Trilogy Individual

Trilogy Individual

The Trilogy Individual command builds a different setting on each gem of a trilogy: the center stone gets a full tulip prong setting, and the two side stones get a rail running under their girdle. It is the gemset to use when the center stone deserves its own architecture and the sides only need a discreet band of metal to sit on.

It works on a Three Stones element. Run the command and pick one of the three gems: the whole set (center + two sides, plus the finger reference circle) is resolved from the group. If the gem you pick does not belong to a Three Stones element, the command asks you to select the three gems manually and works out which one is the center by their positions.

When the panel opens you land on the element library first: click one of the saved Trilogy Individual designs to load it, or click the pen icon to enter editing mode and build one from scratch.

Center stone: Setting

The first tab holds the tulip that grips the center stone.

• Mode: Choose between Round prongs and Claw prongs.
• Count: Number of prongs, 4 or 6.
• Diameter: Thickness of the prong wire.
• Gem Inside: How deep the prong bites into the stone.
• Height: Height of the tulip body.
• Move in Z: Raises or lowers the whole setting along the gem axis.
• Bulge width and Bulge Inside: Control the belly of the tulip — how wide it swells and how far it leans towards the axis of the stone.
• Extension for Manufacturing: Adds extra length at the bottom of the prongs for production. It only shows up when you switch from Rendering to Manufacturing mode in the Outliner panel.
• Rotation: Turns the whole setting around the axis of the center stone, which is how you distribute the prongs (45° puts four prongs on the corners, 90° crosses them to the other two sides). New pieces start at 45° for a round center and at 0° for the other shapes.
• Bulge close bottom, Bulge close top and Bulge spread: Three sliders, in percent, that shape the silhouette of the tulip — how much it closes at the bottom, how much at the top, and how far the bulge spreads.

When Mode is set to Claw, an extra block appears:

• Cap distance and Cap height: Position of the claw cap over the girdle.
• Tip width: Width of the claw tip.
• Tip length: Length of the straight tip. This one gates the whole claw — leave it at 0 and no claw is built.

Center stone: Ornament

The second tab adds a decorative element between the prongs of the tulip.

• Type: None, Union (an arch joining the prongs) or Leaf.
• Placement: Where the ornament goes — Y axis, X axis or Both.
• Diameter: Section of the ornament wire.

With Union selected:

• Attach position: Where along the prong the arch is anchored.
• Arch height: How high the arch rises.
• Tip inside: How far the tip of the arch reaches towards the stone.

With Leaf selected:

• Axis: Both axes (shared) uses one set of values for X and Y; Individual X / Y splits them so each axis can be tuned apart.
• Length, Tips aperture, Opening, Curvature position and Smooth: Shape of the leaf outline.
• Move in Z, Top Z and Bottom Z: Vertical placement of the leaf and of its two ends.
• Top inside, Bottom inside and Middle inside: How far the top, the bottom and the belly of the leaf lean towards the stone.

Side stones: Rail

The third tab is the single rail that runs under the girdle of the two side stones — they are always symmetric, so one set of values drives both. The editor is the same rail editor used by the Advanced Basket command.

• Mode: Round for a plain round section, or Custom Shape to sweep one of the closed profiles from your asset library (new pieces start on the Square rounded corners profile).
• Width and Height: Dimensions of the rail section.
• Under Girdle: How far below the girdle the rail sits.
• Rotation: Rotates the profile in its section plane.
• Bend Height and Bend Rotation: Bend the rail out of its plane.
• Fillet Radius: Rounds the edges of the rail.
• Rail Offset Y: Displaces the rail sideways.
• Creation: Sweep or Revolve — the method used to build the rail from its profile.
• Profile Pos.: Whether the profile is read Front or Side.
• Mirror: None or Mirror, to flip an asymmetric profile.
• Gem size Percentage: Percentage of the gem the rail wraps.

Visualization

Four toggles that hide parts of the piece while you work — Hide Center Gem, Hide Side Gems, Hide Center Setting and Hide Side Settings. They are view aids only: they are not saved and they do not change what is baked, so the whole piece is always computed on Accept.

Stones

The Stones expander carries the complete Three Stones set of parameters — shape, material, carats and distance above ring for the center stone, plus angle, rotation and rotation Y for the sides. While the panel is open the three document gems are hidden and drawn by the preview instead; nothing touches the document until you accept, and then the whole set is re-baked together with the setting.

Saving your work

The panel header carries the usual actions: Save defaults stores the current configuration as the starting point for the next run (right-click it to go back to the factory values), and the save button stores the current design as a named preset in the element library, with a preview image, so you can reuse it on any other trilogy.