The compressive strength and hardness of diamond and various other materials, such as boron nitride, (which has the closely related zincblende structure) is attributed to the diamond cubic structure.
Similarly, truss systems that follow the diamond cubic geometry have a high capacity to withstand compression, by minimizing the unbraced length of individual struts. The diamond cubic geometry has also been considered for the purpose of providing structural rigidity though structures composed of skeletal triangles, such as the octet truss, have been found to be more effective for this purpose.