A calibrated layout is a parcel built to a specific design: stones selected and matched to each seat in a piece, sealed in order, and numbered so they arrive ready to set. For anything with graduated pavé, a tapered band, or a repeated motif across a collection, it removes the slowest step in the workshop.
It also removes the step where a setter, under time pressure, decides a stone is close enough.
What to send
The CAD file. STEP, IGES, 3DM or STL all work. What we take from it is the seat diameter and depth at every position, which is more reliable than a written schedule because it cannot be transcribed wrongly.
A stone schedule, if you have one. Position, quantity, target diameter. Where this disagrees with the CAD, tell us which one governs — that single sentence prevents most of the back-and-forth on a first job.
The colour and clarity band. Not a single grade: a band. And say whether the layout must match an existing piece, because matching to something already made is a different and stricter problem than matching within itself.
Setting method. Micro-pavé, bead, channel, bezel. It changes the girdle thickness we want to leave and, in tight channels, the diameter tolerance we can accept.
State the tolerance
This is the field most often left blank, and it is the one that decides whether the layout works. A tolerance of ±0.02 mm is achievable and appropriate for micro-pavé. ±0.05 mm is comfortable for most bead setting. Asking for ±0.01 mm across several hundred stones is possible but expensive, and usually unnecessary — worth saying out loud before you specify it by default.
If you do not state a tolerance, a supplier will assume one. It may not be yours.
How the job runs
- Review. We read the CAD, extract the seat sizes, and come back with any conflicts — usually seats that are dimensioned tighter than the setting method needs.
- Sample layout. A small representative section, matched and sealed, sent for approval. On a first job this is worth the week it costs.
- Production. Cut to order where stock does not hold the range, then matched seat by seat.
- Sealing. Each position sealed and numbered to your schedule, with the layout map in the packet.
Expect three to five weeks from approved sample. Cutting to a size only you have asked for is the long pole; matching is fast once the goods exist.
Five briefing mistakes
- Sending only millimetre sizes with no tolerance. The single most common cause of a rejected first layout.
- Specifying a single colour grade instead of a band. At melee sizes a band is what can actually be held; a single grade invites a supplier to interpret.
- Not saying it must match an existing piece. Matching to an existing run must be designed in from the start — it cannot be added at sealing.
- Skipping the sample layout to save a week. It saves a week and risks the whole production run.
- Leaving the setting method out. The same seat diameter wants a different girdle for channel work than for micro-pavé.
Confidentiality
Designs sent to us are used to quote and produce your order and for nothing else. We do not show customers' CAD files to other customers and we do not put your pieces in our own marketing without written permission. If you would like that in a signed NDA before you send anything, ask — we will sign one.