What you will make
A pendant in 18ct yellow gold made of four parts. The pendant itself is a closed oval, 30 mm by 22 mm and 8 mm thick, with a soft cushion crown and a Round 6.00, a round stone 6.00 mm across, set in a rub-over bezel at its middle. At 12 o’clock an eye, a lug with a hole, carries a jump ring of round wire 0.80, modelled closed and cut open at the bench. A separate bail, the loop a chain passes through, hangs on the ring: it is wide at the top and split 0.20 mm at its foot so that it can be fitted. The back is hollowed and closed by a pierced plate: 44.26 g of solid oval comes down to 15.43 g, and with the ring and the bail the finished piece weighs 15.72 g.
You make the plate both ways, Separate then Fused. Separate is a body and a plate, for the bench: the plate is made apart, goes on after the stone is set and is soldered into its seat. Fused is one casting. Export Both Forms then writes three STL files by use. They are the pendant alone: the ring and the bail are separate parts, and this button does not write them. They are made at Finish Voxel 0, Auto, and are a few MiB each: the File Browser in step 8 shows their sizes.
About 30 minutes.
Files
- p10-11-start.blend (837 KB): open this one to begin.
- p10-11-finished.blend (5.15 MB): the result, to compare with yours.
Both were made in Blender 5.2.0.
Before you start
- You have done Part 0, Blender from nothing.
- P10-09, Fit a back plate to a solid, uses a plain cushion and does the same two presses. It helps. You can do this page without it.
- The add-on is installed, and its CAD/CAM tab is in the sidebar. The start file is already in millimetres. The setting, the eye, the jump ring and the bail are made for you: the add-on has no tool for a bail that widens at its top, and shaping one is a lesson of its own. This page is about the back.
- Steps marked Meet the refusal break something on purpose: the red box is safe and the piece is not harmed. No caster yet? Treat these files as practice, not as files to send.
Build it
Step 1. Open the start file and save your copy
WhereThe top bar: the row of words that begins File, Edit.
DoDownload p10-11-start.blend from Files above and open it. Then choose File > Save As and save it under the name below, in a folder of yours. Open an exercise file and keep the start file safe (P0-07) shows how.
Typemy-pendant.blend
You should seeThe 3D view shows a pendant: a soft oval with a stone set in a bezel at its middle, and at the top an eye, a ring and a bail. The Outliner, the list at the top right of the window, lists Bail, Jump Ring, Pendant and Round 6.00. The title bar, the strip above File and Edit, begins my-pendant.
It worked whenThe title bar, the strip above File and Edit, begins my-pendant.
Step 2. Read the setting in a true cut
WhereThe 3D view. Nothing to press: this picture is a cut for you to read.
DoLook at the picture. It is a true cut through the stone’s middle. The picture’s cut metal and stone are for this picture only: your pendant stays whole.
You should seeThe stone set in its bezel, the way a bench reads it. The bezel’s wall is 0.80 mm thick at the girdle, the stone’s widest edge. It stands 0.32 mm over the girdle, metal the setter pushes over the crown. The seat, cut to the stone’s underside, carries it, and solid metal stands under the culet, the stone’s lowest point.
It worked whenYou can name the bezel’s wall, the metal over the girdle and the seat.
Step 3. Find Back Plate and select the pendant
WhereThe sidebar at the right of the 3D view (press N with the pointer over the 3D view if it is shut), the CAD/CAM tab, the section bar at its top. Then the 3D view.
DoClick Shape in the section bar, then click the words Hollow Out at the head of the first panel to fold it. Then click the gold oval once, away from the stone.
You should seeAn orange line round the oval, and under Back Plate the words “Press Make Back Plate”. The settings under the buttons are the add-on’s starting numbers, and every number on this page starts from them.
It worked whenThe words at the top left of the 3D view end in Pendant.
If it goes wrongThe panel says “This is a stone, a cutter or a claw: select the metal part”: you clicked the stone. Click the gold oval away from it, and the line changes to “Press Make Back Plate”.
Step 4. Press Make Back Plate
WhereThe Back Plate panel.
DoPress Make Back Plate. Blender stands still while it works: here it took 95 s. It has not hung, so wait.
