Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:32 pm Posts: 410 Location: Colorado USA
Octonus just released version 3.0 of their DiamCalc software and it’s an amazing piece of work for just under $400. It’s a cut modeling program used primarily by the diamond cutting industry for planning rough and designing new cuts but it’s great for squeezing out every last bit of data from a Sarin scan and for doing DIY raytracing and cut analysis. For those without a Sarin you can build your own wireframe based on a photograph that you take under some controlled conditions or by using measurements from a lab and with a bit of practice it’s truly amazing what you can come up with. It’s a poor man’s Sarin machine and it’s the bleeding edge of modeling and analysis software. There’s a free demo that works only with marquise’s but that gives a good flavor for what it can do. Not so useful but very entertaining for a dealer, pretty useful for an appraiser, especially if you work with technically minded clients, extremely useful for a lab or a manufacturer.
"For those without a Sarin you can build your own wireframe based on a photograph that you take under some controlled conditions or by using measurements from a lab and with a bit of practice it’s truly amazing what you can come up with."
Neil, I've been using DiaCalc for several years, altering their "Report" format to suit my use. Would you please elaborate on the statement above? I've found that a simple "table gauge" can, with care, give amazing results.
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:44 pm Posts: 209 Location: Dallas, Texas
Russians invented everything, no not likely?
If you want to try some share ware at a fraction of the Russian pricey software which was developed in the USA over twenty years ago. Then do a Google search of GemCad. Or you can try it for free for 30 days by going to www.gemcad.com The original program was developed by Robert Strickland. As you can see from the results of the Google search there are thousands of patterns, ray traces showing light leakages, etc. I use this wonderful program to enter the deminsions of gemstones as well as diamond cuts to show light leakages on my appraisal workproduct worksheets. w
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:32 pm Posts: 410 Location: Colorado USA
Hi Charlie,
Take a faceup view of the stone and use that photograph as a background image as you build the wireframe. You can adjust the wireframe to match up to the facet junctions and then swap out the background when you're done to something neutral so you can see it better. If you enter some known variables, like the diameters or table size and get the girdle from observation since it's not part of your picture and you can get the rest like the crown angles, star length, lgl, etc. It takes a bit of practice but it actually goes fairly fast when you get it down.
Gemcad is a fine product, but significantly slower, at least for me.
Neil
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