Solitaire ring
Deliverable: A solitaire modelled with a correctly proportioned head, seat cut for a named stone size, prongs at castable thickness, exported watertight.
Course
Matrix Jewellery CAD
The jewellery-specific CAD workflow — builders, gem tools, pavé and rendering — used properly, so the model that leaves your screen can actually be cast and set.
- Duration: 2 months
- Classroom
- Level: intermediate
What you will be able to do
- Build rings, shanks and settings using Matrix builders
- Place and calibrate stones with correct seats and allowances
- Construct pavé and channel settings that a setter can work with
- Model to casting minimums for prong and wall thickness
- Calculate metal weight per karat directly from the model
- Render a piece to a standard a client will approve from
Who this course is for
- Jewellery designers and CAD operators
- Retail jewellers modelling customer requests
- Rhino users specialising into jewellery
- Rhino familiarity is a real advantage
Syllabus
6 modules · 2 months
Module 1. Matrix workflow
- Interface, builders and the Rhino underneath
- Project setup, sizing and units
- Working with the gem library
- Where a builder helps and where to model manually
Module 2. Rings and shanks
- Ring sizing and inner profile
- Shank builders and cross sections
- Tapering, splitting and comfort fit
- Signet, band and eternity constructions
Module 3. Stones and settings
- Stone placement, calibration and orientation
- Prong, bezel and channel builders
- Seat cutting and setting allowance
- Head selection and proportion to the stone
Module 4. Pavé and detail
- Pavé layout across a curved surface
- Cutter placement and bead setting
- Milgrain, engraving and surface texture
- Symmetry and pattern control
Module 5. Manufacture readiness
- Minimum prong and wall thickness for casting
- Checking for undercuts and thin sections
- Watertight geometry and STL export
- Sprue placement and print orientation
Module 6. Weight, cost and presentation
- Volume to metal weight across karats
- Stone count, size and cost roll-up
- Rendering materials, lighting and turntables
- Presenting to a client for approval
Tools and technologies you will use
- Matrix or MatrixGold
- Rhino 3D underneath
- Gem libraries and setting builders
- Rendering engine
- 3D printing and casting workflow
Projects you will build
Pavé band
Deliverable: A band with pavé set across a curve, stones evenly spaced with cutters and beads placed, checked for setter access and even metal between stones.
Weight and cost sheet
Deliverable: Metal weight computed from the model for 14K, 18K and 22K, with stone count and sizes tabulated to a quotable total.
Client presentation set
Deliverable: One design rendered from three angles at true scale with a technical drawing and the estimated weight, as a sheet a customer could approve from.
Where this course can take you
- Jewellery CAD Designer
- Jewellery Designer
- Retail Design Consultant
- Product Designer
- Workshop Coordinator
Duration, modes and fees
- Duration
- 2 months
- Delivery modes
- Classroom
- Fees
- Share your details for the current fee
- Fees vary by batch. Lab licences and printing for the practical work are included. Classroom mode only.
Placement assistance
Every student gets placement assistance — that is what 100% placement assistance means. It is support for all, not a job for all. We do not promise a specific salary, a specific number of interviews, or placement at any named company, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
What is included
- A place in the monthly placement drive, held every third Saturday
- The readiness programme every second Saturday — mock interviews and preparation
- CV review against the specific roles you are targeting
- Portfolio review, so your project work is presented the way a reviewer will read it
- Access to the vacancy pool employers send directly to the Samyak network
- Guidance on which roles realistically fit your background and which do not
- A place in the next drive, with coaching, if you are not selected in this one
What is not included
- Any guarantee of a job, an interview, or a particular salary
- Placement at a named or partner company
- Applying to jobs on your behalf
- Support before you have completed the course and its project work
- Visa, relocation or overseas placement assistance
Builders construct, they do not design
Matrix will produce a technically correct shank in about four seconds, and it will be a generic shank.
Everything that makes a piece worth buying — proportion, the balance of metal to stone, how it reads on an actual hand rather than at 400% on a monitor — is yours. The builders remove the tedium so you can spend the time on those decisions, which is the right way to use them and not how most people do.
The setter has to be able to work
A model can be geometrically perfect and unsettable.
Prongs too thin to bend without snapping. No seat cut, so the stone sits proud. Pavé so tight there is no metal left for a bead, or so loose the stones look stranded. Each of these comes back from the workshop, and the pavé project is checked for setter access before anything else.
Learn the Rhino underneath
Matrix is Rhino with jewellery tools on top, and builders cover perhaps eighty per cent of what a customer asks for.
The other twenty per cent is where you drop into plain Rhino modelling — and students who never learned it simply stop there and tell the customer no. Taking Rhino first or alongside removes that ceiling entirely.
Quote from the model
Volume gives metal weight across karats. The gem list gives stone count and sizes. Together they give a number.
For a retail jeweller this changes the counter conversation completely — a customer can approve a design and a price before any metal is committed, and the piece that arrives is the one that was agreed.
Questions
Matrix Jewellery CAD — frequently asked questions
Should I learn Rhino before Matrix?
It helps a great deal. Matrix is Rhino with jewellery builders on top, and the moment a builder does not do quite what you need you drop into Rhino modelling. Students who know Rhino handle those situations; students who only know the builders get stuck. Taking Rhino first or alongside is the sensible order.
Do the builders do the design for me?
They do the construction, not the design. A builder will produce a technically correct shank in seconds, and it will be a generic shank. Proportion, stone-to-metal balance and how the piece reads at true size are your decisions, and they are what a customer is actually paying for.
Why does setting allowance matter so much?
Because a setter has to physically cut seats and push metal. A model with prongs too thin, no seat, or no room between stones is either unsettable or comes back with broken prongs. The pavé project is checked for setter access specifically, because that is where models most often fail in the workshop.
Can I quote a customer from the model?
Yes, and it is one of the strongest reasons retail jewellers take this course. Volume gives you metal weight for each karat, the gem list gives stone count and sizes, and together they give a defensible figure before any metal is committed.
Enquire about Matrix Jewellery CAD
Three details is all we need. A course advisor will call you back.
Related courses
- Rhino 3D
NURBS modelling for shapes parametric CAD handles badly — clean curves, continuous surfaces and watertight solids, with Grasshopper for anything repetitive.
- Jewellery Design
Jewellery design taken to manufacture — sketching, CAD modelling, stone setting and casting constraints — with the metal weight and costing a workshop will hold you to.
- ZBrush Digital Sculpting
Digital sculpting taught form first — silhouette and anatomy before pores and wrinkles — and finished properly, with retopology and baked maps a pipeline can use.
- SolidWorks
Parametric 3D modelling taught around design intent, so a model survives the change request — assemblies, sheet metal and drawings that update themselves.
Next step
Talk to a course advisor
Tell us what you want to learn and we will help you pick the right course, batch and mode.