Hello every one…I’m new to ZBrush, I’m Jeweler by trade with over 40 years in the business. I have seen some of what one can do with ZBrush, does anyone here know any jewelers that use ZBrush? Can you provide any links, or tell me where I can go to meet others that are in the same trade? Thanks for any assistance…
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?135212-Mouse-Jeweller-s-Work-Bench
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?166374-du-Rose-Gallery
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?61205-T-S-Wittelsbach-s-Jewelry-Sketchbook
I hope that helps. 
Hi.
Welcome to the wonderful world of zbrush. Im a jeweller aswell. I don’t have a thread on here, and
jewellery specific zbrush tutorials are almost non existent. At the moment im trying to develop a workflow that
let’s me stay more in zbrush and less in rhino. Not that i don’t like rhino, but it would be great not to switch back
and forth so much.But feel free to PM me with more specific questions and i’ll try to help the best that i can.
Best regards
Most of the jewellery renders I’ve seen tend to have been modelled rather than sculpted, in the likes of Max, Maya etc. Some excellent ones in ZBrush also, but mostly seems to be ones done in modelling programs.
Thank you for your response, I appreciate your willingness to help, maybe some day I may be able to assist
You too. I actually wanted Rhino and the plug in RhinoGold…which do you like the best Rhino or ZBrush?
Do you have an iPad, what do you use on it? I have ZBrush on my laptop and sketchbook on my iPad to do
Counter sketches for the customer, then I plan on working it out in ZBrush or ArtCAM JewelSmith.
Well, I do look forward to sharing with you in the future
Regards,
Hi, im also in the jewellery trade & a new zbrush user. Im sure we can figure a way to design some nice stuff with zbrush eventually. 
Regards
Chris.
Ok, brace yourself it’s gonna get longwinded. If you ask what I like best, it’s zbrush hands down, but most jewellers wouldn’t, so…
It would be more fair to explain how i’ve progressed through cad, i think it would give a more accurate picture than just saying,buy zbrush! Before cad 80 percent of all jewellery i did was sculpted in wax and the rest fabricated in metal, so i would call myself a waxmodeller more than a goldsmith. I started with rhino, and rhino is a wonderfull piece of software, and the tsplines plugin. Really easy to get into and lots of possibility, for classic jewellery it can’t be beat. except by matrix( plugin) :). But small details and organic stuff was kind of tedious to do and sometimes it didn’t come out right, for me. So i started using zbrush, and exporting models from rhino to zbrush and detailing them there, exporting was kind of tedious but better now with dynamesh. But the more i worked in zbrush and the more tools i found out how to use, i started to shift more work into zbrush and less into rhino. The biggest problem with zbrush is that you don’t have true scale, like rhino does. Making something and scaling it afterwards works for pendants and stuff but not really for rings with settings and such, and that held me back for a long time.
But zbrush is such a big toolbox and i also found a way to work around that, measuring in zbrush is not that intuitive like rhino, but after finding a workflow that works for me and becoming faster at it, i found that i don’t really use rhino at all anymore, maybe for pave layout:D. The way i do it, i have a margin of error of 0.01 mm, which is fine for jewellery and settings. But what i get instead, is a felling of freedom while sculpting, it’s the abillity to do what ever you want without really thinking about planning first and such, just sculpting and pulling material. I know it’s fairly new territory, using zbrush for production compared to rhino which is made for production, but if your willing to think out of the box and you want to work more creatively then i think zbrush is the way to go. And if i have to use a bit more time measuring stuff up, i’ll do it gladly, saves me alot of time in other places. I know that not all jewellers would agree, but i’ve actually become faster in zbrush that i was in rhino. Last thing to mention, is that i had to put about double the hours into zbrush to get good with it than with rhino. I do also use sketchbook on the ipad. @ gemsetterchris… is it chris b over from 3dcad jewellery forum?
Oh and also excuse my english, im not a native speaker and im tired.
Best Regards
Anton
Hi, it`s not me.
