Boolean Ring Project: Matrix 4.0 This tutorial guides the user through several Boolean operations using punches and other cutting surfaces to create the ring pictured at the right. The skills reviewed in this tutorial are:
Steps 1-12
Steps 13-33
Steps 34-47
Create a dome ring, size 6, using the rail shape #12 for the outer rail and “square” for the profile shape. Sweep the ring using Sweep 2. Draw an “L-shaped” curve in the Side View viewport, trim, and mirror it. Join both sides and create a closed curve. Extrude to create a custom punch and Boolean Difference the shape from the ring to create the split shoulders. Load an 8 mm X 6 mm Emerald-cut Diamond from the Gem Loader builder and place it at the top of the shank. Create a bezel for it. Then, Boolean Difference the bezel from the top of the shank. Extrude a cylinder for the top of the shank and Boolean Union it to the ring. Offset the circle curve 1 mm and extrude it to create a surface on which to set a channel. Split the circle to create a channel curve and use Gem Layout Uniform to lay the stones for the channel. Create the channel cutter in Channel Builder and Boolean difference it from the ring. Create a tube that extends through the cylinder on both sides and Boolean Difference it from the ring. Place a diamond (round, .07 CT) in each end of the cylinder. Split the ring down the middle and delete the half without design elements. Then, mirror the completed half and Join both sides. Insert the bezel from Job Bags and Boolean Difference it from the channels. Turn on the gem. Create a cutter to delete the bezel and collars from the finger hole.
Ring Rail Rail Library
Polyline Sweep 2
2D Scale
Trim
Profile Placer
Mirror
Gem Loader Bezel Builder Boolean Builder Circle Extrude Mandrel / Punch\ Cap Planar Offset
Split Plane and Cube Cutter
1 Start by creating the ring rail. Click on the Ring Rail tool from the Tools fly-out menu and select Size 6 from the drop-down menu. Click on GO to see the ring rail in the viewports.
2 Click on the Rail Library and select the Number 12 ring rail from the Profile Browser. Now, there will be 2 rails in the viewports:
3 To re-size the outer rail, select it and click on 2D Scale. At the Command line prompt “Origin Point”, position the mouse over the Through Finger viewport and press F4 on the keyboard. The next prompt reads “Scale factor or first reference point”. Move the mouse to the left of the ring and hold down the Shift key to engage Ortho. Click once. For the next prompt, “Second reference point”, move the mouse to the left. While doing so, the curve will be stretched in two directions (top to bottom and left to right). Click the left mouse button when there is approximately 1.7mm between the round rail and the dome rail at the sides. (Each grid line represents 1 mm.)
4 To add profiles for this ring, click on Profile Placer Builder, select the inner rail, and input it into the Line preview window in the builder. Then, click on the green preview window and choose the Square profile shape from the Profile Browser. Adjust the IC sliders so that the width of the profile curve is 5 mm and the height is 1.7 mm. Adjust the Position Along Curve slider to the 0-degree position so that the profile is at the 6 o’clock position on the ring rail.
5 Click on Set Profile to keep these settings. Then, click anywhere in the viewports to deselect the profile curve and begin adjusting the Position Along Curve slider once more. This will create a duplicate profile curve. Move it to 180-degree position in the viewports and scale it up to 5.75 mm high (or, the height that causes the profile curve to touch the outer rail) X 8 mm. Click on Set Profile.
Sweep 2, found in the Surface fly-out menu, to sweep the ring. When the 6 Click on Command line prompt reads “Select the rail curves”, click on each rail. Then click on the two profiles and press Enter on the keyboard. The Command line prompt reads “Select Seam Point to Adjust”. Make sure the Arrows (Seam Points) are both originating from the same part of the profile (top or bottom) and are both pointing in the same direction. If they are not, click
on one of the arrows at its origination point and, holding down the left mouse button, drag it around to the other side of the profile. This will usually cause it to point in the wrong direction. Approach it with the mouse, and an arrow pointing in the opposite (correct) direction will appear. Click once and move the mouse away from the arrows. The incorrect arrow will disappear so that the seam point arrows match. Press enter to continue.
