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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Art & Graphic Design > Does anyone here do jewelry design on their Mac?

Does anyone here do jewelry design on their Mac?
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USNA91
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Jun 7, 2007, 10:23 PM
 
If so, what application(s) do you use, and what kind of Mac?

Thanks!
     
art_director
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Jun 8, 2007, 11:54 AM
 
I don't do that type of work. I would imagine you could use Illustrator, Freehand or Photoshop. You'd basically need drawing capabilities, right?
     
peeb
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Jun 8, 2007, 12:01 PM
 
Not entirely sure what the advantages would be - I've always found drawing easier with pencils and paper. The advantage in having it on the computer is to be able to manipulate it afterwards. What do you really want to do?
     
art_director
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Jun 8, 2007, 12:05 PM
 
I could see value in drawing by hand then scanning that work for outlining and fine tuning in Illustrator. I often do that for other projects.
     
Thorzdad
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Jun 11, 2007, 11:20 AM
 
Any jewelers (and similar sorts of crafts) I have known worked exclusively with pen/pencils and paper. There just wasn't any tangible advantage to moving the drawings into the digital realm (save for doing color variations, I guess. But even that can be covered with multiple xeroxes of line drawings and colored pencils)
     
art_director
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Jun 11, 2007, 11:32 AM
 
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
. . . save for doing color variations, I guess. But even that can be covered with multiple xeroxes of line drawings and colored pencils) . . .
But one example of where a computer would / could save time.

Graphic designers used to make arguments that the computer ruined the business of design. Here in Minneapolis two come to mind -- Charles Spencer Anderson and Joe Duffy. Now they both have thrown out their former arguments against technology and have embraced it with passion. One could argue their design has evolved and improved with the change.

I suspect that jewelry designers could / would agree in time.
     
Thorzdad
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Jun 11, 2007, 12:12 PM
 
Maybe. Graphic design is a different animal, though. The processes and ingredients that go into graphic design were already "mechanized" to some degree. Type, photography, composotion, the print process itself, etc. It all readily lent itself to the digital realm. As for CSA and Duffy...the work they were most famous for was so obviously perfect for digital manipulation that for them to claim otherwise was horribly short-sighted. In any case, they eventually would have had to switch anyway due to the switch in the reproduction arm of the process.

Jewelry is really more of a hand craft. I can't see anything that computerization can bring to the process that would obviously improve anything (with the exception of mass-production of costume pieces...which, I suspect, is already automated) Perhaps fast prototyping might be something that could make inroads into jewelry making. It's still a pretty expensive process for a single artist to afford, though.

This isn't to say it won't happen. But, I think it will happen more because the artists themselves are just more comfortable working digitally (as opposed to pen and paper), and not because there is any inherent advantage to working digitally.
     
bluedog
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Jun 12, 2007, 09:21 AM
 
Yeah, but this person *is* interested and wanting any suggestions for the useful software others may be using. I guess that already negates any notion that jewelry makers don't need or don't want to use a computer to help them in their work.

Depending on your design asthetic, you may have more 'freeform' modeling of metals, or more building a piece from components such as wire, stone, and other metals.

Some 3D applications may be helpful in the latter option, where for freeform you may wish to stick with drawing and then putting it in via a scan to color/edit. A tablet may help (although in detail you may find its still easier to use pen/paper or whatever medium you use to get your idea out).

Google has a pretty cool 3D app you may wish to try Google SketchUp - Home

Its fairly easy to get into this application if you aren't familiar with 3D. I don't know if it will be helpful for your designs or not, you decide.

The Adobe applications can be very expensive if it isn't part of your actual revenue and you are thinking about purchasing it. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator could be useful, albeit expensive.

In this case, some free options are Welcome to GIMPShop dot Net for editing images & photos and creating quick sketch drawings using the computer

A google search turned up these options (some of which are not mac specific).
Gemvision > Matrix 3D Jewelry Design Software (PC)
3DESIGN Jewelry : Software solution for jewelry, watches, graphic objects and jewel design (unsure of platform)
Modeling tools for designers (recently announced coming to OSX, assumed Intel-macs)

Hope this helps.
     
art_director
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Jun 12, 2007, 09:33 AM
 
Thx, Bluedog. As usual you've brought the conversation back on track.
( Last edited by art_director; Jun 12, 2007 at 09:33 AM. Reason: typo)
     
USNA91  (op)
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Jun 13, 2007, 08:07 PM
 
Sorry I've been away so long....

My GF is currently in school studying jewelry design, and by all accounts the use of software is THE IN thing.

