The ‘Gemshape’™ ‘Facet Designer’

SCOPE
This program enables you to design a symmetrical stone and see its
optical performance in various lighting environments.
The basic concept is to design the radial proportions of the stone,
with arbitrary facet slopes. Once you achieve a pleasing design, you
can change the facet slopes for best optical results.
The program is limited in that it assumes all facets in the same row
are identical and evenly-spaced. It will not let you design odd-shaped
stones or those with different facets in the same row – such as cushion,
oval, pear and heart-shaped stones. However, such stones are
generally designed for shape appeal, not optical performance.

ABOUT the AUTHORS

Anton Vasiliev is a skilled faceter and an owner of the colored-
stone-cutting company LAL in Russia. He graduated in physics and
has published articles on gem optics and color measurement.
He is also a ‘rockhound’ and visits locations in search of specimens,
besides traveling worldwide to buy cutting rough.
Instruction manual by Bruce L. Harding, also a faceter and
‘rockhound’, and an engineer and mathematician who has also
published articles and won awards for gem cutting.
Another program by Anton Vasiliev defines the best combinations of
pavilion and crown slopes for different materials. It is an improvement
of “Faceting Limits” by Harding, Gems & Gemology, Fall 1975.

TERMINOLOGY
Different terms are used by various people, depending on their
training and trade. Based on many years of investigation, and study
from various sources, we use the following terms:
GIRDLE - the band around the perimeter of the gem
CROWN - the part of the gem above the girdle
PAVILION - the part of the gem below the girdle
TABLE - the flat top of the crown
CULET - the flat tip of the pavilion (if any)
BEZEL - the tapered part of the crown
MAIN FACETS - the major facets (kite-shaped on a brilliant)
BREAK FACETS - facets next to the girdle; used on a round stone to
‘break’ the edge into smaller parts. Many call them
‘girdle facets’. Diamond cutters call them ‘halves’.
STAR FACETS - the triangular facets at the top of a brilliant halfway
between the main facets.
GIRDLE FACETS - facets on the girdle itself, forming an edge which
consists of straight segments.
SLOPE - inclination of a facet from the girdle plane. We use
this term because there are so many angles on a
faceted gem. Military gunners call it ‘elevation’ to
avoid confusion/death.
INDEX - the angular location of a facet about the axis. This is
often measured in terms of teeth on a wheel called an
‘index gear’. Military gunners call it ‘azimuth’ to
avoid confusion.
STEP CUT - all facet edges parallel to the girdle plane

SPECIAL TERMINOLOGY IN THIS PROGRAM

Position is the radial location of the top of a row of facets, as
compared to that of the previous row.
Distance is the location of a facet from the center of the lower girdle
plane = the height setting for the author’s machines.
 How to use Gemshape’™ Facet Designer
Fig.0 shows how the screen appears when turned on: (shown)
Symmetry Order - set it to number of mains (8)
Gear - chosen by program for chosen symmetry (96)
Crown tab on top = crown design in process
(hit Pavilion tab to design pavilion, or hit Flip button)
Max. Slope = temporary slope of break facets (40.00)
Girdle tab on top = girdle design in process
Split = index of facets from mains (0)
Shift = index of next row of facets (0)
Facet Slope = slope of current facets (girdle = 89.00)
Slider - adjust Facet Slope (89 = OK for girdle)
Girdle Thickness - adjust girdle thickness (0.070)
Remaining data = list summarizing what has been done.

CONTROLS
You can tilt the image of the stone by clicking anywhere on the gem
and dragging, as shown by the black arrow in Fig.1. Restore it by
right-click for a message Reset to Initial Position - click on it.
To select an existing row of facets, click on one of that row’s facets
or its tab (blue arrows). These facets become magenta.
To create a new row of facets, click on New or on the top surface
(red arrows). If you make a new row accidentally, you can remove it
by right-clicking on the previous row tab; a drop-down menu will give
you an option Clear next Steps - click on it.
With Girdle selected, the slider indicated by the green arrow changes
Girdle Thickness. Otherwise it says Position and the number after it is
the radius to the facet tops in that row, relative to the radius of the
previous row (next steps will clarify this).
You can right-click on the gem to reset it to its original position.
You can change screen size with left mouse button at edges.

