[Jewelry making - Article 00253] - Re: [Orchid] CAD/CAM - What works for you?

[David D. Bright]

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>     I suggest you challenge yourself and your software rather than just
>     pump = this forum full of your hot air. 

    Well, I guess I will bow in humble submission, to you, as far as
    filling the forum with hot air. 

    I DO in fact use other software beside Matrix. I also use 3 separate
    CAM programs. What works best for me, and what I use the most often,
    is Matrix and Deskproto. I find myself using these two programs most
    often. I also use Artcam. I have Cimigraphy, JewelCad, Stenza,
    IronCad, and a few others. 

    You seem to sell/demonstrate 3Design and therefor would have an
    interest in confusing issues. I don't sell anything, I just use it
    to make a living. The primary reason that I investigated 3Design in
    the first place is that I am ALWAYS OPEN to any better way of doing
    things or a software that would make more money for me or make my
    job easier. I do enough CAD work that I can easily justify the
    expense of ANY software on the market that would give me the ability
    to do the job better, quicker, and more efficiently. If I thought
    that there was a better program on the market that would be easier to
    use and make more money for me than Matrix I WOULD ALREADY OWN IT. 

    I attended a 6 hour demonstration of 3Design. During the
    demonstration the TRAINER (from Atlanta) was asked by the person who
    the demo was for, to make a set of rings based on a picture that he
    provided. The moral of the story is that the trainer was not able to
    make the rings to the satisfaction of the person who the demo was
    for. By trainer, I mean that this is the person who would actually
    do the training that you would pay for and use those 10 fabulous
    lessons that I mentioned. The rings that this guy was asked to make
    were not all that difficult but had specific elements that were
    necessary to be incorporated in the ring to make it work properly.
    The best part of this was that the person who the demo was for did
    not choose these two rings in an effort to trip up any software
    company. Artcam failed at it too. The rings that the guy wanted to
    have madewere for an actual customer. I walked away from the demo
    and got paid to make the rings in Matrix. The wedding band took me
    15 minutes and the engagement ring which was in two pieces and
    complicated took about 90 minutes. I made two widths of the
    engagement ring during this time too. I have about 6 years of CAD/CAM
    experience and trust me, I asked all the tough questions and got a
    thorough demonstration of the 3Design. 

    I did think that parts of 3Design were interesting and I was
    impressed with some of the features of the program. I also found it
    rather deficient in other areas. However, I could not find any
    significant reason to purchase it or to invest ANY time in to
    learning the program (which I agree it would be easy to learn) Simply
    put, I saw no advantage, for me, to having or learning 3Design. I
    did call the company to ask about something else. Great customer
    service, I am still waiting for the information that I asked for 3
    months ago. I have heard the same thing from others too. Trust me
    the USA office leaves much to be desired, in my opinion. 

    The parametric part of the program is not nearly so important as you
    make it out to be. If you know how to build things in Matrix and how
    to save them in a progressive manner in the matrix Project folders,
    it is easy to accomplish the same thing. I just made a company
    ring/award that had 3 panels on it. I was able to make up 3 separate
    rings, on the fly, using elements that I had saved in the project
    folder, in front of a customer, giving them the ability to choose
    what they wanted. I was easily able to switch things around to
    different parts of the ring and was able to have all three rings on
    the screen at the same time, and able to render them on the fly for
    the customer to see what they would look like. The net result was an
    order for 13 rings with Russian melle. Thats what it's all about,
    getting the money, NOT what software you use. I don't give a damn
    what software it took to make the piece, I just want the job and the
    money. 

    Both softwares have limitations, no software is perfect. If 3Design
    does it for you...thats great. If you used 3 Design and I used Matrix
    to make a ring from a picture that someone showed both of us, giving
    specifics about shank thickness, width dimensions and diamond or
    stone size the results will be amazingly similar. AS THEY SHOULD BE. 

David


 
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