Paul Krush

I added a model search page to the site. Just a different way to look at the models I have for free download. I’m not sure if I will add models to this database in the future. I think the most useful jewelry model database would just be elements of jewelry(or related items) that are very standardized.

In fact, I am actively working on some of the ideas outlined in this post from June 2007:
The merging of model sharing and jewelry design software.

Currently I am writing a plug-in for Rhino using C# & .NET. It’s my first venture into .NET. I know VB & some C++ so it’s pretty easy. As always I am working on jewelry software for the end user/consumer that they can use for free. It will be 5 years in October the I have been toying with ideas for this project. It’s frustrating because I have yet to release anything useful over the years.

I can’t wait till I have a useful product out there. I don’t think this will take too long. Well, at least a useful product for people that already know Rhino. To make it simple enough for non-CAD people will take much longer.

I am writing a jewelry design tool that non-CAD users can use for free. As a side effect this also can be used as a basic standalone jewelry design Rhino plug-in. It will also be a back end to a web based mass customization system.

There would be no cost to the non-CAD users. You can download and use Rhino for free permanently as a model viewer. My plug-in will be free as well. These users will be able to save parameters of a piece they designed using the plug-in. Jewelry manufactures can use these parameters(a file or link) to build the piece, or as a starting point to design what the non-CAD user wants.

I plan on releasing every Monday night for 8 weeks. Yesterday all I had was a ring rail tool. These releases will be in Alpha, as in buggy. Releasing unfinished software is a necessary evil as I need I to create a feedback loop with the users.

At some point I would like to write a front end so this can all be done over the web. One thing at a time. I feel a Rhino plug-in would be the most useful (and hence profitable) starting point.

I had this idea for years and realized it’s not on the website. Just as you can write software to render frames of a computer animated movie, you can script out Rhino 3D to render people’s names into a name ring or name pendant for a post card. Say a jewelry store has 5000 people in their database. You could build a system that renders 5000 pictures for 5000 post cards each using the persons first name. You could render all sorts of address information into a post card. I think this would be eye catching as heck. Every year when Mother’s day gets near I flirt with this one.

Just to review each post card would be different. It would have a 3D computer rendering of jewelry designs that contain the persons name.

The scripted name pendants you see can also be rendered in a mass customized way like this. This is more of a highly specialized 2D font creation. You can script in a name and create all sorts of 2D rules on how swoops and hearts are applied. You can add 2D symbols till the cows come how in an automated fashion. After the 2D curve is extruded into the 3D model. You can also add 2 ½D art work into this. 2 ½D art work is neat because it can be represented by a grayscale image.

I had JewelryPostCards.com registered for a while, but I never wanted to jump into the jewelry marketing business, so I  dumped the name. Dell color laser printers are high quality and cheap enough to do stuff like this. You can buy software that helps you automated the address information, bulk rate info, and barcodes.

I think the money is just not in jewelry to do this sort of stuff. My prediction is these ideas will be fleshed out in Asia. They can market and ship directly to the western world. This has been going on with colored stones from Thailand and cell phone accessories out of Hong Kong for a long time now.

I can help, $50 per hour, one hour minimum. I can help with 3D models, but keep in mind I do not consider myself a seasoned jewelry designer. I am not a bench person at all, but I can help in hard areas of modeling in Rhino.

I can also give advice on getting into CAD/CAM for jewelry.

If you read my blog you know I am a software developer and highly interested in jewelry design software. If you have something you would like to me to create let me know to see if it’s possible. Also feel free to ask if you need technical assistance related to these areas.

Click here to pay for the first hour ($50) via PayPal:

Or send a check for $50 * (Total number of hours you would like) to:

Paul Krush
1039 Rockport Dr
Carol Stream, IL 60188

My email address is paul@paulkrush.com

Thanks, Paul

How big is jewelry for Rhino?

I keep hearing that jewelry is only a small part of Rhino. I don’t think so. As for production users I think it’s sizeable. You did not see this pages like these just 4 years ago.

Check out the Job section on Rhino:
http://www2.mcneel.com/rhinojobs/jobs.asp
11 out of 15 are jewelry jobs! These are not stale positions, they expire in 3 months. There is quite an international trend there.

For 3rd party Rhino products there is quite a large section for jewelry:
http://www2.rhino3d.com/resources/

Also a Indian jewelry designers job board:
http://board.classifieds1000.com/India/Wanted/jewellery_designer_jobs
Notice how much is CAD based.

