Advanced Basket

Advanced Basket

The Advanced Basket command is the free-form version of Basket. Where the base command builds a regular basket from a single set of parameters — one prong distribution, one upper rail, one lower rail — Advanced Basket treats the basket as a list of prongs and a list of rails, each one an independent item you can add, move, duplicate, mirror, edit or delete on its own.

Run the command and select one or more gemstones. Each selected gem gets its own basket, all sharing the same parameters.

The panel opens on the preset library, the same gallery you already know from the other gemsets: pick a saved basket, or click the pen icon to enter the parameters and design your own. Inside the parameters there are two tabs, Prongs and Rails.

Prongs

The Prongs tab is a list. Every prong in the list is a numbered card with its own color, and that color is used for its handle in the viewport, so you always know which card matches which prong on screen.

Prong presets

Above the list there is a row of Assets presets that lay out a whole set of prongs in one click: None, 4, 2-2, 4-V, 6, 3-3, 8 and so on. The row adapts to the shape of the stone — Round, Cushion, Pear and Oval have their own dedicated layouts, and the remaining shapes (Princess, Radiant, Asscher, Emerald, Baguette, Marquise, Heart, Trillion, Triangle, Calf, Coffin…) get a preset row built for their geometry, with the prongs already placed on the corners, tips or flat sides where a goldsmith would put them. On sharp shapes the presets even push the prongs at the points slightly outwards so they do not dig into the tip of the stone. Applying a preset replaces the current prongs.

Working with the list

• Add Prong: click the add button and then click on the gem outline in the viewport; the prong is created exactly where you clicked.
• Duplicate: copies a prong with all its parameters.
• Symmetry H / Symmetry V / Symmetry Quad: mirrors the prong across the horizontal axis, the vertical axis, or into all four quadrants. The mirror is geometric — it reflects the prong’s real point on the gem outline — so it stays correct on non-round stones such as Oval or Marquise.
• Edit: opens the individual editor for that prong.
• Delete: removes the prong.

You can also drag a prong directly in the viewport: each prong has a handle placed over its top, and a vertical handle at the gem centre controls the height of the whole set.

Common parameters

Below the list, the common parameters edit every prong of the set at once: Diameter, Height, Gem Inside, Over Girdle, Bottom Diameter, Rotation, Exp. Manufacturing, Bottom Inside, straight or curved, Inclination and Inclination Z, Bottom to Center and Tangent. Gem Inside is applied as a relative shift, so the per-prong corrections that the presets made (a prong pushed out of a sharp tip, for example) are preserved instead of being flattened. Two extra controls appear only when the set contains Double or Triple prongs: Separation, and External Inside for the exterior prong of a Triple.

Editing an individual prong

The individual editor is where Advanced Basket goes beyond the base command. Each prong has a Mode:

• Round: a plain circular prong.
• Custom: the prong section is a curve from your assets. You can choose a different Top Profile, and decide whether the Bottom Profile is round or the same custom curve.
• Offset: a V-shaped prong built from parameters instead of a curve, with Angle, Thickness, Length and Fillet defined separately for the top and the bottom profile.
• Double: a pair of prongs controlled as a single item, with a Separation slider.
• Triple: a pair plus an exterior prong that automatically touches the stone; Exterior Gem Inside pushes that middle prong in or out.
• Claw: a claw prong, shaped with Cap Distance, Cap Height, Tip Width and Tip Smoothness.

The rest of the individual parameters:

• Position: where the prong sits along the gem outline, as a normalized position, so you can place it with precision instead of dragging.
• Diameter and Bottom Diameter: the thickness of the prong at the top and at the base — set them differently for a tapered prong.
• Height: the total length of the prong.
• Gem Inside: how far the prong bites into the stone.
• Over Girdle: how much prong stands above the girdle.
• Rotation: rotates the prong section.
• Exp. Manufacturing: extra length added for production, exactly as in the base Basket.
• Straight / Curved: in curved mode, Inclination sets the outward bow in degrees and Inclination Z moves the belly of the curve up or down along the prong.
• Bottom Inside: where the base of the prong sits, from the gem centre (0) to straight under the top (1).
• Tangent: the prong faces the normal of the gem outline instead of the radial direction from the gem centre — the difference is visible on fancy shapes.

Rails

The Rails tab works the same way: a list of independent rails instead of the fixed upper and lower rail of the base command. You can add as many as the design needs.

• Add Rail: click the add button and then pick the height on the vertical line through the gem to place the rail.
• Add 1 Rail and Add 2 Rail: quick presets that replace the current rails with one or two rails at default positions.
• Each rail card can be duplicated, edited or deleted, and each rail has its own handle in the viewport to slide it up and down.

Editing an individual rail

• Mode: Round section or Custom Shape, taking the curve from your assets.
• Width and Height: the dimensions of the rail section.
• Under Girdle: the distance of the rail below the girdle plane.
• Rotation: rotates the rail section.
• Bend Height and Bend Rotation: bend the rail out of its plane and turn the bend around the stone, for rails that are not simple horizontal rings.
• Fillet Radius: rounds the edges of the rail.
• Rail Offset Y: shifts the whole rail sideways; 0 keeps it centred on the stone.
• Creation: Sweep or Revolve — the construction method used to build the rail.
• Profile Pos.: places the section Front or Side relative to the sweep direction.
• Mirror: mirrors the section curve.
• Gem size Percentage: the size of the rail relative to the stone, as a percentage.

Presets and defaults

The header of the panel carries the usual actions. Save stores the current basket in the gallery, so it becomes a preset you can apply to any other stone later — the preset keeps the prong and rail parameters and adapts them to the live gem. Save defaults stores the current basket as your starting point, so the next time you run the command it opens with your values; right-click the same button to delete them and go back to the factory values.