How Facetra Works

Facetra converts a hand-drawn jewellery sketch into a client-ready render, multi-view technical sheet, live-gold-rate Bill of Materials, and downloadable 3D mesh — all in a single afternoon. Below is the exact seven-stage workflow an atelier follows, from the moment a designer sketches on paper to the moment the CAD bench opens the file.

Who is this workflow for?

Facetra is used by Indian jewellery ateliers and independent designers who work in traditional styles (Jadau, Polki, Kundan, Meenakari, Temple, Rajwadi) as well as modern halo, solitaire and cocktail pieces. It replaces a 4–7 day sketch-to-CAD handoff with a same-day workflow.

The seven-stage workflow

Stage 1 — Sketch

Start with any hand-drawn sketch. Snap a photograph of the paper (top-down, natural light) and upload — or describe the piece in a text prompt if you don't sketch. Facetra accepts English, Hindi transliterations and mixed vocabulary (e.g. "jadau bali with polki border and meena work on the reverse").

Stage 2 — Photoreal render

Facetra generates a photoreal front-view render preserving every design decision — prong count, gemstone shape, jaali density, silhouette. Uses Google Gemini Nano Banana under the hood, but with prompt engineering tuned specifically to jewellery craft vocabulary so the output looks manufacturable, not decorative-AI.

Stage 3 — Lasso refinement

Not perfect on the first try? Mark any region of the render with the lasso tool, describe the change ("replace the centre stone with an emerald-cut", "add temple motifs on the shoulder"), and Facetra re-renders only that region. The rest of the design stays pixel-locked.

Stage 4 — Multi-view sheet

Generate the technical sheet the CAD bench needs: consistent 0° / 45° / 90° / 180° views of the same piece. Silhouette is reference-locked across views so the model-maker sees the same geometry from every angle — no accidental proportion drift.

Stage 5 — CAD-ready mode

Strip the stones, enamel, plating and polish from any render to get the bare-metal pre-polish casting reference. Plain-gold pieces are auto-detected and preserved without hallucinated stone sockets. This is the reference the CAD operator models against.

Stage 6 — Bill of Materials + live gold rate

Facetra generates a machine-readable BOM: weight breakdown (yellow gold / diamonds / gemstones / enamel), estimated cost at the current 22kt gold rate, karigar hours, and setting notes. The gold rate is refreshed every hour so client quotes are never stale. Exportable as CSV.

Stage 7 — 3D mesh + CAD kit download

Feed 2–4 multi-view images into the 3D mesh generator and receive a downloadable model in GLB / STL / OBJ / FBX / USDZ / 3MF. The full CAD kit zip includes:

• The multi-view sheet as separate PNG files
• The CAD-ready bare-metal render
• The BOM as CSV + JSON
• The 3D mesh (GLB, plus any format you export to)
• A README with wall-thickness cheatsheet (DMLS / SLA / FDM / lost-wax) and one-sided shell workflow for temple / animal / relief pieces

Your CAD operator opens the zip in Rhino / MatrixGold, retopologizes for casting, and sends to CAM.

What does a full workflow cost?

For one design: 1 render + 4 credits for the multi-view sheet + 1 credit for CAD-ready + 1 credit for the BOM + 25 credits for the Standard 3D mesh (or 35 for HD) = ~32 credits per finished CAD kit. At the Studio pack rate (₹8/credit) that's ~₹256 per piece — significantly less than a single hour of a CAD operator's time.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know CAD software to use Facetra?

No. Facetra runs entirely in the browser. Your CAD operator uses Rhino / MatrixGold / JewelCAD as before — Facetra just gives them a much cleaner, faster starting point.

Can Facetra generate CAD files directly?

Facetra generates a 3D mesh (GLB / STL / OBJ / FBX) which is a reference, not a cast-ready manifold model. Your CAD operator retopologizes the mesh in their CAD tool before sending to CAM. This is the standard workflow for AI-generated 3D output — no AI tool produces direct-to-cast CAD files today.

What jewellery styles does Facetra support?

Traditional Indian: Jadau, Polki, Kundan, Meenakari, Temple, Rajwadi. Modern: solitaire, halo, cluster, tennis, cocktail. Full vocabulary in the Facetra glossary.

How does Facetra compare to Midjourney or DALL·E for jewellery?

General-purpose AI image generators produce beautiful but non-manufacturable output. They cannot generate multi-view consistency, cannot produce a Bill of Materials, cannot export 3D meshes, and lack jewellery-craft vocabulary. Facetra is a purpose-built workflow that produces the exact deliverables a CAD bench needs.

Is my design confidential?

Yes. Every render lives in your private per-user storage bucket. Nothing is public unless you explicitly export or share it. Full details in the Facetra privacy policy.