Useful Software

The following free software may be useful in working with crystallographic data.

Graphics Software

1.  PLATON for Windows  (available from http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~louis/software/platon)  

This very large program is a complete crystallography toolbox.  While users will not make use of many of the features it does have interactive ORTEP and other graphics capabilities which are user friendly.  This package consists of two zipped files pwt and platon.  To install; unzip both and then move the file platon.exe to the same directory as pwt.exe.  Running Pwt will start Platon as needed.  

As Platon creates many output files, the source directory for the input must write enabled.  Therefore, the data cannot be directly input from the cd-rom.  Copy either the *.res or *.CIF to a disk before using Platon.

Instructions for using Platon can be found at http://www.cryst.chem.uu.nl/platon.

2.  ORTEP-3 for Windows (available from http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~louis/software/ortep3)

This is an interactive version of the standard ORTEP program and is menu driven.  This package requires a license which can be obtained from the web site.

3.  Mercury (available from http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/prods/mercury)

This is a nice program for viewing structures but cannot produce ORTEP drawings.  It is very good for graphically determining intermolecular bond lengths and angles.  Its biggest drawback is that it does not directly interface to a printer. It can produce bitmap files (*.bmp) which can be printed from PAINT.  However, the standard background is black and does not print well

4. Rasmol (available from http://openrasmol.org/#Software) 

A program for working with pdb files.

Miscellaneous Software

1.  Encifer (available from http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/free_services/encifer)

All crystallographic data are submitted to journals using the Crystallographic Information Format, CIF.  This file must be edited to include the authors, journal, etc.  The editor Encifer is the easiest way to do this.