Delcam will stage the European launch of the latest version of its award-winning ArtCAM JewelSmith CADCAM software at the Baselworld watch and jewellery to be held in Basle, Switzerland, from 3rd to 10th April. This new release offers improved ease of use, faster and more robust operation, and better interoperability with other software. ArtCAM JewelSmith is already established as the main design and manufacturing software for the bespoke jewellery industry and the new features in this release seem certain to consolidate its leading position.

"The feedback from our customers was that ArtCAM JewelSmith already offered the tools they needed for faster and higher quality design and manufacture of bespoke jewellery,'' claimed ArtCAM Development Manager Edward Powell. "While they felt that the key to the software's popularity was its ease of use, we were sure that we could provide further simplification. We have moved a long way towards making ArtCAM JewelSmith even easier to learn and use with the current release.''

The main change has been to the ArtCAM Project format that allows multiple components to be combined to create an intricate model. In earlier versions of the software, the models representing the individual components had to be kept as separate files. ArtCAM JewelSmith 2008 now allows multiple independent models, of differing size, resolution and materials, to be created within a single file.

In addition, a new Project Tree has been added to give an intuitive method of creating and manipulating the components within the overall design. This uses many of the standards and conventions of Windows Explorer to make learning and using the system straightforward and efficient. For example, components can be moved and copied between Projects simply by dragging with the mouse.

The new release also sees all the specific jewellery tools and wizards consolidated into the core of the product for the first time. Previously, many of these options existed as distinct programs and macros linked to the main software. The consolidation has allowed many of these functions to be re-written so that they now operate more quickly and more reliably.

The rendering within the software has been improved to enable higher-quality images to be generated for potential customers and retailers. The speed with which ArtCAM JewelSmith can prepare design proposals for client approval has always been a major benefit of the system. The ability to prepare superior visualisations of new designs will make it even more likely that the client will place an order.

For users that are new to machining, the new ArtCAM JewelSmith incorporates a step-by-step wizard that automates all the steps required to produce a finished piece with simple raster roughing and finishing toolpaths. It can be used for models created within the software, designs imported from other sources, or any of the 3D clipart library supplied with the software.

Users had also requested improved interoperability with other CAD systems to make it easier to accept models from clients using different software or to retrieve designs created with earlier programs. ArtCAM JewelSmith 2008 can now import models in a huge range of other formats, including Rhino, Alias Wavefront and SolidWorks, as well as the major generic file types such as IGES & STL.