Trilogy Trellis

Trilogy Trellis

The Trilogy Trellis command builds the classic woven trellis around a trilogy: four prongs that are born at the inner corners of the side stones and descend to the ring, four more that start at the corners of the center stone, cross over it and end as the outer prong of the opposite side stone, and a rail under the girdle of each gem. The whole thing is one single joined piece — prongs, rails and shank together.

The command works on a Three Stones element. Run it and pick one of the three gems: the set is resolved from its group, including the finger circle it was baked with. If the picked gem does not belong to a Three Stones element, the command asks for the three gems manually and classifies them by position. There is no shape restriction — the prong anchors follow the girdle and corner layout of each gem.

The panel opens on the element library: click one of the saved Trilogy Trellis designs, or the pen icon to start editing.

Selection

The Selection expander holds the ring curve — the curve the shank prongs land on. It comes pre-filled with the finger circle baked into the Three Stones element, and you can unselect it or pick another curve; it must be below the gems. While no curve is selected, a Height value in the Shank Prongs tab places a default curve under the center gem instead.

Shank Prongs

The four prongs born at the inner corners of the side gems that descend to the ring.

• Height: Height of the default ring curve, shown only while no curve is selected.
• Diameter: Section of the prong.
• Gem Inside: How deep the prong bites into the girdle.
• Over Girdle: How far its grip tip rises over the girdle.
• Top Vertical: The straight stub under the tip.
• Bulge Start and Bulge End: The tangents at both ends of the run — how hard the prong dives away from the stone and how it arrives at the ring.
• Opening: The angle the pair of prongs opens as it descends.
• Middle Offset: Displaces the middle of the run.
• Cross Height: Raises or lowers where the prongs cross.
• Distance: Separation from the ring curve.
• Extension: Extra length added for manufacturing.

Bottom Profile — shank prongs

The cross-section where a shank prong lands on the ring. Only these prongs have a bottom, since the cross prongs grip a stone at both ends.

• Shape: Circle, Square or Custom. With Custom you pick the closed End Profile Curve the prongs end on.
• Width and Height: Dimensions of that section.
• Profile Start: Where along the prong the transition into the bottom profile begins.

Top Profile — all prong tips

How every prong tip grips its stone. It is one setting for the whole piece: it is edited here and it drives all the tips, the cross prongs included.

• Mode: Circle or Claw.
• Cap Distance, Cap Height, Tip Width and Tip Smoothness: The claw cap.

Cross Prongs

The four blend prongs born at the corners of the center gem that cross over the stone and end as the outer prong of the opposite side gem.

• Diameter and Extension: Section of the prong and the extra length added for manufacturing.

Center — where the prong is born, on a corner of the center gem girdle:

• Gem Inside: How far it digs into that girdle.
• Over Girdle: How high the grip tip sits over it.
• Top Vertical: The straight stub under the tip.
• Bulge Start: The tangent leaving it — how hard the blend dives.

Middle — the belly that crosses under the center stone. Each value is split into 1 and 2, one per crossing family, so the two prongs that cross can be tuned apart:

• Middle Inside 1 / 2: Shifts the belly horizontally.
• Middle Height 1 / 2: Lifts it.
• Middle Position 1 / 2: Slides it along the run.

Side — where the prong dies, climbing the outer axis of the opposite side gem:

• Side Gem Inside: How far it digs into that girdle.
• Side Over Girdle: How high its grip tip sits.
• Tip Length: The straight run below the girdle that the blend catches.
• Bulge End: The tangent arriving onto it.

The tips of these prongs are shaped by the Top Profile, which is shared with the whole piece and lives in the Shank Prongs tab.

Center Rail

The rail under the girdle of the center stone, with a toggle to turn it on or off.

• Mode: Circle or Custom Shape, the latter sweeping a profile from your asset library, shown with its preview.
• Width and Height: Section of the rail.
• Under Girdle: How far below the girdle it sits.
• Rotation: Rotates the profile.
• Chamfer and Chamfer Offset: An internal chamfer that makes it easier to prepare the seat for the stone.

Side Rail

The rails of the two side stones, with their own on/off toggle.

With Side Edition off they simply follow the Center Rail, and the tab says so. Turn it on and they get their own Mode, profile, Width, Height, Under Girdle, Rotation, Chamfer and Chamfer Offset — which is usually what a small side stone needs next to a much bigger center.

Visualization

Two toggles, Hide Center Gem and Hide Side Gems, get the stones out of the way while you shape the metal. Because the trellis is a single joined body, there is no way to hide the center or the side settings separately. The gems come back as soon as you accept or close.

Stones

The Stones expander is the full Three Stones editor — shape, material, carats, distance above ring and rotation for the center stone, plus angle and rotation Y for the sides. On Accept the whole set is re-baked together with the trellis.

Saving your work

Save defaults in the header stores the current configuration as the starting point for the next run (right-click it to restore the factory values), and the save button keeps the design as a named preset in the element library so it can be applied to any other trilogy.