CAD -> CAM/CNC s/w + h/w jewellery + small sculpture

I'd like a small desktop machine to produce jewellery items, rings,
earrings, the odd torc and small sculpture - probably 20-30 cubic
centimetres is the largest size I'd want to work in and half that size
would probably be find - though a bit small for torcs. I need pretty
good detail on a subtrate that casts well for the production of silver
or gold jewellery.

I've been having a look at software and systems on the market now and
it looks as if things have got a lot cheaper and better over the past
few years. It is difficult to decide what is a good system to get with
such a variety. So any advice would be really useful.

I'm looking for CAD software that can produce standard CNC output, get
input from a 3d -scanner and is easy to manipulate visually. I'm not
sure if there is good linux, Apple Mac or other s/w about, but I'm not
really looking for a mega-expensive application used to design high
performance motor car engines!


I like the look of the Roland machine
http://www.torcomp.com/products/product_detail.cfm?productid=9275
which is a good price too at <US$4000. I mention this just to give the
idea - if there is something with better detail, faster, bigger,
cheaper and so forth on the market, then I'd love to hear about it!

The 3d printers apparently produce quite arough finish that would be
no good for jewellery and they're expensive. I'm happy to be persuaded
that I'm wrong here too!

To me the ultimate would be to have a system that enabled you to do
jewellery and sculpture design with a VR headset (Virtual Reality) and
a data glove - anything with a user interface approaching this level
of simplicity would be good (does the Mac do something like this??).

I'd really like to use this as a tool to design jewellery and make
sculpture - I'm not wanting to become an expert on some complex
software application. I'd be keener on something intuitive like Kodak
photo enhancement software rather than something like photoshop or the
gimp - though it would be nice to have access to those features the
main thing would be to be able to see and rotate the object as you
design it and to make changes easily and intuitively.

I know that there are some companies that you can send CAD file to and
they'll produce the object for you - I'm not really keen on the time
it will take and I'm not sure it would work that well to South Africa
anyway. Maybe there is such a company in Cape Town, which would be
great, but, otherwise, I'd rather produce my own stuff at home fairly
quickly even if the quality is a bit lower than send out for it to be
made somewhere else.

Any ideas of what I should be going for?

 

While some of the 3D printers, especially those that output larger sizes, or
thermoplastic plastic models, produce surface finishes not good for immediate use in
jewelry, the Solidscape and Modelmaster types, are quite good enough for jewelry, and
are widely used in the jewelry industry. There is, still a little bit or stair
stepping on the models, but the degree and size of the steps is so small as to
present little problem for most uses. Normal finishing of a casting will remove it.
If needed, one can dip the models in a lacquor (I think that's it), which tends to
glaze over the surface stair stepping.

If fact, as I write this, there is a used Solidscape T66 up for auction on ebay, for
a starting bid of 22K, less than half it's new cost. The machine is, I think,
perhaps a year and a half, or two, old, and the seller says it's in good condition.
That's a current model machine.

As for software to design in, many people prefer Rhino. Not quite as jewelry
specific as some of the programs, some of which amount to cut and paste editors
supplying standard shapes and parts. Easy to use and learn, but limited in their
creative potential and output to those standard sorts of things. Rhino is much more
generic, takes longer to learn, but once you do, you can make just about anything in
it. And it's moderately priced.

Peter Rowe

 

[CAD software, by itself, won't produce the standard CNC output file format
(commonly referred to as G-code). There are combination applications, but
generally you'll do better if you find a CAD program you can get along with
and a separate CAM package that will accept its output and write code you
can run on your CNC machine (this often requires a custom "post"). While
there are a few CAD programs that work on Macs, most will be Windows-only,
and there are almost no CAM programs for the Mac platform.] >

[There are other machines on the market, some of which are bigger, faster,
or get better detail; they aren't necessarily cheaper, though. The nicest
thing about the MDX-20 from Roland (which you link to above) is its
excellent scanning function, which can supplement your 3d modeling
abilities. ]

[While it's true they are expensive, there are RP systems which have surface
quality good enough for jewelry applications. Peter Rowe pointed some out in
his reply to this thread. The big advantage to this type of model
construction is the design freedom afforded - pretty much any part
configuration can be built, unlike CNC, which requires that a tool be able
to reach all the model's surfaces while it is also supported somehow during
the cutting process.]

[As far as I know, there's nothing like that for the Mac. The closest I've
seen is the system from Sensable Technologies, which uses a "haptic" arm
device that lets you feel like you're actually contacting the surface of
your model. There is a separate company that has wedded this with a stereo
display, so one can get a 3d picture of what one is "touching".]

[How much do you want to spend?]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

 

Some of the tabletop cnc machines mentioned will work fine. Denford
and Pro Light are commonly used. I heard that Haas is coming out with
a miniature machine specifically for this purpose.

As for software, take a look at Artcam, Type 3, and Mastercam Art
http://www.mastercam.com/Products/Art/Default.asp

I work for a Mastercam reseller, so my bias is toward that product.
You can take flat 2D geometry (.eps, .ai, or convert raster images)
and create a 3D mesh very quickly without having to create any 3D
surfaces. Same price as Artcam, but much better 2D machining and CAD
functionality.

Good luck

 

I've had a look at that - it looks impressive. The company is very shy
about prices - which, to me, is seldom a good sign.

Have you actually tried this kit?

I'm not sure that the stereo view would be vital, nice, yes, but, if
you have your piece on a turntable and you have good rendering
software then you can see what it looks like pretty well - and now
home computers are quite powerful enough to do rendering that would
have required a fifty k's worth of workstation to do a few years ago.

 

[Right - if you have to ask... But they seem to be selling the "Omni" arm
with the "Concept" software for about $4000, which isn't bad considering
there are many software-only solutions that cost a lot more. The "Phantom"
arm with the "Freeform" software is still about $20k.]

[Yes, a few times. It was enough to be impressed with it, but not to get any
real facility - that would take some time.]

[The trouble with working on 3d parts with only a 2d view to go on is that
there's an inescapable ambiguity between where you think you are and where
you really are. By the time you've rotated the view, it's too late - if you
miscalculated, you need to undo and try again. The haptic interface helps
with this, but stereo vision (or a better sort of 3d display) would help
more, I'd think. I haven't tried this, though.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com