Visualising Structures
- Development history: The CrystalGrower visualiser has been adapted over several years by a number of contributors. This section offers a brief summary of the history and rationale behind the development of this software.
- Structure types: The CrystalGrower visualiser is capable of rendering all structure types input into the CrystalGrower simulation package. Structures are first constructed using the data file with the .vis file extension.
- Drawing modes: The software is capable of displaying simulation results as natural tiles, spheres and atoms / bonds (for net structures). Drawing modes can be switched at will by the user.
- Structure manipulation: Users can interact with the displayed crystal via the mouse or through a number of hotkeys. The crystal can be rotated, translated, recoloured and in some cases resized to display in the manner required by the user.
- Colouring schemes: Multiple colouring schemes can be applied to simulation results to investigate different areas of interest. These are also full customisable in the visualiser.
- Selecting objects: The visualiser contains functions where species types can be selected and their display can be modified by recolouring, resizing or hiding the species type completely.
- Working with spheres: Extra options are available when using spheres to display species. Users can resize all spheres or resize by species type, and increase the resolution for all spheres displayed before capturing images.
- Lighting controls: Two lighting schemes are available in the visualiser which can be controlled by the user. Lights can be turned on or off within their schemes.
- Saving states and resetting: Custom visualiser states allows users to save their work on recolouring and manipulating the displayed crystal. These states can be loaded later when revisiting the structure, or be used as good starting points for movies. Reset commands are available to quickly restore the display to its default state.
- Axes and Overlays: Orthogonal and crystallographic axes can be displayed in the visualiser, to inform users of their current view directions. Text overlays are also available to display information about the current state of the visualiser.
- Movie control: Multi-frame simulations have extended functionality in the visualiser, allowing users to switch between frames and record sequences of frames as images to show crystal growth or dissolution. Movies can also be generated of single and multi-frame simulations moving in space by rotation or translation to show the crystal habit from multiple angles.
- High-Throughput: A number of functions are built into the visualiser to assist with the processing of a large number of coordinate files. These operations can be used to automatically process large volumes of data while users perform other tasks.
- Performance: General notes on visualiser performance.
- References
Guides