And one more link. Here is some news on laid back Bob McNeel:
http://www.upfrontezine.com/2007/upf-521.htm

Interesting….

Paul Krush

This has all been talked about before. I am just framing the concepts differently.

As first glance most people would say this is oil and water, but I don’t see it that way. Steps can be taken to bring model sharing closer to software and software closer to sharing. With the release of uber-builders and scripting in Matrix Version 6 I think Gemvision is taking a small step in this direction.

It makes for an interesting exercise if you ask these two questions:
1.) How can Internet Model Sharing be more like Jewelry Design Software?
2.) How can Internet Jewelry Design Software be more like Jewelry Design Software?

These can be small steps toward each other, but end I see a product that is a combination of both these services. Yes, I’m calling jewelry design software a service.

Steps to bring jewelry design software closer to model sharing:
1.) Making the final model more parametric. It’s finished, but it has handles all over the place to change it.
2.) Some 3D Art can be standardized, and directly injected into a builder. Such as:
Standard panels for class rings
Standard tops for signet rings, pendants, etc.
Collar sections of rings.
Really any element can be standardized, and then offered as an option.
2.5) You can build a model and the builder can cycle through the standard art available.
3.) Offering the design software in an Internet browser. Yes this is a jump, but standards and tech to make it happen are forming right now.
4.) Put a live human into the jewelry design software and offer this service live. No Joke. Yes, even I am dreading the day jewelry design software has an Indian accent. Cool, but scary! It’s called Artificial Artificial Intelligence.
5.) Offer community and collaboration tools directly inside of the software. A share my screen/model button. This would be a lot easier if the software was web based.

We do some of these steps already manually, but sometimes it can be done with a person that does not know CAD. Like a store employee or even a customer standing at a kiosk.

Step to bring model sharing closer to jewelry design software:
1.) Offering models that have parametrics already built into them. An example would be a model with the Matrix WIP 6 handles already in the model.
2.) Offer models that have the parametrics automated. Like you can play with the controls before you downloaded the model?
3.) Offer models that the standard 3D art can be changed on the fly, and seen in real time with the sharing interface.
4.) Offer manual changes to the models being shared. (We will resize this ring model for $xx.xx)

Reasons why you would want to marry the two concepts:
1.) Profits. This creates a new product category for the wholesale or retail customer. They can claim that they designed their jewelry.
2.) CAD designers can start with a model that is closer to the final design.
3.) This brings more people to the table. Most jewelry sales people do not work with CAD.
4.) It’s the Burger King business model. Have it your way. This gives the customer far more control over the model.
5.) These concepts create more ways to get the designer’s creative juices flowing.

This is all about building intelligence into the design of the model. The model has to be simple to allow this, but it can be done in many different ways.

I use Gemvision terminology here, but these concepts are already in use in other industries.

By the way artificial artificial intelligence is a really cool concept. I have not thought much about it for jewelry design. It’s all about humans interacting in complex ways with each other with complex software.

The convergence is coming!

What do you think?

I discovered a genre of web sites and books about small software venders. The tech boom of the late 90s was all about this knock it out of the park thinking. These guys are talking about practicality and sustainability. I have started with the book Eric Sink on the Business of Software. It’s a collection of blog posts. They guy seems like he knows me, and all my weaknesses! Great work Eric!

I think I found another key to making consumer jewelry design software happen. The key is there needs to be competition. Or should I say if there was competition the market for consumer jewelry design software would be safer to enter. As a typical developer I want to go to a cave and appear a year latter with a full blown working system. I want to hit the ball out of the park, create something that has never been done, and blow everyone away. I want real time 3D tools in the browser, but 2D and 2 1/2D consumer jewelry design are not out yet. There is no consumer windows application. Silly me. It’s hard to be humble, but I’m beginning to think this project is better done in baby steps.

Boot strapping and baby steps….. I thought I was doing this with the crowdsourcing service bureau project, but then it took on a complex life of it’s own. Maybe I need to do a very simple working example system. Like a 2D band designer in Flash(in the browser), and provide links to 3D files(created on the server side). However simple and small this would start a flow of people using the software. With my experience from this project I could then refine my ideas about this world of consumer jewelry design.

Backing up… If you look on RingHunt.com I have done some very complex stuff. I entered a cave and I came out with what I thought were some very cool tools. My plan was that they would be so cool, that people would discover them, and motivate me to build better versions. I got some response, but I got scared with no money flowing in. Next time I need to think things through more, and have experience people review my plans. Which is one reason why I am blogging.