Correct Seam Point Arrows (remember that the bottom profile is upside down):
Next, the Sweep 2 Rails Options dialogue box appears. Check Maintain Height, which forces the ring to be built to the width of the 2 profiles (as opposed to following the aspect ratio of the distance between the two rails). Also make sure that Closed Sweep is checked. Click OK to complete the sweep:
7 The first Boolean operation will create split shoulders for the ring. Click on the Cutting (Orange) layer to make it active. Using the Polyline tool found in the Curve fly-out menu, draw a line in the Side View viewport that starts just above the top of the ring and approximately 2 mm in from the edge of the ring. Extend the line on a diagonal towards the middle of the ring and click once end it about 4.5 mm from the bottom of the ring. Hold down Shift to turn on Ortho and continue the line to the right, past the center line. Click once to create an “L�-shaped polyline. Press Enter on the keyboard to end the Polyline command.
8 Turn OFF the layer color of the ring temporarily so that only the L-shaped curve is visible. Click on the Polyline tool to use it again. This time, still working in the Side View Perspective, begin the command by pressing F4 on the keyboard to indicate the start of the polyline. Hold down the Shift key to engage Ortho and extend a line straight down through the bottom of the “L” (A, below). Next, right-click on the Cutting layer color to select both of Trim command. Click once on the section of the “L” that the lines and click on the extends past the vertical line that was just drawn at F4 to trim it away (B). Press Enter to end the Trim command. A:
B:
Delete the cutting line and turn the layer color of the ring shank back on. Mirror command. With the cursor in the Side View 9 Select the “L” and click on the viewport, press F4 on the keyboard to indicate the start of the mirror plane. Hold down Shift to engage Ortho, and click the left mouse button when the copied curve is at the proper location.
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Turn on the End O-Snap and select the Polyline tool. Draw a line in the Side View viewport to connect the two “L’s” at the top. Then, right-click on the Cutting layer color to highlight all of the orange curves and click on curve.
Join to create one closed
11 Select the closed curve. Click on the Mandrel/Punch command from the Cutters flyout menu. Set up the Custom Punch as below (left), making sure that the “Both Sides” option is ON, the object is capped, and the extrusion distance is 15 mm. Click on GO.
12 Click on the Boolean Builder, which is found in the Tools fly-out menu. Select Boolean Difference. Select the ring, and click on IN below the Object Box to indicate it as the object to be cut. Then select the orange cutter and place it in the Cutter Box. Click GO to see the result:
Note: It is always a good idea to put models at key stages, like this one, into Job Bags. To place items into a job bag, select the object and click on the In Button beneath an empty Job Bag. Items will stay in a job bag until something else is saved over them. There is no way to “Undo� when something is accidentally saved over a Job Bag that is already in use, so make sure that an item in a Job Bag is not necessary (or is saved permanently somewhere else) before saving over it. Gem Loader builder from the Gems fly-out 13 To place the center gem, click on the menu and select the Diamond cut, Emerald shape, 8 mm X 6 mm stone. Double-click on the size entry to place it in the viewports (or, click once on the size entry and click on Load Gem. Either method yields the same effect). The gem will be placed at F4 in the viewports. In the Through Finger viewport, select the gem and, holding down Shift to engage Ortho, hold the left mouse-button down while moving the mouse straight up in space. Click once to place the gem in position.
Turn off the layer color of the ring shank so that it cannot be seen for the next step.
14 Click on Bezel Builder, which is found in the Settings fly-out menu, and input the gem into the Gem / Curve preview window. Adjust the bezel IC settings so that the height is 7 mm, the width is 1 mm, and the seat depth is 0.5 mm. Click on the arrow in the builder to access the Advanced Options. Set the seat angle to 20 degrees, the seat length to 0.6 mm, and the dome height to 0.3 mm.
15 Turn on the layer color of the ring shank so that it is visible again. To ease confusion, turn off the layer color on which the gem was placed (Gem 02 for emerald-cut stones). The bezel will now be used to cut out the center section of the ring. To do this, first select only the bezel and put into a job bag. It will be needed later. Now, click on the Builder and select Boolean Difference.
Boolean
16 Select the ring and insert it into the Object box. Then select the bezel and place it into the Cutter box. It will likely be necessary to turn on the AutoMove and Autoscale options for the Cutter (place a checkmark in the boxes beside the orange text) to ensure that the Boolean difference can be performed.
Two pieces will remain at the top of the ring following the operation. Select them both and delete them. 17 To create the tubes for the “shoulders” of the ring, work in the Through Finger viewport. Circle tool. Press F4 to indicate the center of the circle, then type in 2.25 to Click the indicate the radius of the circle, in millimeters. Make sure O-Snap and Grid Snap are both turned off. Move the circle as shown in the picture below. It should be placed just to the right of the Booleaned center, touching the finger rail. (All of the design elements will first be completed on the right-hand side of the ring and then copied to the left side.)
