CrystalMaker
There isn't much among the vendor exhibits to interest a theorist, but I did pay a visit to the CrysalMaker booth this morning. CrystalMaker is a software package for building, viewing and analyzing crystal structures and molecules. It is the only one I know of which was originally built for the Mac and I use it quite heavily. The new version, 8.0, is designed to integrate with the Leopard OS and integrates beautifully with the Finder, providing thumbnails for preview and spotlight-searchable crystallographic information. It looks like movie-building will be much easier with this release and there are nice features to facilitate working with multiple files. I especially like the feature that lets you apply a set of model options to a group of images, so you can instantly get all your structures oriented and represented in the same way ready for comparison instead of tediously doing them one by one.
They also have a program for simulated xray diffraction and it looks like they might try and integrate it with CrystalMaker so that you can see the diffraction pattern of you crystal as you move it around and modify it. It isn't a feature I need, per se, but it would be a great tool when learning about diffraction. If you have spare time I recommend stopping by the stall to get a hands-on tour of the software.
Good to know that CrystalMaker made an appearance! I love those guys....
Did they only plug their own software exclusively or did they mention any other competitors and possible advantages to using CM over the rest? I must say that that multiple image editing feature is a godsend, because there is nothing more tedious then changing the orientations, etc. 1 by 1!
I was trying to look into how much the software costs, but for those on a budget, a very good and free alternative is VESTA:
http://www.geocities.jp/kmo_mma/crystal/en/vesta.html
In addition to reading CM files it can read a whole slew of others, as well as give contour plots and charge densities. Good bye xcrysden!
Posted by: Penny | March 27, 2008 at 06:18 PM