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Shanks

Twisted Shank

Twisted

Twisted builds a solitaire band whose sides turn into two twisted strands, like a rope. The shoulders under the head and the back of the ring stay plain, and the strands come out of the band and go back into it gradually, so the twist reads as part of one piece of metal. The inside stays smooth against the finger.

The band is the shank only: the head that holds the centre stone (a Basket, prongs or a Peghead) is a separate setting you add on the stone.

Run it from the ribbon (Shanks) or by typing ArtisanTwistedShank. The panel opens on the library of saved styles; pick one, or press Edit to work on the design in the viewport. Accepting bakes a parametric shank that you can re-edit from the Outliner.

Finger Size

Sets the ring size the band is built on.

Top

The section of the band under the head (1.8 mm wide and 1.6 mm high by default). The band blends from this section to the bottom one.

  • Profile: The asset preview chooses and edits the cross-section.
  • Width: Width of the section, along the finger.
  • Height: Thickness of the section, from the finger outward.
  • Interior: Solid or Comfort. Comfort domes the inside, with its own Comfort Height.

Opening: how the band is finished under the head, as in the Classic shank.

  • None: a closed ring.
  • Cut: opens the band over Length (mm, measured on the finger). Bumping bulges the two end caps; 0 leaves them flat.
  • Pinch: narrows the band under the head to a small base. Opening is how far apart the band goes back to the top section, and X, Y and Z set the length, width and height of the base.

Bottom

The section at the back of the ring (2.2 mm wide and 1.5 mm high by default), with the same Profile, Width, Height and Interior controls as the top.

Both sections have width and height gumballs in the viewport.

Twist

The twisted stretch, the same on both sides of the ring. Angles are measured from the top (the head) down each side, from 0 to 180.

  • Enable: Turns the twist on. Off, the command builds a plain band from the two sections.
  • Start Angle: Where the strands are fully twisted (40° by default).
  • End Angle: Where they start going back into the band (140° by default).
  • Transition: How many degrees the strands take to come out of the plain band and to go back in, at each end (12° by default).
  • Pitch: Distance along the band between two grooves, that is, half a turn of the two strands (2.2 mm by default).
  • Depth: How deep the groove between the strands goes into the band (0.45 mm by default).
  • Mirror: On, the two sides twist as mirror images, the way a symmetric twisted solitaire is made. Off, the twist turns the same way all round.
  • Smooth inside: On, only the outer part of the band twists and the inside against the finger stays smooth. Off, the groove runs all the way round.

Working with the panel

  • Save defaults in the header stores the current parameters as the starting point for the next run. Right-click the same button to clear them and return to the factory values.
  • Save and Update write the design into your styles library so it appears in the gallery next time.
  • Accept bakes the band as a parametric object and lists it in the Outliner. It regenerates when you change the finger size.

Scripting and AI

The same shank can be built without the panel: create_twisted_shank in the MCP tools, ra.twisted_shank.create() in Python, and TwistedShankApi.Create in .NET. See Shanks › Twisted for examples. In Grasshopper it is under Shanks › Twisted.