The scaling of things is my biggest doubt, seems abit hit & miss as far as rings with settings.
Would you be prepared to throw abit of light on your workaround?
Chris.
Sure i can do that. Excuse the long response time but i’ve been swamped with work. Just bear in mind that i have not been doing zbrush that long. Im selftaught and not a pro, so there migh be alot better ways of doing something like this, this is just what i came up with to cover the basic measuring needs i had. It’s probably gonna seem a bit tedious at first but it works great for me.Im gonna asume basic knowledge og zbrush, but if i write something wrong of you have a question fell free to ask. So…
Draw a cube3d on you canvas,press edit, hit makepolymesh3d. Press x, and make sure that you see 2 red dots one to the left and one to the right on the cube, if not orient til you get the right placement.
Go into the 3D print export plugin, if you don’t have it get it at pixologic. Tic the mm button and hit update ratios, mine for some reason always is 2x2x2. Set the x,y and z values to 1 and hit obj to export a 1x1x1 mm cube as an obj.
Go in the preference menu and hit initialize zbrush. Import your 1x1x1mm cube and draw it out. press edit. Make sure the orientation is the same as before by pressing x. In the 3D print exporter press mm and update size ratios. and it shoud say 1 in all the values. Great
Now press move scale or rotate to get the transposeline. Draw it out on the cube from left to right, because of the relative low res of the cube the transposeline will kind off snap to the edges of the cube, zoom in and make sure that it’s exacly from one end to the other, hold shift to get a perfectly straighth line here, it should be fairly simple since the line snaps a bit. Now in the preference menu go to transpose units, click the calibration distance slider and set the value to one, now 1 transpose unit is equal to 1 mm.
The next part im not entirely sure about, but just by luck i was doing some custom menues at the time and i guess that if you save your config it will also save your transpose units calibration. Im not sure thats how but mine is always set to this 1mm per unit calibration now. Otherwise just import the cube at the start of every project and calibrate.
From here i import my stones if it’s a solitaire or a 3 stone ring or something, and get to modelling. I pretty much use most of the mesh creation tools depending on the project, mesh extraction, zspheres, imm curve brushes, shaddowbox, to make the shank and setting. And measureing as i go with the transpose line and building things to “true” scale. You can always use the udate size ratios in 3d print exporter to check size if your in doubt. Takes a bit of getting use to if your acustomed to rhino and it’s plugins, but im very happy with it now.
Hope it helps, feel free to ask if in doubt. Sorry for semi hi-jacking the thread btw. See you around.
Best regards
Sounds interesting. I was thinking of just making something up & then figuring out what measurements the x,y,z axis should be.
Once i get a piece cast, i can figure out what stone size fits best.
What`s this importing stones all about??
You could do that, i just think it’s hard to get the inside diameter and outside diameter and setting size to all fit what i wanted to do the way your talking about. I like to have a bit more control with the way i do it, but do whatever works for your type of work.
You can get free models of diamonds in different cuts at 3dlapidary.com, just be sure to thank the people who is putting it out there for free.
Best regards
Ill have to play around abit :p, ive probably spent the best part of a week just watching tutorials of various procedures trying to get an idea of how things work.
It seems simple yet highly complex if you know what i mean…
Thanks for the info on stones, ill take a look.. Amazes me what people share, im very pleased there are nice helpful people about & i`m willing to share my gemsetting knowledge if anyone needs it (maybe by pm & not hijacking this thread)!
Regards
Chris
Thank you for the links, I will check them out as soon as I answer some posts.
I had started this thread and then got so involved in work and haven’t been able to return.
I apologize for taking so long to respond but it will not happen again.
Best Regards
Thank you too Anton, where else do you have a thread can you share the link. I have found the tutorials
and have found a lot on you tube, cannedmushrooms has a lot on you tube. ou mentioned rhino, do you
have Rhino-Gold, that’s what I wanted, but am unable to afford it at this time. So I kept looking around,
a friend on face book told me about ZBrush, he uses it and raves about how he likes it. Has turned out
some cool work.