You should seeFrom above the pendant looks the same. Under the buttons stands a long sentence: the first picture marks its start, the second its end, lower in the panel. The table says what each mark is and what to want. The stone and the bezel are part of the oval, so they stay solid.
It worked whenThe sentence ends “Took”, and how long.
| Mark | On the panel | What it is | What to want |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Back plate 0.70, wall 1.00” | The two numbers you asked for: Plate is the lid’s thickness, Wall the shell’s | Leave both: 0.70 and 1.00 are the add-on’s starting numbers |
| 2 | “Metal 44.26 g to 15.43 g in 18ct yellow” | The solid oval with its bezel and eye, then the body and plate together. The ring and the bail are not in it | The second figure well under the first |
| 3 | “(65.1 % saved)“ | What came off | More than half |
| 4 | “Thinnest plate 0.66” | The thinnest place in the plate, with its windows cut. The figure after it, “thinnest shell wall”, is the body’s | 0.60 or more: the bench’s least. Under it the sentence adds “The plate is under the casting floor of 0.60 mm” |
| 5 | “Flush within 0.02” | How far the plate’s outer face lies from the piece’s own back | As near nought as you can get |
| 6 | “Clearance 0.06 a side” | The gap between plate and opening, on each side | Near 0.05 |
| 7 | “lifts straight off along (-0.000, -0.019, -1.000)“ | The way the plate comes out of the piece: straight down. The back of this pendant is domed, so the first two figures are not quite nought | One figure near 1, two near 0 |
| 8 | “fits one way round” | The three tongues on the plate’s edge stand unevenly, so the plate goes in one way only | There |
| 9 | “Windows open through: 62 of 62” | A straight line from the hollow through each window must leave without meeting metal | The two figures the same |
| 10 | “Each part finished as one level set (voxel 0.050)“ | The tool’s last act rebuilds each part as one clean skin. The voxel is how fine | Leave it for a file you will cast |
| 11 | “Two parts, each one closed body” | Both meshes are whole: each has no gaps. Fused reads “One casting, one shell” | Exactly these words |
| 12 | “Follow the back” (the line under it) | Which plate the add-on chose, and why. This back is domed, so a plate that follows it is chosen. The words stand lower down the panel too, in the box headed Back | Leave the box headed Back on Automatic |
| 13 | “Took 95 s” | The time for that press | Yours will differ a little. The grams will not |
Step 5. Look at the back
WhereThe 3D view, the small coloured axes at its top right.
DoClick the faint ball opposite the blue Z ball, to look from underneath. The pendant is selected, so choose View > Frame Selected if it is off to one side.
You should seeThe pierced plate in its frame. The eye, the ring and the bail stand at the top. The windows are the holes of the plate: the pattern falls where the add-on lays it, so it is not centred.
It worked whenYou can see the plate’s windows and the fine line round the plate where it meets the frame.
Step 6. Make it Fused, and take that back
WhereThe box headed Form in the Back Plate panel, then the top row.
DoFor a trial, scroll down to the box headed Form and press Fused. Scroll up, press Redo and wait. Then, with the pointer over the 3D view, press Ctrl+Z twice.
You should seeAfter Redo the sentence reads “One casting, one shell”: 63 windows and 15.07 g, against 62 windows and 15.43 g for Separate. After Ctrl+Z twice Separate is lit and the plate is back, with no wait.
It worked whenThe sentence reads “Two parts, each one closed body” again.
Step 7. Export both forms
WhereThe top row of the Back Plate panel, then Blender’s File Browser, the window for choosing a folder.
DoPress Export Both Forms. In the File Browser click the long field at the top, type your folder, press Enter, then press the button marked 1. Wait for the files: it makes the other form too.
You should seeThe File Browser shuts and Blender writes three files into two folders it makes inside yours: one_part_prototype holds one file, for a prototype print, and two_parts_production holds two, the body and the plate. They are made at Finish Voxel 0, Auto, and are a few MiB each: the File Browser in step 8 shows their sizes.
It worked whenThe File Browser has shut. The files stand in your folder: the next step lists them.
Step 8. Look at the files that were written
WhereThe top bar, then Blender’s File Browser.