Extrude from 18 Working in the Looking Down viewport, select the circle and click on the Surface fly-out menu. To extrude the curve to both sides, type “b” into the Command line and press Enter on the keyboard. Type the distance “4.25” to indicate the millimeters for extrusion and then press Enter.
19 The top piece of the ring that protrudes from the tube will now be deleted. Working in the Through Finger viewport, select the Polyline tool and draw a closed curve that will represent the shape of a cutter to slice through the tip of the ring.
20 Select the curve and click on the Mandrel / Punch builder. Set up the custom punch as below, with the option “Both Sides� ON, the ends capped, and the extrusion distance 15 mm.
21 Go back to Boolean Builder. Click Boolean Difference. Select the ring, and click on the Object Box. Then, select the irregular-shaped punch and place it in the Cutter Box. Click GO. This will remove the top part of ring. Job Bag the Ring.
22 Now, select the tube and click on the
Cap Planar tool found in the Solid menu.
23 This time, when running the Boolean Builder, select Boolean Union. Select the tube and place it in one of the Object boxes. Then, select the ring and place it in the other Object box.
If the Boolean Union operation was successful, clicking on the ring to highlight it will cause the tube to be selected, as well. 24 To create a channel that curves around the tube, click on a new layer color (User Blue) to make it active. Then, working in the Through Finger viewport, select the curve that was extruded to create the tube. (If the list box appears, as pictured below, highlight each “curve” entry my moving the mouse over it, but not clicking on it, until the correct curve is highlighted. Then, click once on the list box entry that corresponds with the desired curve to Offset tool from the Curve fly-out menu. Type “1” into the select it.) Click on the Command line and press Enter to indicate the distance, in millimeters, to offset the curve. Then, click the left mouse button just outside of the curve. Matrix will place another circle 1mm larger than the original circle.
25 Select the blue curve and click on the Mandrel / Punch builder. Set up the Custom Punch as follows: Both sides ON, Uncapped ON. Type in “1.5” mm to indicate the extrusion distance. Choose the User Red layer color and press GO. (It is fine to leave this object Capped, since the Gem Layout tool can easily work on a polysurface!
26 To create a curve that represents the channel, select the blue circle curve and click on Split. The cutting objects (two) will each be a point, so type “p” into the Command line and press Enter on the keyboard. Working in the Through Finger viewport, drive the mouse around the circle curve until it is at about the 10 o’clock position (at approximately a 45degree angle from center). Click once to place the first point, and then drive the mouse around to roughly the 5 o’clock position (approx 180 degrees from the first split) and click again.
Points to split curve indicated by blue lead arrows:
27 Click on the Gem Layout: Uniform tool. Select the new collar and input it into the Surface preview window. Then, select the curve that was just created by the split operation and input it into the Curve preview window. Click on Next to proceed in the builder.
28 In the next screen of the builder, set the IC controls to indicate 1.7 mm stones. If necessary, adjust the Start and End points of the gem line so that 4 stones are placed on the part of the collar that will show up best on the ring. The gem spacing should be 0.5 mm.
29 To set these gems beneath the surface of the collar in preparation to be channel-set, select the Gem Top Height option from the bottom of the builder screen. Now, the “Girdle from Surface� slider value will instead refer to the height of the top of the gems to the surface of the collar. Set this value to -0.1 mm to sink the gems slightly beneath the surface of the collar.
Click on used below, for emphasis.)
Set Gems GO to see the results. (Ghosted Display mode is
Select to highlight all of the gems that were just placed and open 30 Click on Channel Builder, which is found in the Cutters fly-out menu. Click on the IN button beneath the Gems preview window in the builder to input the stones into the builder.
31 Click on the Profile preview window within Channel Builder to select a profile shape from the Profile Browser at the bottom of the screen. In this case, a simple, angled profile shape was chosen:
Mirror feature within channel builder and begin adjusting the 32 Turn on the IC sliders. Set the Channel Width to 90% and the Channel Height to -0.5 mm. This will sink the cutter 0.5 mm below the surface of the collar. Then, set the end caps to 3.1 mm (the channel extensions can stay at 0) and create a square end cap on both ends.
33 Open the Boolean Builder once more. Select the collar and input it into the Object box and input the cutter into the Cutter box. Click on Do Boolean GO to see the results:
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With the Boolean Builder still open, now’s a good time to Boolean some more. (Plus, it’s so much fun to do!) This time, the Boolean operation will hollow out the green cylinder in order to place a diamond in either end of it. Begin by selecting a new layer color (Cutter Orange) to make it active. Then, turn OFF the User Red layer color to better see the green tube on the end of the ring. Turn on the Center O-Snap only and select the Circle Tool. In the Through Finger viewport, move the mouse toward the blue arc and click once when the Center O-Snap Indicator (CEN) appears. Type “1” into the Command line to indicate the distance, in millimeters, for the Radius of the circle. Press Enter.