This was only a matter of time. I am not going to let these assets depreciate. I still have Rhino and I can always use a service bureau if I want to make jewelry. I don’t know where I am heading with jewelry design software. I would like to write something, but it’s a hobby at this point. You can look at my views and think I’m a flake or a visionary. The farther you go out on that limb the more of flake you become. At some point your not writing business plans, but sci-fi stories.

I have revolutionary ideas about consumers designing their own jewelry that I have been developing for years. Few people see what I am talking about and the rest think I’m nuts. Sometimes I start believing these naysayers. For the past week I have thinking I should hang it up and go totally corporate, say good by to jewelry software, and become an Oracle developer. Well it’s been months really. OK, I’ve been like this all my life. I put my foot down a few years ago and said I was finish the goals that I start. It’s hard to believe I’ve had my own business in the jewelry industry for 5 ½ years.

As my ideas get better and I have more experience with jewelry I times are getting tougher in the industry. Stores are going out of business and people are more interested in Best Buy than jewelry. Consumers are so educated that the products have turned into commodities. Asia is cranking up production, doing great work, and crushing manufactures here in the States. Franchises make it difficult for the independent to survive. The trends are not good at all. But, I see something different. What happens when consumers have a chance to design the jewelry themselves? Look at how incredibly popular beading is. Heck, there are no consumer jewelry design packages right now. There has to be room for one person in the world to make some cash at this software.

I see past these tough times for the jewelry industry. There is always going to be room for jewelry. Just thing what’s going to happen when all these electronic devices start getting so small they can be put into jewelry elegantly? Cell phone or mp3 player in your custom earrings? Why not? I think the number of medical monitoring devices will fit into this category as well.
It’s very hard to decide when to quit with these ideas. What if I’m a few weeks away from the finding right ingredient to make this all come together? How do I stay motivated?

The deeper I get into this, the harder it is to get out. I really think I have a great business plan for free jewlery design software for consumers. I need to get this plan on paper and criticized! I know. I need to talk to a lot of people about this. This is one reason I started a blog.

Did you know you can buy home, deck, and garden design software at Target?

Do people play with home design software before going to architect? If so, how has that changed custom home design? Do people rough out the house design, and let the architect detail it? This was one of the directions I was heading when I was working on that 3 stone trellis ring software in the end of 2003. I have not thought about it much lately until several people brought it up here in the forums.

One could write software that would let people rough out custom rings though a series of controls and parameters.

Having consumers rough out the ring first fits some rules I have for consumer design software to work in an independent retail store.

Those rules are; Will the consumer jewelry design software (or kiosks too):
1.) Keep the relationship?
2.) Build the local community?
3.) Be sustainable?

Would free consumer jewelry design software like this hurt an independent retail store? Sure I can think of many ways. One becomes defeatist when you go down this path. Pretty much you can argue that Gemvision cannot make its products better, because in doing so it will smother its current customer base. Every copy of Matrix they sell makes the rest of the copies less valuable though this thinking.

Does a $20 home design package cheapen the work of a professional architect? Of course not, this is mearly a better (maybe) way for the consumer to communicate to the architect. Some people might need to be educated on this.

Why do I keep coming back to consumer jewelry design software? This will be one of the ways jewelry will be designed in the future, and I want to be part of it. Good or bad it’s a compulsion I have.

These are some of the rings I did with a program I wrote 3 1/2 years ago. You enter in a bunch of parameters and it modeled the ring for you. I can do a much much better job at writing this software these days. I was just goofing off with some of these designs. It’s pretty fun using it.

So Michael Gibson one of the guys who help start writing Rhino is working on some CAD software that is like Rhino.It’s really Rhino like, limited, but easier. The snaps are very intuitive. It reads 3DM and IGES and outputs 3DM, IGES, STL, 3DS and OBJ.

I did this ring from checking out the site to install to saving in about hour. You just use it. I did steal the gem from Matrix. But diamond models are out there for free.

Sure it’s very limited, but did I say it’s free? This is first software I have seen that is free and really can be used by people to make jewelry with no investment at all.

It’s very exciting to me because see a lot of growth in CAD-CAM for jewelry coming from people who first play around with 3D as a hobby. I could say so much about this, but I am not sure this forum is the place.

It’s called MoI (Moment of Inspiration): http://moi3d.com/index.htm

Here is the 3DM file: moi_ring_test.zip

-

I cheated and rendered this in matrix: