Gemstone Design Styles in ProFacet

This guide outlines three primary design styles used in ProFacet. Each style emphasizes different cutting constraints and offers unique advantages depending on whether you want reproducibility, fluid exploration, or full geometric freedom.

Style I: Angle + Depth

Style I leans on angle plus depth cutting. It is less flexible than other methods, but it excels when you want to recreate existing designs that are documented with explicit depths or perform a fast floating facet check.

set name "Hearts and Arrows I"
set gear 96

P1 3 @ 41.0 : cp xx 8
G1 3 @ 90.0 : size
P2 0 @ 39.8 : .753
C1 3 @ 50.0 : .700
C2 0 @ 38.0 : .547
C3 6 @ 26.0 : .4383
T 0 @ 0 : .207

Style II: Angle + Point

Style II combines angle plus point cutting, making it far more flexible and fluid than Style I. The primary ProFacet UI emits cuts in this style, and it is a great fit for porting existing diagrams while keeping the option to experiment.

set name "Hearts and Arrows II"
set ri 2.46
set gear 96

P1 3 @ 41.0 : cp xx 8
G1 3 @ 90.0 : size
P2 0 @ 39.8 : gp
C1 3 @ 50.0 : mp(P1, P2) +girdle
C2 0 @ 38.0 : gp
C3 6 @ 26.0 : mp(C1)
T 0 @ 0 : mp(C2)

Style III: Point + Point

Style III— the fully fluid model—relies on point plus point cutting. Only one pavilion angle and one crown angle are specified; every other facet is derived from intersections of calculated points. It is indispensable for designs such as checkerboards where point-to-point control is required.

set name "Hearts and Arrows III"
set ri 2.46
set gear 96

P1 3 @ 41.0 : cp xx 8
G1 3 @ 90.0 : size
P2 0 : ep(edge(P1:3, P1:9), 0.76): gp
C1 3 @ 50.0 : mp(P1, P2) +girdle
C2 0 : ep(edge(C1:3, C1:9), 0.13) : gp
C3 6 : ep(mp(C2), mp(C2,G1),0.6) : mp(C1)
T 0 @ 0 : mp(C2)

The Optimizer

The optimizer can be used with all three styles. Style III is especially well-suited for optimization sessions because its point-to-point architecture can preserve facet counts, something that is difficult—or sometimes impossible—with Styles I and II.

Mixing Styles

Nothing prevents you from mixing these approaches inside a single project.