In this tutorial, we will show you in a few simple steps how to use a relief and add a dome base to it, then hollow it to a given thickness and still have the dome shape as the back relief.  Of course a dome shape is just the beginning, you can always make changes to the backround and still get the same effect resulting in much more interesting (and in the case of jewellery designs more economical models) designs.

We will be using ArtCAM Jewelsmith 9 for this demonstration but the steps are identical to other earlier or later versions of ArtCAM.

It is important to follow the steps as presented here to get the same results.  The relief you use is not important, what we use in this demonstration is a 3D Model Club relief, but you can always try the same thing using reliefs created from vector art you create.

Ok, Here we go.

Step 1.  Select a relief to work with. In this tutorial we will be using a standard 3D Model from the 3D Model Club collection.  Note you can follow the same steps if you are working on a relief created strictly from vectors instead of scanned data.

From the Back Relief Tools Palette on the left Click the Offset Composite to Back button (first button on the palette

Select Offset Distance and then click OK.

Creation of the Back relief.  In this instance we use 2mm as the relief offset.

Switch back to the Front Relief and 2D View.

Create a new layer to place the dome basae, rename the layer to Dome

Make sure you are on the Dome layer From the Vector Tools create an oval vector using the ellipse tool.

Select the vector you just created and click on F12 to bring up the Shape Editor. Select the Dome Shape from the editor and give the dome the desired angle.  In this instance we use angle 28.  Click the Add button and wait for ArtCAM to calculate the relief.

Close the Shape Editor. 

Click the 3D View, you will see now the 3D relief of the dome base.

Make sure you are on the Dome relief. 

On the Reliefs palette click the Duplicate button. (4th button from the left). A new layer will be created called Dome copy.

Then click on the  next button on the right, Transfer Opposite side.  This will make a copy of the dome relief to the back relief, so it will be removed from the final mesh, that we will create in the next steps. You can see below what the back relief looks like with the dome shaped background.

Click back to the Front relief and then click the Mesh Creator tool from the Relief Tools Palette. 

Select required Tolerance.

Make sure you select / tick the Back Relief so the Mesh gets created using the back relief we made in the earlier steps.

Click on Create Triangles.

You can then save the Triangles, or add to the project.

Rotate the Mesh to see the results.

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We hope you enjoyed this handy tutorial.  If you have any comments or suggestions or if you notice any mistakes or omissions please feel free to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If there are any other tutorials you would like to see, just drop us a line and we will try to accommodate you.