Digital Creations Not Normally Done in SW.

Diamond in the Raw

By Richard Williams  Jan, 18th 2011.

    Unlike the title would indicate to many of you, a diamond in the raw would have been a lot easier to do with bad eyesight than a finished cut diamond.  In order to attract our young ladies into this digital language that we know as SolidWorks, I thought I would try my hand at making some jewelry. This is my first attempt at it and after all I am a very experienced person with this type of thing.  Over 45 years ago I spent a small fortune on something so small that I cannot even use.  That has to account for something in doing a project like this.

    The first step I took was to put away SolidWorks for now and start doing some research.  It is much easier to do this on the internet than to start looking in the Dewey Decimal Card Catalog in the library.  Do they still use them anymore?  Well soon enough I had a lot of information on my desktop with links to various web sites that showed me in pictures and cut angles how a diamond should be cut for the optimal amount of reflections.  Well I started with some pictures like those down below here and used a nuetral colored object to start cutting away with of the approximate size.   The diamond cut in the middle is the "Ideal Cut" shape.  Too long no good.  Too short no good.  Just right great !  I really had to be careful here because one wrong cut would ruin this diamond.

    Well you already know that I know nothing about this subject, but I just want to show you that with a great program like this and some real luck in my corner I had to try.  Take a look at some of these screen shots.  I think it explains a lot better than what I can tell you here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now with that ground work laid let me show you what is possible even for a blind guy.

 

 

 

Trying to get the right presentation of the ring is not my strong point.  Some of those talented youngsters we see when their work is displayed on this teachers web site would be much better at it I'm sure.  But I do try and in order to show you the various facets and cut angles to this diamond I made a desperate attempt with various background scenes and the photo works add in to capture some of the glitter here.  This should let you know that it is possible to do and if I can do it those talented youngsters with good eyesight can do a much better job.  The real question here is do you think that these types of assemblies can capture the imaginations of some of the young ladies into MCAD studies?  I hope so because I am planning to do more of these little trinkets and I'm bound to get better at it.  Let us all hope for a much better 2011.  The Best to All of You.