STARTING the CROWN of a ROUND BRILLIANT

You may not facet the girdle of a round stone; but here it makes the
girdle match the ‘break’ facets and be uniform width. Select Girdle
(black arrow) and divide the edge into halves by selecting ‘3’ at Split
(purple arrow); this looks bad until you complete Fig.2.
Select row ‘1’ (blue arrow) and split these ‘break’ facets also by ‘3’
(purple arrow). This means 3 notches of the index gear from the mains
(total teeth ÷symmetry ÷4 = 96÷8÷4 = 3).
These facets are the steepest, temporarily set at Max. Slope = 40.00
(red arrow). This can be changed later, but for now we are designing
the radial proportions without regard to slopes.
Adjust Position of the top of these facets to .78 (green arrows), this
will be the radius to the tips of the ’break’ and ‘star’ facets.

NEXT ROW of FACETS (MAINS)

On the previous screen, hit New and it will change to Tab 2 = 2nd row
of facets (blue arrow), which appear in magenta. These new facets are
at the same index, like a step-cut, but when you change Split from 3 to
0, (black arrow); they move to look like Fig.3.
You chose a radius to the tops of Row 1 (blue dots). The program
put the lower ‘meet’ perfectly at the girdle (red dot) because Auto was
ON (purple arrow), and shows the corresponding Facet Slope =32.95
(red arrow).
You can change Facet Slope later (see Fig.’s 8-11).
Leaving the Position slider at .78 will make the tops of the mains
(green arrows & dots) at 78% of the previous radius (.78 to the blue
dots in Fig.2); so table size will be .78 x .78 =.60.
 NEXT ROW of FACETS (STARS)
Click on New tab (blue arrow), which becomes Tab 3 = 3rd row. A
new row of magenta facets appears at the same index as Row 2, like a
step-cut, at a slightly lower slope.
To make these into ‘star’ facets you must shift them to halfway
between the ‘mains’ (Row 2). This is done at the Shift box (black
arrow) by selecting ‘6’ (total teeth ÷symmetry ÷2 = 96÷8÷2 = 6). This
gives the picture in Fig.4.
With Auto ON (purple arrow) the program has determined Facet
Slope = 18.46° (red arrow) for perfect facet meets at outer meets (blue
dots) and tip chosen by Position = 0.78 (green dot). You can override
this to choose a different facet slope later.

TABLE
To form the table at this time, as on a typical round brilliant cut, just
move the Position slider to 1.00 (green arrows); this makes the top of
the star facet the same as the top of the mains = forming the triangular
‘star’ facets shown in Fig.5. You may not be able to set Position
exactly at 1.00; accept 0.99 or 1.01; there is no Auto for this, and the
‘error’ is unimportant..
Sometimes you will accidentally hit New or the top surface to make
the table; instead you will get a new row of facets. If you didn’t want
this, hit the tab of the previous row of facets and right-click on it to get
the option Clear next Steps, as mentioned under ‘CONTROLS’.

CROWN DATA SUMMARY

At the bottom of the panel click on each row’s tab to see its facet
slope (blue arrows). Distance data are not important here.
1 = 40.0 2 = 32.9 3 = 18.5 Table = 0

PAVILION BREAK FACETS

Hit the ‘flip’ button (blue arrow) to turn the gem over, as shown in
Fig.6. The Pavilion tab comes to the top and you see all the data for
the first row of pavilion facets:
Row = 1, Split = 3, Shift = 0, break facets are magenta.
If you flip it over manually, as in Fig.1, it will be necessary to click
on the Pavilion tab (black arrow).
Choose the length of these facets by dragging the slider (green
arrow) to the corresponding radius. Here Position = 0.20 makes the
radial length of the breaks be 1.00 -.20 =.80 from the girdle.
The program assumed Max.Slope = 40.00 for these facets; it can be
changed later (Fig 8).

PAVILION MAIN FACETS

In Fig.6, hit New to create Row #2 (blue arrow) and change Split to
‘0’ (black arrow), which is where a main facet should be. Because
Auto is ON (purple arrow), the tips just touch the girdle and the tops
set by Position for Row1. For the Max.Slope = 40.00 assumed by the
program, it shows the corresponding Facet Slope = 38.92 (red arrow).
Culet size can be adjusted with the Position slider (green arrow). In
this example the culet size is 0.2 x 0.2 = 0.04 (= 4%)
.
CHANGING FACET SLOPES - as a GROUP
You can change the slope of all facets together by changing
Max.Slope (near top of panel) (radial proportions stay the same – see
Initial Position). This is usually done to maintain design proportions
while adjusting for RI of different materials.
Pavilion and crown slopes can be adjusted separately to get the
optically best combination for each material and proportions.
 ADJUSTING SPECIFIC SLOPES
This page is not necessary or of interest to many users.
Most facet designers use radial proportion, which is very easy to do
with this program. Those who wish to specify facet slopes without
concern for radial proportions will find it necessary to use the methods
shown here.

