Jewelry CAD and rendering glossary

Settings and stones

Prong (claw)

A small metal tip that holds a stone in place. Four and six prongs are common on solitaires.

Bezel

A rim of metal around the stone's edge that holds it all the way round.

Pavé

Many small stones set close together, so the surface looks paved with stones.

Halo

A ring of small stones around a center stone, which makes it look larger.

Center stone

The main stone of a ring or pendant, usually the largest.

Side stones

The smaller stones beside or around the center stone: on the shoulders, the band or a halo.

Gallery

The part of the setting under the center stone, seen from the side.

Shank

The band of a ring, the part that goes around the finger.

Shoulders

The parts of the shank on each side of the center stone.

Milgrain

A row of tiny metal beads along an edge, for a vintage look.

Crown

The top part of a cut stone, above the girdle.

Girdle

The outer edge of a cut stone, at its widest point.

Pavilion

The lower part of a cut stone, below the girdle.

Culet

The point, or small facet, at the bottom of the pavilion.

Shape

The outline of a cut stone: round, oval, cushion, emerald, pear, marquise, princess, radiant, Asscher or heart.

Metals and finishes

Karat

The gold content of an alloy, out of 24 parts: 18K is 75% gold, 14K is about 58.3%.

Yellow gold

Gold alloyed with silver and copper, keeping gold's warm color.

White gold

Gold alloyed with white metals, often rhodium plated for a bright white color.

Rose gold

Gold alloyed with more copper, which gives it a pink tone.

Platinum

A dense, naturally white precious metal, popular for engagement rings.

High polish

A mirror-like finish on metal.

Brushed finish

A satin finish made of fine parallel lines, softer than high polish.

Hammered finish

A surface of small dents that catch the light.

CAD and rendering

CAD

Computer-aided design: modeling a piece in 3D software such as Rhino, MatrixGold, JewelCAD or 3Design before it's made.

.3dm

Rhino's file format. MatrixGold and RhinoGold also save .3dm files.

Render mesh

The triangle mesh Rhino stores to display and render surfaces. Files saved with Save Small leave it out.

Viewport

A window showing the model in a CAD program, such as front, top, right or perspective.

Shaded and Rendered modes

Viewport display modes that show surfaces with color and light instead of wireframe lines.

Render

An image computed from a 3D model, with materials and light, made to look like a photograph.

Photorealistic

Looking like a photograph of the real object.

AI render

A render made by an AI model from a CAD image or 3D file, without setting up materials and lights by hand.

HDRI

A high dynamic range panoramic image used to light a 3D scene and give metal its reflections.

Caustics

Patterns of light focused through a stone or reflected off metal. Hard to render, and part of what makes gems sparkle.

Ray tracing

Rendering by following rays of light through a scene. KeyShot, V-Ray and Blender's Cycles work this way.

¾ view (three-quarter view)

A camera angle between the front and the side, the most common angle for showing a ring.

Turntable

A render or video of a piece turning through 360 degrees.

STL

A mesh file format used to 3D print waxes and resins.

Wax or resin print

A printed model of the piece used for lost-wax casting.

Refine (HeyGema)

HeyGema's way to make creative variations of a render by describing them in words. Each variation is a new version and the original is kept.