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T-Splines for jewelry design Print E-mail

An excellent addition to any jeweler's digital toolbox

T-Splines for Rhino gives jewelry designers basic tools to create and modify custom-looking, freeform designs in a 3D CAD format that can be shared digitally with customers across the globe, mass produced, and easily altered.

Rhino has long been a popular tool among jewelers for its robust, precise NURBS modeling tools. Third-party Rhino jewelry plugins make jewelry design even easier through introducing wizards, automated gem setting and other features targeted directly at jewelry designers.

T-Splines did an excellent job at keeping the surface as simple as possible while I was modeling my organic ring design. By using T-Splines’ powerful set of tools, the project yielded the fewest possible control points, keeping the geometry easy to read and edit. T-Splines fills the need for free form modeling tools in Rhino. Ricardo Amaral, Modellistica

However, true freeform jewelry creation is beyond the grasp of even these tools. T-Splines for Rhino allows you to create organic, fluid jewelry designs in standard CAD file formats. Traditionally, these types of jewelry items were more easily created by hand.

NURBS jewelry is by necessity created in either a piecewise fashion or by combining parts into an uneditable polysurface. T-Splines introduces the ability to build a smooth and continuous surface that can be easily edited to address aesthetic, design and fabrication considerations.

Case studies & tutorials

Use T-Splines for Rhino to add organic embellishments to existing rings, or create complete new jewelry designs from scratch in T-Splines. To learn more, please read on.

Case study
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Modellistica cut modeling time in half by using T-Splines to create free-form jewelry.

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Case Study
Download case study (pdf)
Read HTML Version

Learn how Rieragasso brings organic jewelry designs to life with T-Splines.

Jewelry design gallery

 Olga Khadeeva :: Travis Serio - Family history ring :: 1st place overall model in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. 
I sat down and decided to model a family crest ring for my grandfather, something I have always wanted to do but never found the time or really wanted to tackle because of the time. I approached the design completely in T-Splines knowing that it would be perfect tool for the job, and man was it. Michael Magee - Ring :: Best jewelry model in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest.
This ring was inspired by the Art Nouveau style which commonly incorporated natural themes in unnatural ways. Layers of ancient symbolism merge as the ginkgo leaves intertwine and transform into the ribs and ridges of bat wings, which support centered twin bees. Roland Auer - Butterfly Jewelry :: Honorable mention in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest.
To me, T-Splines was the missing link in using Rhino for creating organic pieces. Jak Figler - Cardinal Ring :: Honorable mention in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest.
One of the highlights of this software is that it gives the user the ability to model in a totally organic process and hone those items down to the tightest of manufacturing tolerances. Albert Maree - Lily Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Brett Greenhill - Basket Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Carlos Madirolas - Sinuous Bracelet :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Eva Hoflinger - Veins of Leaves :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Evert van Engelenhoven - Diamond Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Greg Stopka at JewelSmiths - Breeze Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Greg Stopka at JewelSmiths - Waterfall Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Michael Devlin - Stone Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Saskia Dattner - Splash Ring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Yoshitaka Saito - Earring :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Yoshitaka Saito :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Yoshitaka Saito :: Entry in the T-Splines 2010 modeling contest. Ted Karl :: T-splines are cool. It was so easy to make the channel along the stones I did a second one with larger stones. Olga Hadeeva :: Saskia Dattner :: These earrings were designed in Rhino and T-Splines and produced in red gold with diamonds. They were exhibited at the Vicenza Show May 22-26, 2010, Collection Gianni Lazzaro Saskia Dattner :: This “hand print” ring is from the Goldfinger collection designed for SCHMUCKWELTEN Pforzheim Saskia Dattner :: Fabio Rios :: Fabio Rios :: Fernando Rentas :: Aurelio Perugini :: A tutorial showing how to create this ring appeared in the Italian magazine, Computer Grafica tecniche e applicazioni, n° 73 and 72. This ring was also prototyped and cast into metal (right). www.anterem.it Joaquin Laborda :: Exploring soft shapes concepts, I started with sketching, and T-Splines let me achieve the exact form without sacrifying the original idea. www.trumdesign.com.ar Evert van Engelenhoven :: This was printed on a SolidScape T66 3d printer, designed mostly in T-Splines. A forum post with additional pictures and discussion is found here: http://www.tsplines.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29268 Peggy Croft :: This model was done in T-Splines v1, and was made in six different sections, which were all Booleaned together at the end. I used T-Splines to give a fuller relief than heightfield would. Miguel Calvo :: This design was created by welding together T-Splines primitives and pushing and pulling the surface. More discussion here: http://www.tsplines.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29243 Miguel Calvo :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen :: Aurelio Perugini :: The first time I made this ring, I was in school and I was 17 years old. Now I am 41 and I wanted to try it again with the same softness that I got when I modeled in wax. T-Splines gave me the chance to do it again with the same sense of *handmade* I had given the original. www.anterem.it Juan Santocono :: I used T-Splines to create this earring because T-Splines made it a snap to smoothly extrude the sun rays out from the center. This design was later manufactured with a Roland rapid prototyping machine. Juan Santocono :: Juan Santocono :: Jari Devad :: One of my first models made using Tsplines. I created some flames and used the flow along curve command in Rhino. www.designbyjari.com Evert van Engelenhoven :: Ricardo Amaral :: T-Splines did an excellent job at keeping the surface as simple as possible while I was modeling my organic ring design. By using T-Splines’ powerful set of tools, the project yielded the fewest possible control points, keeping the geometry easy to read and edit. T-Splines fills the need for free form modeling tools in Rhino. http://www.modellistica.com.br/ Joaquin Laborda :: As I was exploring hard surfaces with intrincated round zones, T-Splines let me keep the product water-tight and continuous. www.trumdesign.com.ar Wolfram Wehpke :: Fred Kassner :: Modeled in Topmod, T-splines and Rhino Fred Kassner :: Carlos Zamora :: www.tech-designsny.com Juan Santocono :: Juan Santocono :: Juan Santocono :: Aurelio Perugini :: A tutorial showing how to create this ring appeared in the Italian magazine, Computer Grafica tecniche e applicazioni, n° 73 and 72. This ring was also prototyped and cast into metal (right). www.anterem.it Joaquin Laborda :: Exploring soft shapes concepts, I started with sketching, and T-Splines let me achieve the exact form without sacrifying the original idea. www.trumdesign.com.ar Evert van Engelenhoven :: Peggy Croft :: This model was done in T-Splines v1, and was made in six different sections, which were all Booleaned together at the end. I used T-Splines to give a fuller relief than heightfield would. Miguel Calvo :: Miguel Calvo :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen :: Lee Yun-wen ::