FINE JEWELRY MANUFACTURING & CAD DESIGN
Jewelry Micro-Pave Diamond Setting & CAD Vector Guide
Micro-pave is the art of encrusting precious metal surfaces (rings, pendants, watch bezels) with small melee diamonds ($0.8\text{mm} - 2.0\text{mm}$ diameter) so tightly that minimal metal is visible. In modern jewelry production (RhinoJewel, MatrixGold, 5-axis CNC milling, DLP 3D wax printing), vector curves define the exact centerlines, pilot drill seats, and shared bead prongs to ensure flawless optical brilliance without stone girdle collisions.
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Calculate diamond stone seat diameters, bead prong overlaps, pilot hole depths, and casting shrinkage. Launch the free Jewelry Micro-Pave Diamond Setting & Prong Layout Calculator →
1. Micro-Pave Architectures & Vector Rules
| Pave Style | Side Cutout Profile | Prong Formation | Key CAD Vector Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| French V-Split Pave | Triangular V-Cut at 45° | 4-Prong Shared Beads | Closed V-notch side vector profiles; 0.10mm girdle gap |
| Bead & Bright-Cut | Polished flat metal borders | Beads pushed from channel wall | Parallel border offset vectors ($\ge 0.25\text{mm}$ wall thickness) |
| Castle / U-Cut Pave | Square U-notches | 2 or 4 prongs per stone | Arc filleted bottom notches to prevent stress cracking |
| Fishtail Pave | Diagonal engraved facets | Integrated corner beads | Diamond chevron guideline vectors for master setter hand-finishing |
2. Critical Tolerances for Jewelry 3D Wax & Casting
- Girdle-to-Girdle Gap: Never design diamonds touching edge-to-edge ($0.00\text{mm}$) in CAD. Always maintain a nominal $0.08\text{mm} - 0.12\text{mm}$ gap. Otherwise, alloy shrinkage during lost-wax casting will force diamond seats to overlap, chipping the stones during setting.
- Pilot Drill Holes: Pilot holes should be modeled at 65% to 70% of stone diameter. This allows casting investment to wash out easily while guiding the setter's hart ball burr with zero slippage.
- Casting Shrinkage Scale: Always scale final vector models by $+2.5\%$ for 14K gold, $+2.8\%$ for 18K gold, and $+1.5\%$ for 950 platinum prior to CNC wax milling or 3D DLP printing.
Transform Sketches into 1:1 CAD DXF Vectors
Upload hand-drawn jewelry sketches or raster logos. SpotItLive converts them into clean, closed vector DXF loops with accurate arc tangents for CAM and milling.
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