time to set each seat. Fewer, slightly larger stones can look as covered as many tiny ones and take less setting time. The model is where you try that, before anyone sets a thing.

Origin is not visible in a render. A laboratory-grown diamond and a natural diamond can be drawn as the same sphere. The FTC still requires the origin in words: laboratory-grown or laboratory-created, clearly, for stones that were not mined. GIA's point is that the crystal matches and the growth history does not, which is why the word has to be written, not guessed from sparkle in a JPEG. Our quote writes the origin next to the carat total. If the render arrives without that word, it is an incomplete spec.

Color and clarity are also words, not pixels. A screen adds sparkle the stone may not have, and it hides inclusions the stone does have. Use the render for layout. Use the written grade for quality. Our stock lab diamond rings are E and VS1, which tells you the spec we use on that shelf. A custom map can name a different grade. It should not name none.

It cannot show the real weight in the hand. Grams are a number; the neck still has to wear them. It cannot show how a clasp feels at 7 in the morning. It cannot show the exact fire of a diamond, because that depends on light and cut, and a render engine is a salesman if you let it be. It cannot show whether you will like the piece in a mirror after a week. Those limits are why a stock piece, when one exists, is worth trying on. The model is for the piece that does not exist yet.

It also cannot invent policy. A render is not a promise about how many days the bench will take, and it is not a second price you discover at pickup. The exact price is the one attached to the model you agree to. Insured shipping, the 7-day window for a manufacturing defect, no refunds, all sales final: those are the shop rules around the finished object, and they are the same rules as on a catalog piece. See shipping and returns.

Compare the model to a physical piece when you can. Initial pendants and other finished work at the showroom are the antidote to a screen that makes everything look equally expensive. The Miami bench is at Unit 506. The city page is custom jeweler in Miami.

We do not publish a fixed number of redraws. What we publish is the gate. While you have not agreed, the model can change: shorter name, thicker shank, stones pulled off the sides, a different clasp, a lower karat. Each change that moves grams or carats moves the price, and you should see the new number with the new model. A "small" change that adds 8 grams of 14K is not small. The model is how you notice.

Send one correction at a time if the design is drifting. A message that changes the font, the length and the stone grade in one breath is how versions get mixed up. Mark the version. Agree to a version, not to "the latest one in the thread," unless that latest one is the file in front of you with the price on it.

If the model is already right and the price is the problem, do not argue with the rendering style. Reduce the spec. Height, karat, carat weight and stone origin are the levers. The cost pages, pendant cost and chain cost, show how those levers behave on real catalog pieces.

After you agree, the model is what the bench builds toward. Casting, setting and polish follow that file, which is why a sloppy approval becomes a faithful mistake. Check spelling. Check left and right on a pair of earrings. Check that the bail opening matches the chain width. Check finger size. The computer will not catch a wrong size that you confirmed.

How the metal is actually formed, for chains in particular, is covered in how Cuban link chains are made. How stones go into a paved surface is covered in how diamonds are set in iced-out jewelry. The render stops before both of those. It is the permission slip, not the soldering.

Start at custom jewelry with the reference image and the one dimension you care about most. You will get a model and an exact price, or a question if the reference cannot be built at that size. Both are better than a piece made from a guess. The motto stays the same: "We ain't cuttin no corners."