How to Prepare CAD-Ready Renders for a Jewellery Model-Maker
Strip stones, enamel and polish before handing off. Include a multi-view sheet, BOM with live gold rate, and a wall-thickness cheatsheet. Facetra's CAD-ready mode + zip export bundles all of this automatically.
What does "CAD-ready" mean for a jewellery render?
A CAD-ready render is a stripped-down version of your finished design that shows only the bare-metal casting geometry — no stones, no enamel, no rhodium plating, no polish. This is the reference a CAD operator uses to model the piece in Rhino or MatrixGold. Sending a stone-loaded, polished render forces the operator to mentally reconstruct the underlying geometry — a waste of everyone's time.
The five things to strip before handoff
1. Stones (diamonds, polki, kundan, pearls)
Each stone seat should be shown as an empty socket — the CAD operator needs to see the chaton geometry, not the stone that will eventually sit in it. Facetra's CAD-ready mode auto-empties stone seats for pieces that have stones, and preserves plain-gold pieces without hallucinated sockets.
2. Enamel / meenakari colour
Recessed enamel cavities should appear empty and bare. The CAD operator will model the cavity geometry; the enamel is filled in during finishing.
3. Rhodium plating and high polish
The final piece will be plated after casting. The CAD reference should show the piece in its pre-polish state: smooth clean metal, no mirror finish, no plating. This matches what comes out of the lost-wax casting furnace before final finishing.
4. Background props and setting scenes
Client-facing renders often sit on velvet, in a jewellery box, on a hand model, etc. The CAD-ready render must be on a flat matte black background with no props — no distraction from the geometry.
5. Rhinestones, decorative filigree, ambient light effects
Anything that isn't structural to the casting should be off. Only the metal geometry that the wax master will be cast from.
What to include in the handoff pack
A complete CAD-ready handoff pack includes:
- Bare-metal front render (CAD-ready mode)
- Multi-view sheet — 0° / 45° / 90° / 180°, silhouette-locked
- Bill of Materials — metal weight breakdown, stone inventory (count + size), karigar hours estimate, cost at current gold rate
- 3D mesh reference — GLB or STL for the CAD operator to trace against
- Wall-thickness cheatsheet — recommended minimums per manufacturing process (see below)
- Setting notes — any callouts about specific stones, prong counts, meena reverse, ghungroo placement
Facetra's CAD kit download bundles all six into a single zip file automatically.
Wall thickness cheatsheet
| Manufacturing process | Minimum wall thickness |
|---|---|
| DMLS / metal 3D printing | 1.0 – 2.0 mm |
| SLA / DLP resin printing | 0.5 mm (0.4 mm ok for detailed jaali) |
| Lost-wax cast master (resin → metal) | 0.6 – 0.8 mm |
| FDM (PLA / ABS) | 0.8 – 1.2 mm |
For hollow pieces, add 2 mm drain / vent holes on the underside so the shell doesn't trap resin or investment.
Special case: temple / animal / relief pieces
For pieces where only the front face needs to be visible (temple pendants, animal-motif brooches, laxmi / ganesh reliefs, kolhapuri medallions), the standard workflow is: slice the mesh in half along the depth axis, keep the front half only, extrude inward by 0.4 mm to give the shell manufacturable thickness, cap the perimeter. This yields a 40–60% lighter casting than the solid mesh with no visual difference from the wearer's side.
Read the full wall-thickness deep-dive at /articles/wall-thickness-guidelines-cast-jewellery or try the CAD-ready workflow free at facetra.studio/signup.