I got it months ago and have just really got to the point where I can make anything at all, but am doing
a lot better. Do you post your works anywhere? I have two projects I really would like to do right away
to be able to show my boss that these programs and costs can really be a plus…
I apologize for taking so long to respond but work has been crazy and then I have been putting in as much
time as possible with the software too. I look forward to discussing and sharing ZBrush in the near future.
Best Regards.
I totally agree with you, a friend of mine on face book uses ZBrush and makes some really neat stuff.
He recently purchased a mini-tech and now cuts his own waxes and is turning out work left and right.
Primiarly the reason or one of the reasons I got ZBrush, Rhino-Gold was so expensive, I just can’t
afford it and am hoping to show my boss how benifical it would be to have and the time savings and
time is money. Not to mention the precision of the pieces turned out and the saving of wear and tear
on my old hands and eyes.
I apologize for not responding sooner, but I do look forward to corresponding and sharing more, do you
have any links where you are posting you work? I look forward to seeing yours and sharing mine with
everyone. If I can help in anyway, just feel free to ask and I’ll do what I can. I am making it a point
from now on to check in at least once a day. I am in the USA and live in Tennessee, and am on Eastern time
so I will check here at 5a.m. on weekdays and then again at lunch and once in the evening.
Best Regards.
Hello Chris, I have been so busy, sorry I have not gotten back to you, I apologize.
Yes that would be great to figure this software out, I am making head way, how
about you? Did you also get a book called “Introducing ZBrush, third edition; by
Eric Keller??”
It also has a lot of interesting material and information. I have just briefly thumbed
through it, but am getting serious now after learning how to make one or two items.
Now I think I’m addicted to ZBrush and will be posting on this thread more often.
I will be posting and reading new posts three times a day, I am on Eastern time and
live in Tennessee, so I’ll be on here at 5a.m. briefly and noon or so briefly and will
be back on sometime around 8p.m.
Best Regards.
This maybe long winded as well, I have a few questions and since you have more experience
with CAD then I do, I think I will be picking your brain and don’t worry about your English you
do just fine.
**First question; where are you from and where do you live now?
**Second question; do you use lightbox and spotlight? It’s spotlight I think that you can import
something into and then paint it on a sphere(??) and turn it into a 3D object that you can then sculpt?
I’m having problems with it, once I get the import on the screen I can’t get it to become 3D sculptable.
**Third question; What are you referring too when you say you have to measure more, like if I needed
a bezel for a 5mm stone. How would you be sure a 5mm stone would fit in the bezel before it was cut
into wax. I too in my 40 years of carving have turned out some crazy stuff, but I’m trying to get more
into the CAD and way far away from the manual hands on related to the wax bench. I actually know a
jeweler who swears by ZBrush and the more I can get into making pieces I too think in time I will feel
the same, I am sure I have a long way to go to get there and I do not want to get discouraged before
I can become encouraged, do you understand?
Best Regards,
Bill
I’m with you on the measurements area too…I know others that use ZBrush and some of
them say it’s too early to learn that, that you must learn more before you get there.
What kind of answer is that?? I need to make sure to have my files right when I send some-
thing to the CAM or then I get charged for the computer time for them to fix my file.
My goal is to learn this aspect then get a means of cutting my own waxes in the future. I
do my own casting and fabrication…just need more time away from the wax bench to be
able to keep up with the work load of this little shop, which is growing and is totally capable
of much more growth.
Do you have any work posted or that you would be willing to post?
Best Regards,
Bill
I have that same question…you can model them in ZBrush, a friend of mine did and sent me
a couple rounds to show me, but I have questions about them as well, he used them to model
a ring, but I have not messed with them yet. I have wondered if you could export stones from
Rhino and import them in to ZBrush, would the measurements still be the same from one soft-
ware to the next I guees 1mm is 1mm no matter where or what they are in…
Best Regards,
Bill:lol:
Thank you so much for that inforamtion, going to check it out…
Best Regards,
Bill