CHANGING THE TOP ROW

It is simple to impose a specific slope on a row with none above it,
such as the mains on the brilliant-cut pavilion in Fig.8. Here we still
have Position =.20 (green arrow) but decide that we want a slope of
40.75° in Row2. Select Row2 (red arrow) and adjust Max.Slope (blue
arrows) until Facet Slope (red arrow) attains the desired value. Auto
stays ON (purple arrow).
Do not adjust facet slope directly (black X’s); this will turn Auto
OFF and will get you into a mess (see Fig.10).

CHANGING A MIDDLE ROW

Fig.9 shows what happens when you do the same thing but there is a
row above the one you are changing. By changing the slope of Row2,
Row3 also changes to maintain the Position =.78 which was set for it
in Row2. Here we changed Row2 to 34.5°, but Row3 is now 19.5°
(black arrows) vs. its value of 18.5° in Fig.5. Auto is still ON (purple
arrow).
If you were to watch the gem straight-on (by Reset to Initial
Position) as you were doing this, you would see no changes. This is
because Position has not been changed and Auto ensures that the
slopes change together to maintain proper meets

CHANGING SLOPES INDEPENDENTLY

As shown in Fig.10, you can change the slope of crown Row2 (red
arrows) directly by moving its slider and up/down keys (blue arrows)
to obtain the desired value. The facet tilts about the blue line. Here
the slope was decreased to 30.40°: the lower tip (red dot) moved
upward and Auto went OFF.
The slopes of lower facets do not change (Max.Slope is still 40.00°),
but higher facets change proportionally. Data summary for Row3
(black arrows), shows that its slope has changed from 18.5 to 16.8.
The lower facets do not meet correctly because the slopes of Rows 1
and 2 conflict with the Position value

ADJUSTING Position TO FIX MEETS

To fix this so that the tips of the mains (red dot) move back to the
girdle, go to the previous row (blue arrow) in Fig.11 and move the
Position slider (red arrows) to get the best fit. The red and blue dots
will move together (green arrows). Position, in this case, became 0.84
(=84% of girdle radius to star tips).
Select Row2 again and click Auto ON (not shown). This will make
a fine adjustment of Facet Slope (to 30.45°) for a perfect meet at the
girdle.
Because Position, in Row1, is now 0.84 for star tips, and Position, in
Row2, is still 0.78, the table radius will be .84 x.78 =.65, or 65% table
size. You can change this back to 60% by changing Position, at Row
2, to .60 ÷.84 = .71, but the star slope (Row3) will then become 20.1°.
This can be quite confusing.

It is easiest to design by radial proportions and then adjust

Max.Slope until you get the slope you want in a certain row – usually
the mains, which are most important to optical behavior.
 VIEWING the GEM
Hit View in the Menu Bar of the control box, then Image. Turn off
Edges (black arrow); you rarely want to see them. Then hit N. of
Reflections (blue arrows). This means that you are seeing light
refracted from the gem by that number of first reflections within the
stone.
Select 12 reflections (red arrow) for accurate analysis, especially
with views oblique to the table
Successive emissions get rapidly smaller, so using only 4 reflections
gives a fair illustration when viewing nearly perpendicular to the table
and speeds up the Animation option.

PARAMETERS
Under Image there is another feature labeled Parameters (green
arrow), which shows the box at the bottom of Fig.12. The Weight/Size
tab shown here lists materials by density; it also shows various data for
a 10mm stone = weight in carats, depth of crown, pavilion, and total
stone in millimeters.
A line is provided, at upper left, which you can move and stretch
from one point to another to measure distance, such as table size; but
you must reset the gem to ‘Initial Position’.