DoChoose File > Import > STL (.stl). Click the long field at the top, type the folder you saved in, then a slash and two_parts_production, press Enter, look, and press Cancel.
You should seeThe File Browser lists two files, Pendant_body_mm.stl and Pendant_plate_mm.stl, with their sizes. one_part_prototype holds Pendant_one_part_mm.stl. This window is only a way to see the folder: Cancel shuts it and nothing is imported.
It worked whenThe list shows Pendant_body_mm.stl and Pendant_plate_mm.stl.
Step 9. Put the solid back
WhereThe top of the Back Plate panel.
DoPress Restore Solid.
You should seeThe plate has gone, and the panel reads “Solid restored: Pendant is as it was before Back Plate”.
It worked whenThe panel reads “Solid restored”.
Step 10. Make the copy you keep
WhereThe top of the Back Plate panel, the button More, then Finish Voxel in the box headed Pattern.
DoPress More, click the middle of the number in Finish Voxel, type 0.10, press Enter, scroll up and press Make Back Plate. Wait for the sentence.
You should seeThe sentence still reads “Metal 44.26 g”, the same solid, then 15.41 g, a little off the first press’s 15.43 g. It reads “voxel 0.100” and “Thinnest plate 0.65”, and the bezel is still there: its wall is 0.80 mm and the metal over the girdle 0.32 mm, against 0.80 and 0.32 before.
It worked whenThe sentence reads “Two parts, each one closed body”, and Thinnest plate is 0.60 or more.
Step 11. Weigh the whole piece
WhereThe 3D view, then the section bar and the Reports & Checks panel.
DoWith the pointer over the 3D view press A to select everything. Click Check in the section bar, scroll down to the block headed Weight, tick Selected Only and press Report Weight.
You should seeThe Weight Report window opens over the screen and lists each metal part in 18ct yellow: the pendant, its plate, the jump ring and the bail. Read only the line “TOTAL”: 15.72 g, the finished piece with its ring and its bail. Then press Esc with the pointer over the 3D view.
It worked whenThe line “TOTAL” reads “15.72 g”, and Esc shuts the window.
Step 12. Save your work
WhereThe 3D view: move the pointer over it.
DoPress Ctrl+S.
You should seeBlender writes your copy at once, with no question, because the file already has a name. An asterisk, *, in the title bar marks changes that are not saved, and it goes now. Save your work and get it back (P0-12) says more about saving.
It worked whenThe title bar begins my-pendant and carries no asterisk.
No picture: the only change is a message on the status bar, and it fades.
Check your result
| What to read | Where | What it should say |
|---|---|---|
| The grams | Back Plate panel, the sentence | “Metal 44.26 g to 15.41 g in 18ct yellow (65.2 % saved)“ |
| The thinnest plate | The same sentence | “Thinnest plate 0.65”: 0.60 or more |
| The windows | The same sentence | “Windows open through: 62 of 62” |
| The parts | The same sentence; the Outliner, the list at the top right of the window | “Two parts, each one closed body”. Among its rows the Outliner lists Bail, Jump Ring, Pendant, Pendant Back Plate and Round 6.00 |
| The weight of the whole piece | The Weight Report window, the line TOTAL | 15.72 g |
| The files | The list in File > Import > STL (.stl), then Cancel | In your folder, one_part_prototype holds 1 file and two_parts_production holds 2 files |
| The file | Your saved copy, in a file window | About 5 MB |
Try it yourself
Open your saved copy. Click the Jump Ring and read Dimensions: in the sidebar’s Item tab: X 5.00 mm, Y 5.00 mm, Z 0.80 mm, a ring of round wire 0.80. Then click the Bail: X 2.50 mm across at its top. Then click the stone, Round 6.00, and look at the Back Plate panel: it says “This is a stone, a cutter or a claw: select the metal part”.
What you learned
- A pierced pendant is made in a fixed order: the stone set and the eye made, then Back Plate on the metal alone. The ring and the bail stay separate parts.
- Separate is a body and a plate for the bench, Fused is one casting. Read “Thinnest plate” yourself: 0.60 or more.
- Export Both Forms writes three files by use, for the pendant only. Restore Solid gives back the very same mesh.