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Next, select the circle and click on the Mandrel / Punch builder once more. Set up the punch so that the options Both Sides, Capped, and 15 mm (for the extrusion distance) are all turned ON.
36 Use the Boolean Builder to Boolean Difference the new cylinder from the ring. (Enter the cylinder into the Cutter box and the ring into the Object box.) Turn on User Red layer color again to see the completed ring thus far:
37 In this step, place a diamond in the end of the cylinder. Click on the Gem Loader from the Builder fly-out menu and select the Diamond Cut gems. Click on the Round gem and select the .07 CT size from the size menu. Click Load Gem GO.
After the diamond is placed in the viewports, select it in the Side View viewport and click on Rotate. Turn on the Point O-Snap and click on the Point O-Snap Indicator at the culet of the diamond as the center of rotation. Draw a line straight down, holding down Shift to engage Ortho, and click once to indicate the “First Reference Point”. Then, still holding down Shift, extend this line straight out to one side and click once to indicate the “Second Reference Point”, rotating the gem and ending the command.
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Center of rotation:
First reference point:
Second Reference Point:
After rotation:
Now, select the gem in the Through Finger viewport and click Move. To indicate the “Point to move from”, click on the Point O-Snap Indicator that appears at the culet of the gem. Then, turn on the Center O-Snap. To indicate the “Point to move to”, position the mouse close to the end of the tube and, when the Center O-Snap Indicator appears, click once.
Point to move from:
Point to move to:
39 In the Looking Down viewport, select the gem and, holding down Shift to engage Ortho, slide it straight up in space until the girdle is flush with the surface of the tube:
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The next step is to mirror the diamond to the other end of cylinder. To do so, select the diamond in the Looking Down viewport once more and click on Mirror. Press F4 to indicate the center of rotation. Holding down Shift to engage Ortho, position the diamond on the other side of the cylinder in the Looking Down Viewport. Click once on the mouse when the diamond is positioned correctly.
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To copy the completed design onto the left side of the ring, it is necessary to first split the Plane and Cube Cutter ring in half. From the Builder fly-out menu, select the builder. Click on the option that will place a cutting plane along the Z axis (highlighted in yellow, below) and press GO.
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Click on the ring’s surface to highlight it and click on Split. Select the new plane as the cutting object and press Enter. The ring will now be split down the center into two halves. Select the side without the design elements and press Delete on the keyboard. Also delete the cutting plane.
Working in the Looking Down viewport, select all of the objects that make up the remaining half of the ring and click on Mirror. Press F4 to indicate the “Start of Mirror Plane” and hold down Shift to engage Ortho in order to place the elements in perfect mirror image to their counterparts. Select both halves of the ring shank and click on Join to make the ring shank into one closed polysurface.
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To finish off the ring, retrieve the bezel that was placed in the Job Bags earlier and turn on the layer color of the center gem to make it visible again.
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Then, Boolean Difference the bezel from the red tubes that make up the channel by selecting Boolean Builder. Enter the red solids into the builder as the Object to be cut and the bezel as the Cutter. Make sure the option Keep Cutter has a checkmark beside it! Then, click on GO. Turning OFF the Heads layer will now reveal that insets have been cut from the collars so that the bezel can be set between them following casting. If there are any pieces left over by the operation, as shown in the illustration below (right), delete them now. Turn the Heads layer back on.
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Only one last Boolean operation needs to be run (phew!!). Select the Mandrel/Punch tool from the Builder fly-out menu and Select the 6 pie-slice-shaped buttons at the top of the “pie� in the menu. Make sure that Ring Size option is ON and that the correct size is indicated. Then, press Go.
Note: If the collars will need to be Boolean Unioned to the ring in order to produce the model on a growing machine, add a small value, such as 0.1 mm, in the Additional Amount (mm) text box. That way, the collars will not be co-planar with the ring shank. Then, after the final step, below, Boolean Union them to the ring. 47
As promised, the last Boolean Difference will be run by entering the orange mandrel into the builder as the Cutter. Then, enter the objects on the User Red and Heads (purple) layer colors into the Object field. This time, there is no need to keep the cutter.
The finger hole has now been cleared of all design elements. Finally, shade the ring. Render it, if so desired. Admire it. Congratulations!