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Post by pauls on Dec 17, 2018 22:35:06 GMT -5
I recently downloaded Gem Cut Studio trial version. For 30 days you get everything working and can have a play. gemcutstudio.com/It is well worth a look at, I have been playing around with it and it seems a lot more intuitive than Gem Cad. Lots of great features. It has a render engine built in so you can see how changes you make look on the finished stone and how they affect the light transmission. File thumbnails, so you get a small thumbnail of the design plus information about the design. Change RI on the fly. Change index wheel (if it's possible) on the fly Easily edit individual rows of facets. Change angles and depth of cut with a slider control. I am very impressed. |
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,688
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Post by NRG on Dec 18, 2018 0:04:33 GMT -5
Is this a competitor to GemCad? Or does it fill a different niche? gemfeller |
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Post by pauls on Dec 18, 2018 2:27:38 GMT -5
Yes a competitor.
It's a lot more intuitive than Gemcad, I struggled to design things in GemCad, I followed the Gemcut studio tutorial how to cut a standard brilliant and that got me off to a flying start, within a couple of hours I had three new original designs.
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Dec 18, 2018 17:06:25 GMT -5
I had read where Gem Cut Studio had been released and had been curious how it compared to GemCad? And is it more user friendly on newer versions of windows? I have the old DOS version of GemCad and found it a PITA to use (have to type in commands on this earlier version). A few years ago I tried downloading the newest version of GemCad onto my windows7 computer and never could get it to download and function properly. I was told that I could download a program called DOSBox and run GemCad in it but never bothered doing so.
If Gem Cad Studio is more user friendly and has equivalent functions I'll probably have to give it a try.
Larry C.
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Post by pauls on Dec 18, 2018 18:24:23 GMT -5
The "Gem Cut studio" is only on version 1.
I am not sure what the upgrade path is if you buy it now and a month later version 2 comes out. Something to find out before my trial runs out I think.
It's certainly worth downloading the trial version and having a play.
A feature I really like is the file thumbnails, I have thousands of designs and having to open them one by one in Gemcad to see what they are is a real pain, this gives you a page of thumbnails with basic information, RI, number of facets, dimensions etc. for each design, very impressed.
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flminer56
starting to shine!
Im a certified us faceters guild novice gem cutter as of 4/20
Member since September 2017
Posts: 37 
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Post by flminer56 on Dec 18, 2018 22:36:58 GMT -5
im really glad you posted this, as a matter of fact I was looking at their website earlier tonite. I think I will download the trial version and see if I can use it.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Dec 18, 2018 22:58:36 GMT -5
I haven't downloaded the program yet, but it is multi-platform and there will also be a mobile form. Here's the whole thread from inception on GemologyOnline:
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Post by pauls on Dec 26, 2018 3:03:32 GMT -5
An Update.
I contacted the software author today enquiring about the upgrade options for early adopters.
He replied in a couple of hours and the answer is very good news, purchasers get free upgrades. The price will gradually rise with each upgrade but early adopters will get upgrades free.
I have been playing with it a lot, I am really blown away by how easy it is. I got a stack of old designs copied out of early magazines from the club to try at trial cutting them, Wow it is amazing how many of them either can't be cut at all or need big changes to make them work. If you were physically cutting them you would probably presume that you had done something wrong, or you would have to make changes to angles and indexes to get something like their drawing, anyway you would be swearing and tearing your hair out.
Many of the old designs are not worth cutting anyway as they have very poor performance. To check I did a quick trial cut of one design on an actual stone (Quartz) and thats what I got, a stone with polished flats, not a sparkly gem at all, just dead.
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Dec 27, 2018 0:31:27 GMT -5
An Update. I contacted the software author today enquiring about the upgrade options for early adopters. He replied in a couple of hours and the answer is very good news, purchasers get free upgrades. The price will gradually rise with each upgrade but early adopters will get upgrades free. I have been playing with it a lot, I am really blown away by how easy it is. I got a stack of old designs copied out of early magazines from the club to try at trial cutting them, Wow it is amazing how many of them either can't be cut at all or need big changes to make them work. If you were physically cutting them you would probably presume that you had done something wrong, or you would have to make changes to angles and indexes to get something like their drawing, anyway you would be swearing and tearing your hair out. Many of the old designs are not worth cutting anyway as they have very poor performance. To check I did a quick trial cut of one design on an actual stone (Quartz) and thats what I got, a stone with polished flats, not a sparkly gem at all, just dead. Per Free Upgrades- That is good news. Thanks for checking on it and posting the reply here! As for the errors in published faceting designs, yeah I've run into that more often than I would have suspected I would. Some major errors even in published designs by old well known designer names. Back when I was first learning to facet an experienced much older faceter recommended to me to always cut any new design in glass or quartz before cutting it in an expensive material. I hated cutting synthetics and considered cutting glass to be a waste (loss) of time and am not a big fan of cutting quartz either. Considered them too little return on the labor. But it didn't take long to find out he was right. Never try a new design on an expensive material. And yes many of the old designs have very poor light return. Design angles were calculated mathematically based on flawed theory. Just take a look at the differences of the suggested pavillion mains and crown mains for given materials between Vargas, MDR, and Schlagel on this linked chart: www.gemcutter.com/angles.htmLarry C. |
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Post by pauls on Dec 27, 2018 14:19:35 GMT -5
Quailriver. Funny, that chart you linked to was in the bundle of old designs I grabbed.
