GemDiagram Docs

Click-to-Frost a Facet

For fine control, you can frost or unfreeze individual facets by clicking them directly in the 3D viewport, one at a time.

Enabling click-to-frost

In the toolbar, find the Frost a facet toggle (an icon that looks like ice/frost). Click it to turn it on — the cursor changes to indicate you're in frosting mode.

Frosting a single facet

With the toggle active:

  1. Click any crown or pavilion main facet in the 3D viewport.
  2. The facet's frost state toggles: if it had no frosting, frosting is added; if it was already frosted, the frosting is removed.
  3. The 3D view updates immediately.

You can click as many facets as you want — each click toggles that facet independently.

What can be frosted

Only crown and pavilion main facets can be clicked and frosted:

  • The table (the facet at the very top) and culet (the tiny facet at the bottom) cannot be frosted — they don't appear as clickable.
  • Break facets (like "crown breaks" or "pavilion breaks") are main facets and can be frosted.
  • Girdle facets (the edge ring) cannot be frosted.
  • Frost slivers themselves (the thin edges you add) cannot be re-frosted — clicking one has no effect.

The raycaster

GemDiagram uses a raycaster to find which facet is under your cursor. The raycaster picks the nearest front-facing facet to the camera — if you're looking at the crown and a pavilion facet is behind it, you'll hit the crown facet, not the pavilion facet. Rotate the view to get a different facet underneath your click.

Distinguishing clicks from orbits

A small click-drag (moving the cursor less than ~5 pixels between press and release) is treated as a click-to-frost. A larger drag is treated as a viewport orbit — you won't accidentally frost a facet while trying to rotate the view.

Bulk operations vs. per-facet

  • For whole-side frosting (e.g., "frost all pavilion facets"): Use Add Frosted Facets.
  • For individual tweaks (e.g., "frost just these three breaks on the pavilion"): Use click-to-frost.

Both apply the same frosting geometry — the difference is just granularity.

Turning off click-to-frost

Click the toggle again to turn it off. The cursor returns to normal, and viewport clicks are treated as orbit drags again.

Symmetry and frosting

If you frost one facet, only that facet loses its polished look — its symmetric copies (other repeats around the stone) are not automatically frosted. You'll need to click each one to frost it, or use Add Frosted Facets to frost all facets on the whole side at once.

This gives you maximum control — you could frost just 2 out of 8 pavilion mains if you wanted, though that's rarely done in practice.