Basket

Basket

The Basket command is designed to quickly and efficiently create a customized basket setting for any gemstone. The command panel is divided into two tabs: Prongs and Base Rail.

Start by selecting one of the basket designs available in the RhinoArtisan gallery, or if you prefer to modify the existing design, click the pen icon to enter editing mode. Clicking the edit button will open the command panel for this tool in the Artisan panel, allowing you to customize the basket to your specifications.

Prongs Parameters

The factory values and saved styles are sized for a 5 mm stone and scale to the stone you select, so a style keeps its proportions on a 1.5 mm or a 9 mm stone. Your saved defaults and baskets you edit keep their exact values.

In the viewport, the gumballs on the first prong (or the first prong of a pair) control its diameter and, in green, the height of its tip over the girdle.

In the Prongs Parameters section, you have comprehensive control over the design and placement of the prongs:

• Prong Distribution: Choose the number of prongs and how they are arranged around the gemstone.
• Prong Mode: Select the type of prong. The combo offers six entries:
  • Circle: one round prong per position.
  • Double: a pair of round prongs at each position. The pair is slid along the girdle until the tops of the two prongs touch, so there is never a gap between them.
  • Triple: a Double with a thinner third prong in the middle, on the position’s radial line, touching both.
  • Claw: a sculpted claw that wraps over the girdle (see the claw options below).
  • Double Claw: claws in pairs, following the same rule as the round Double.
  • Custom: a custom section, defined by curves in your assets, which can be edited to fit your design needs.

• Prong Dimensions: Adjust the diameter of the prongs at both the top and bottom, and set the height of the prongs.
• Gem Inside: Define how much of the gemstone is covered by the prongs to ensure a secure fit.
• Over Girdle: Control the height of the prongs relative to the girdle of the gemstone.
• Bottom Rail Inside: Adjust how far the bottom of the prong sits inside the lower rail.
• Prong Rotation: Turns the prong section. Only shown for Custom prongs, because turning a round prong changes nothing.
• Cap Bump: Adds a small bump on top of round and custom prongs.
• Overlap (Double, Triple and Double Claw): With 0, the prongs of each pair just touch at their tops; a larger value makes them cross into each other by that amount. Each position still gets a single support post below the pair.
• Expansion for Manufacturing: If you switch from Rendering mode to Manufacturing mode in the Outliner panel, this feature adds extra length to the prongs to accommodate for adjustments during the manufacturing process. So you can develop the basket to be shown to your customers and with just a click you will get it ready for production. In Manufacturing mode, claws are built as round prongs, so a Double Claw comes out as a round Double.
• Prong Style: Choose whether the prongs should be straight or bent. The curvature is determined by the diameter of the lower rail and the gemstone’s girdle.
• Claw prong options: When the Claw section is selected, the Rotation and Cap Bump fields are replaced by claw-specific controls: Gem Inside and Height for the claw tip, and Tip Direction and Smoothness sliders to shape the curve of the claw.
• V Prongs: On stones with sharp corners (princess and trillion corners, the tips of pears and hearts, the tips of a six-prong marquise), replaces the round prong at each corner with a V that wraps it. The V is built from the stone’s own outline, so its notch fits whatever the proportions. Gem Inside sets how much it bites; V Thickness and V Arm Length set its size (the panel always shows the value being built, in proportion to the prong diameter until you change it). The toggle only appears when the stone’s layout has a corner, and it works with round prongs (Circle, Double, Triple); the other positions keep their type. In Rendering mode the V is capped with the Cap Bump bevel; in Manufacturing mode it is flat.
• Post Support: Add support for an earring post, if required — choose None, Single, or Double. When Single or Double is selected, you can control the width and height of the post support.

Rails Parameters

In the Base Rail tab, customize the upper and lower rails, each with its own Enabled toggle to turn it on or off:

• Rail Section: Define the shape of the rails, similar to the prongs, with options for circular or custom sections.
• Width, Height, and Rotation: Set the width and height of the rail’s cross-section and rotate it as needed to fit your design.
• Under Girdle (upper rail) and Move in Z (lower rail): Fine-tune how far the rail sits relative to the gemstone’s girdle.
• Gem size percentage: A slider on each rail that controls how much of the gemstone the rail covers, for precise control over the fit.
• The Chamfer toggle in the upper rail options creates an internal chamfer on the upper rail, making it easier to prepare the seat for the gemstone. This feature helps optimize the stone setting process by allowing for a more precise and efficient fit within the basket. When enabled, a Chamfer Offset field appears to fine-tune it.