The reasons are simple: It is far easier to render and shade on the computer than by hand. The design can also be presented in any number of views and variations far more quickly than redrawing by hand. Finally, the design can be fed directly into a CAM machine and the molds/prototypes manufactured.

So, as with everything else these days, CAD/CAM is the name of the game.

As far as I understand it, the "standard" program in use is Rhinoceros with Matrix overlayed on it. Rhino is a CAD/CAM program and Matrix is a set of tools for Rhino that are jewelry-specific. Thing is (as always) the damned things only run on Windoze machines.

I asked the original question because my GF is a computer negat who doesn't know how to cut and paste, let alone anything else. As such, the general ease of a Mac is recommended (plus the fact that I will avoid PC at almost any costs), and since Macs are famous for digital design, I figured it made sense to ask.

With BootCamp and Parallels, however, the discussion may be moot in terms of whether she HAS to use PC. I was just wondering if anyone out there is using their Mac for this particular application, and what they use to do it with.

ETA: Bluedog hit all the right links. I'm going to look at the third one, as I missed any mention of OSX on Rhino's site.
     
peeb
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Jun 13, 2007, 08:09 PM
 
If the industry standard is PC software, and there is no mac version, and that's all she wants to use, she's probably best off getting a PC.
     
USNA91  (op)
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Jun 13, 2007, 09:24 PM
 
There is no native Mac version, but I have read in several places that it runs just fine on Parallels and BootCamp.
     
yugyug
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Jun 19, 2007, 11:23 PM
 
I will be installing bootcamp and rhino sometime in the near future, before I go back in to uni in september, and can let you know how it goes - but I think that in the case of your friend, if she really is not that skilled in computers then it would be best if she ran rhino on its native system. I think the, albiet many, advantages she would gain from using a mac generally would be offset buy the hassle of installing and running a dual boot system. Parrallels would make it easier but there is a performance hit which is especially undesirable when running 3d software.

Is she learning the software as part of her course? If so she can use the schools computers for a while before getting her own system, and then she would probably want a pc because she would be familiar with its operation.
ππ>_<ππ
     
MBennett
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Jun 23, 2007, 02:17 PM
 
Many jewelers are converting over to the CAD/CAM technologies, including myself. I've been working on my PC for 5 years now designing jewelry. I use a variety of software, but the most versatile, and overall best is the Matrix plugin for Rhino. It is built for a PC, but there are many people using it on a MAC. I would say that if you are wanting to digitally design jewelry, this package is a must. From what I have seen and heard, the MAC users are having great success with Matrix / Rhino.

The website is : Gemvision > Bringing jewelers and technology together with innovative products and services including Digital Goldsmith 2D and Matrix 3D jewelry design software, Revo540 Milling System, ImageDome and SystemSix digital imaging systems, and Imaging Ser

I hope this helps.

Matt
     
ChadC
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Jun 28, 2007, 12:52 AM
 
i use autocad, rhino, max, and cs2 suite under bootcamp (xp) everyday.. it works great..

beware of parallels.. i've had a few friends randomly lose their entire system.. still seems buggy to me.. even including the newest (3d accerelated) upgrade... and the performance hit is quite high, last i know is that you could only allot 32 meg of vram or something without parallels going haywire..

anyway.. any questions about running those softwares in bootcamp just fire away..

also.. mcneel has announced they are developing rhino for os x.. just something to think about.
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navjeet
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Jun 30, 2007, 07:13 AM
 
I have visited a site which has lot of jewelry design site is hollywood movies wallpaper
This site has dam good design
     
Skiptomaloo
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Jul 4, 2007, 11:28 PM
 
My brother is a Jeweler/Gemologist and he uses Rhino 3D, with an insanely expensive plugin called Matrix 3D this particular plugin costs around $7,000 "yes I said $7k" how retarded is that. But the Jewelry business is a very very very niche business and they can get away with it. He also uses another plugin for Rhino called Flamingo 3.0 along with a very modified version of Adobe Photoshop called Goldsmith. Apparently some Jeweler Geeks ripped apart Photoshop and customized it specifically for Jewelers. Hope this helps you.

Incidentally don't even think about trying to find a Torrent or warez on Matrix 3D you will be SOL on every search, and the guy out of the Ukraine selling imaginary copies for $100 bucks a pop. Don't waste your time or hard earned money, he rips people off. I just wanted to save you from hours of endless searching
     
yugyug
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Jul 6, 2007, 07:16 PM
 
I installed bootcamp/rhino last week, on core 2 duo macbook pro - works great, much better than I expected.
ππ>_<ππ
     
   
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