What to check before you outsource jewellery CAD

Most jewellers choose a CAD supplier on price and portfolio, then discover the terms when something goes wrong. The questions below take ten minutes to ask and are worth asking of any supplier, including us. Our own answers are at the end of each section so you can compare them against whoever else you are considering.

What exactly may you do with the delivered file?

This is the question suppliers are vaguest about, and the phrase to watch is the difference between owning a file and being licensed to use it. A file delivered for one commission is not necessarily a file you may reproduce as a stock line, sell on, or hand to a different manufacturer next year.

Ask directly: may I recast this piece later? May I modify it? May I use it as the base for a variant I sell? Get the answer in writing before you pay, not after your customer asks for a second one in a different size.

Ours: once an order is paid and you approve the final work, you receive the delivered production files and the right to use them for the purpose commissioned. If your intended use is broader than the piece in front of you, say so at quotation stage and we will agree it explicitly rather than leave it ambiguous.

Who sees your customer, and your design?

If you are outsourcing, your customer's brief is leaving your building. For a retailer that raises two concerns: whether the customer's details are protected, and whether the designer can approach that customer directly next time.

Ask how communication is routed, whether the person modelling your piece ever learns who the client is, and what stops them contacting your customer afterwards. A supplier that cannot answer this has not thought about it.

Ours: clients and specialists never see each other. Briefs and messages are routed and moderated so identities stay protected in both directions, and specialists agree not to contact or identify clients outside the studio. Your relationship with your customer stays yours.

What counts as a revision?

Every supplier includes revisions. Almost none define them, and that is where disputes start. Thinning a shank is plainly a revision. Changing a solitaire into a three-stone is plainly a new design. The argument is always about the middle.

Ask how many are included, what counts as one, and what a scope change costs. Then make sure the answer matches what you have promised your own customer, because you are the one absorbing any gap.

Ours: quotations include up to two revisions unless stated otherwise, covering reasonable changes to the approved brief. New concepts or major scope changes are quoted separately rather than absorbed silently or refused at the last minute.

Who is accountable if it goes wrong?

If the person modelling your piece disappears, falls ill, or delivers something unusable a week before your customer's anniversary, who fixes it? On an open marketplace the answer is often that you do, by finding someone else and paying twice.

Ask who you are actually contracting with. There is a real difference between a platform that introduces you to an individual and a studio that takes the contract itself.

Ours: you contract with GetJewelDesigns, which is solely responsible to you for the service, pricing and delivery. We are not a marketplace or an intermediary between you and a third party. If a specialist cannot finish, that is our problem to solve.

What do you actually receive, and when?

• Which formats are included. STL for casting and printing, STEP where a manufacturer needs editable geometry, OBJ for renders and customer previews. Confirm which are in your price rather than assumed.
• What resolution, and whether it suits your caster. A mesh too coarse shows faceting on polished curves; too fine is a large file for no benefit.
• The delivery estimate in writing, before you commit to your customer's date. Ours is shown on the quotation, and most categories deliver an initial draft within five to seven days.
• Whether files are released before or after final approval, and how you download them.

How and when do you pay?

Ask when payment is taken, what happens if you cancel mid-project, and whether refunds are governed by a written policy or by goodwill. Ours: quotations are free and carry no obligation, work begins only after payment, and refunds are governed by a published refund policy rather than case by case.

The short version

Print this and ask it of every supplier you are considering: what may I do with the file, who sees my customer, what counts as a revision, who is liable if it fails, what exactly do I receive, and when do I pay. Any supplier worth using will answer all six without hesitating.