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Diamonds and Gemstones

Pave

​ Pave

With this command, you can place gems freely with your mouse, with precision and flexibility. It’s especially useful when setting stones on organic or other complex designs.

The command is divided into four collapsible panels: Selection, Parameters, Info and Advanced.

Selection

This panel holds two selectors:

  • Geometry: the object where the pavé will be created. It accepts a surface, polysurface, mesh or SubD and is required before you can start placing stones.
  • Gems: optional. Pick gemstones that already exist in the document and they are absorbed into the pavé, so they are taken into account for collisions and for the prong calculation. Only round gems can be absorbed.

Parameters

This panel has two tabs, one for the gemstones and another for the prongs.

Gems

Three buttons drive the placement of the stones:

  • Add: pick points on the object to drop gems, one at a time. A Flip option is available in the Rhino command line to invert the orientation of the stone. Press Enter to finish.
  • Delete: pick the gems you want to remove.
  • Edit: pick a gem and a gumball appears on the object so you can slide it over the surface. While the gumball is active the command line offers Gem Size, Increase and Decrease so you can also resize that single stone.

Two values control the stones themselves:

  • Gem Size: diameter, in millimetres, of the gems that will be placed next.
  • Min Distance: minimum separation kept between neighbouring stones.

Prongs

This tab works like the Dynamic Prongs tool. Four buttons are available:

  • Add: place prongs manually by picking points.
  • Delete: pick the prongs to remove.
  • Automatic: let RhinoArtisan calculate and place the prongs for the whole pavé.
  • Edit: pick a prong and move it to a new position.

Type selects the prong profile:

  • Simple – a single Diameter value.
  • Advanced – three diameters along the prong: Top, Base and Bottom.

The HEIGHT section contains:

  • Over Girdle: how far the prong rises above the girdle of the stone.
  • Under Girdle: how far the prong extends below the girdle.
  • Extension for Manufacturing: extra length added at the base of the prong so it can be anchored into the piece for manufacturing.

Info

This panel reports the Number of gems currently placed and their total weight in Carats, a useful reference while you design.

Advanced

Here you will find three buttons and a symmetry selector:

  • Swap Display Mode: disabled by default. When enabled, gems are drawn as 2D circles at their base instead of as real gemstones.
  • Show Gem Sizes: enabled by default. Shows a bubble with the diameter in millimetres on every gem.
  • Undo: removes the last gem or prong you placed. If a symmetry is active, the mirrored copies are removed as well.
  • Symmetry: set to None by default. Choose X, Y or X and Y to mirror every stone or prong you place across the corresponding axis. The section curves of the active symmetry planes are displayed in the viewport as a guide.

When you confirm your changes, the gems are grouped together (and the prongs in a second group) and listed on the Outliner toolbar.