

In CAChe, you typically start by assembling a 2D version of a molecule from a library of fragments, using an editor that’s much like a drawing program that understands the rules of chemistry.
#3d crystal maker mac
One of the first Mac science programs, CAChe is now distributed by supercomputer maker Fujitsu, and its design shows careful effort at fitting G4 computation into the world of still-bigger computers.

Special attention to reflection, shading effects, and depth fading puts CrystalMaker ahead of competing programs for vivid display, and its floating 3D representations (viewed with red/blue glasses) are dazzling as well as instructive.ĬAChe can calculate energy surfaces corresponding to different conformations of a molecule and display them in real time, allowing an intuitive appraisal of reaction possibilities.]dfĬAChe 4.1, in contrast to CrystalMaker’s single-minded focus on molecules in crystals, provides modules to calculate nearly every aspect of molecular behavior. It makes the best-looking crystal structures imaginable.
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The user can specify display in space-filling, ball-and-stick, wireframe, and polyhedral modes, impose surface plots on the ball-and-stick display, annotate particular atoms in the crystal, and switch around instantly among all these modes.ĬrystalMaker is easy to learn, and includes the most comprehensive and best-produced manual I’ve seen for a science product in years, but oddly for scientific software, its real attraction is aesthetic. The procedure typically starts with a user entering atoms and their coordinates in a crystal unit cell, using CrystalMaker’s crystal data editor, which speeds up data entry quite a bit. CrystalMaker 4.0 specializes in building and displaying such images of crystal structures, assembled by “repeating” molecules many times at precise distances and angles. This gleaming crystal can be displayed in CrystalMaker as a rotating 3D structure, floating in front of your monitor.įrom huge DNA fragments to small molecules like aspirin, hard information about chemical structure comes from a method called x-ray diffraction, applied typically to small samples of crystalline material. Crystal Maker 4.0 and CAChe 4.1 are two new programs that put this power to brilliant use. But with the power of the G3 and G4 processors, now a desktop Macintosh can be a research-grade engine for chemical computation. In the ’80s, the Mac excelled at displaying molecular files that had been computed elsewhere.

Chemical research involves looking at molecules, and a picture of a molecule is always going to be more informative than just its name. When it comes to science, the Mac has always been a heavy hitter when it comes to chemistry.
