Pavé, Prongs & Cutters

10. Place the first gem pattern with Automatic Pave

Automatic Pave on the extracted surface: from the Top view, lay a line of 1.3 mm gems along the central axis, right-click to finish, and lock them in the command panel — they anchor everything that follows.

11. Add more gems and finalize the layout

Y symmetry on, add 1.2 and 1.0 mm sizes and click Automatic. Work one side (the mirror comes later), topping up borders with smaller stones, and Compute — any red gem just needs resizing or repositioning. Accept when the shell reads full.

12. Mirror and clean up the gem layout

Ungroup the gems, hide the solids, and keep only the finished side plus the central line (middle-click Invert Selection helps). Delete the rest, Mirror the survivors across Y, and show everything again — perfect symmetry without placing each stone twice.

13. Generate prongs for the gems

Automatic Pave again with surface and gems in their selectors. Prongs: diameter 0.6 mm, overgirdle and undergirdle 0.3 mm, manufacturing extension 0.5 mm, Y symmetry, Automatic — then add the outer prongs by hand, shrinking diameters where needed and deleting strays with the minus button.

14. Create cutters and complete the model

Cutters with the fourth preset, then Boolean Difference — metal first, cutters second. The turtle is complete and ready for rendering.

Tips for a clean result

• Symmetry drives the whole build — keep it in mind at every step, and work one side.
• Extract the gem surface slowly; a wrong face here distorts the whole pavé.
• Red gems mean resize or reposition before finalizing — never ignore them.
• Save before Boolean Union, Quad Remesh and Boolean Difference.
• Keep the reference transparent enough to see the model through it.
• Preview before committing remesh, pavé or prongs.