Transfering the designs over to computer certainly hilighted how many old ones were not worth the trouble, of the dozen or so I did only three were possible straight off, another three or four required a bit of playing with angles and indexes to get them to work, but then they looked different. The rest I struggled with for a while and just threw them in the bin, very little chance of getting them to work.
Some of them when transfered to computer bore no resemblance at all to the original design diagram, and thats among the ones that were possible to get to work.
I agree with what you say about cutting glass, just a complete waste of time, at the end you have spent a lot of time and effort for what? A bit of glass. No thanks.
A good bit of nice coloured Quartz is OK, but yeah not a big fan.
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ivan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 165
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Post by ivan on Jan 8, 2019 0:15:14 GMT -5
Looks promising .... Maybe this SC will be able to learn how to make it work for me. I could never get a handle with GemCad. Thanks for posting & sharing. IV
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Post by pauls on Jan 8, 2019 1:01:41 GMT -5
I'm the same Ivan, I battled with gemcad until I could do a few basic things but I was never very good at it. The whole time I was using it I was thinking gee it would be nice to just be able to nudge that row of facets and keep all the meet points, this program you can do that.
The only thing I can see that could be a hassle is that once you have opened a .gem file and changed it you can't save it as a .gem file, I guess .gem is Robert Stricklands proprietry file name so it has to be saved as a .gcs file. Not too much of a hassle really unless you are going to battle on with gemcad as well as Gemcutstudio.
My trial version runs out in a week so I will be buying it.
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ivan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 165
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Post by ivan on Jan 9, 2019 21:31:26 GMT -5
Gem Cut Studio program ..... I have been unable to make any contact with the email address on site. Does anybody have a phone number that they can be reached? Or maybe a name and address of the individual/contact doing the development?
This an any other information this SC may have missed would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for creating this post. As mentioned it looks promising that even this SC might be able to handle this. IV
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Post by pauls on Jan 10, 2019 19:29:22 GMT -5
Ivan
the Email I used is rej@gemcutstudio.com he got back to me in a couple of hours.
Just download the trial version and have a play, it's not a huge down load and I think most questions that come up can be answered by looking at the tutorials, both videos and the written ones.
I struggled a little at first as you always do with something new, then watched the cutting a standard brilliant tutorial, after playing along with that I could easily do all sorts of amazing things, Then I redrew some old diagrams for practise, hitting a bit of a wall with some odd shaped stones but figuring them out myself, now I consider myself reasonably good at it.
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ivan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 165
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Post by ivan on Jan 10, 2019 23:57:09 GMT -5
I'll sent another email with the address you posted and see what happens. I like what I've seen so far and I think that it will be very promising. Thanks for the posting/sharing the link and keep us informed as you go. Thanks for the suggestion. IV
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Jan 11, 2019 3:55:38 GMT -5
It's not unusual for communications to smaller lapidary enterprises to be slow during the Quartzite and Tuscon gem show season. Most of those guys attend and are swamped with show activity right now.
Larry C.
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ivan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 165
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Post by ivan on Feb 10, 2019 7:33:02 GMT -5
Sometimes this SC's ADD gets the better of me. As an Update - I received the information & communication from RJ Gem Studio concerning his New Cad Faceting Program that he developed. The reply came in a most prompt an thorough manner. Apologize to Our Faceting Forum for taking so long for getting back to you all. I need to work on my communication problems before I make any more comments. Thank you for your patience & understanding. IV USAF 62-66
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hh5
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2012
Posts: 136
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Post by hh5 on Feb 16, 2019 13:48:28 GMT -5
Thanks for the heads up on this program, looks very promising.
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Mar 18, 2019 13:32:26 GMT -5
I recently downloaded Gem Cut Studio trial version. For 30 days you get everything working and can have a play. gemcutstudio.com/It is well worth a look at, I have been playing around with it and it seems a lot more intuitive than Gem Cad. Lots of great features. It has a render engine built in so you can see how changes you make look on the finished stone and how they affect the light transmission. File thumbnails, so you get a small thumbnail of the design plus information about the design. Change RI on the fly. Change index wheel (if it's possible) on the fly Easily edit individual rows of facets. Change angles and depth of cut with a slider control. I am very impressed. After having had more time to work with Gem Cut Studio are you still happy with it? Any new obstacles discovered? Larry C. |
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Post by pauls on Mar 18, 2019 15:29:06 GMT -5
Very happy Larry
The only thing that might be a problem is that it can't save in the .gem format. It can open Gemcad .gem files but it only saves as .gcs files.
Really the only time this could be a problem is if you wanted to share a faceting diagram with someone who didn't have the program, no different to sharing a .gem file with someone who didn't have gemcad I suppose, just print it out and hand them a paper copy.
Have you had a play with the trial version, it's fully functional, just expires in a month?
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