CHANGING GEM MATERIAL

The Parameter box has two options: you can find the material by
specific gravity using the Weight/Size tab or by refractive index using
the Optic tab. Fig.13 shows the Optic option with ‘1.77 Corundum’
selected.
This is the same gem cut as Fig.12 - just different material! The
dark area at 4 o’clock is mostly light from behind, but not all - use
red/blue sphere at ‘SPECIAL LIGHTING OPTIONS’

RAY TRACING
When you select Image/RayTracing, you get the Map of
Illumination box shown in Fig.14, which has many features.
The illustration is a sphere with the gem at its center. The spots are
areas of light sources which are reflected by the gem to the viewer’s
eye (at intersection of red lines, marked ‘0’).
The shaded sphere shown is the lighting used in the previous
illustrations; it is chosen by the far left sphere icon (red arrow).
You can rotate the sphere, by dragging it (black arrow), to see more
dots. You can see the dots more clearly by selecting full screen option
at the upper right corner (green arrow) or by re-sizing the box with the
mouse at its sides or corners
You can move the light around the sphere by dragging it with the
right mouse button. This is handy with tri-color lighting (next) to see
exactly where rear light is coming from.

SPECIAL LIGHTING OPTIONS

The red/blue sphere icon shows effects with a sphere which is red in
front and blue in back; this shows you if reflections are coming from
front or rear sources (not shown here).

The red/green/blue striped sphere (icon at blue arrow) yields the

illustration of Fig.15. It divides front light into three concentric zones
(red arrows) which you can adjust. This shows you just where the
reflections of front light are coming from. Black spots are ‘light’ from
behind. This concept is used in the ‘GilbertsonScope’. You can move
the light around the sphere to learn exactly where spots by rear light
are coming from.
 LIGHT MAP
The far right sphere icon (blue arrow) displays the LightMap
options, with which you can do the following:
- color front and back hemispheres (purple arrow)
(slider at bottom of Back adjusts brightness of background),
- provide an environment picture (blue arrows),
- show viewer’s head and choose its size (red arrows),
- show viewer’s body (green arrows).
In Fig.16 we chose an environment picture with large areas of a few
contrasting colors, such as this one of desert and sky, and also chose a
contrasting background.
Click on the viewer’s head (red arrows) so that it turns black, and
select Head Radius of 10°-15° (the angle from the eye to the side of
the head at typical viewing distance) using slider at bottom. Rays seen
in spots on the head will be obscured by it.
You can click on the viewer’s body (green arrow) so that it turns
black; this will also obscure some rays.
The color areas are scattered about the crown of the gem. Black
ones are reflections of the viewer; they enhance the gem’s appearance
(turn head and body off and compare)!

LIGHT GRADATION
Another feature on the LightMap options is light gradation (red
arrows). Fig.16 used Const. Fig.17 uses Cos: the light source dims
toward the horizon. The red arch at the middle red arrow illustrates
light intensity as a cosine wave – from 0 at either horizon to 1 directly
overhead. Some think that this is the most realistic simulation of real
overall lighting.
Two more choices are cos2, and cos4, which simulate more severe
darkening toward the horizons.

ANIMATION
If you select the Animation option under Image, you must choose
one of the options listed – each gives similar but different graphic
results. The stone is wobbled in a ‘figure-8’ pattern which passes
through the ‘straight-on’ position at the crossover point. This shows
the dynamic appearance of the gem, which is perhaps its most
important factor but which is difficult to express in quantitative terms..
Tracing = real-time; too slow for some computers
PATTERNS
The following store 100 pictures and play like a movie;
Diamond specialists concern themselves with reflections seen by Close LightMap while processing these for faster result
close viewing – where a dark circle simulating a viewer’s head causes Polygon = fastest, top quality picture. USE THIS
certain dark patterns which may be considered to indicate ‘ideal’ JPG = good color but smeared edges
cutting. The most common is ‘Arrows’ seen when looking into the BMP = fast, good color & images; requires large memory
table. Special viewers, such as ‘FireScope’™ and ‘IdealScope’™ GIF = slower than .jpg and poorer color but sharp edges
show these with controlled lighting/viewing conditions called
‘structured lighting’.
Figure 19 uses an environment of Const white light, made with the
LightMap. This diamond has 40.7° pavilion and 34.5° crown mains
with 80% pavilion break facets and 54% table.
Head Radius is set at 15°; this is the angle from the gem to one eye
and the same side of the head at about 8” viewing distance (black
arrows). The body is not included. There are many circles of dots
inside the head circle; these sources are obscured and cause the dark
areas seen in the gem pattern.
Drag the Head Radius slider and see the pattern change as dots
move in or out of the head circle. Or select pavilion mains (blue
arrow) and push the Max.Slope up/down buttons (purple arrow); you
will see the major significance of pavilion mainfacet slopes (red arrow)
on the gem’s optics as you do this.