search site  |  contact us  HOME PRODUCTS DOWNLOADS SALES SUPPORT NEWS CrystalMaker 4.0: Major Upgrade Delivers New Tools, Graphics, Usability 14 August 1999. It is now nearly 16 months since we released CrystalMaker 3, and in that time we've listened to the comments and views of hundreds of CrystalMaker users around the world. As a result of their suggestions we've created a major new program with some exciting features... Real-time 3D stereo Simply awesome out-of-the-screen imaging, using the supplied red/blue stereo glasses. Observe your structure hovering in mid-air in front of your computer monitor - and manipulate its photo-real 3D image in real-time. So real, it's unreal. Red/blue 3D image of aspirin. The image becomes fully 3D when viewed with glasses that have a red filter over the left eye and a blue or green filter over the right eye. Stereo-pair plots Stereo in colour. Control panel allows extensive customization, and image reversal (e.g., to switch between parallel and cross-eyed viewing). Stereo-pair image showing one unit cell of metallic silicon (diamond structure). The distance between the two images, and their angular separation can easily be edited using a new Stereo control panel. Vectors - can be added to any atom, in any specified orientation and colour. Vectors can be edited interactively, by clicking and dragging on their tips - or edited via a dialog by double-clicking on the arrow head. A demonstration of CrystalMaker 4.0's new vector display: multiple vectors have been added to each atom using the Selection > Add Vector command. Text Annotation Tool Add text boxes with lines or arrows anywhere on the plot. Ideal for presentations. Now there's no need to copy and paste graphics between different programs just to add a few labels! (See picture below.) CrystalMaker 4.0 screen shot showing a polyhedral model of barium titanate, with vectors indicating the Ti off-centring, and with annotation. Smoothed Graphics Real-time anti-aliasing of lines, polyhedral and unit cell, using our unique high-performance graphics engine. Custom Bond Styles Choose different styles and colours for different bond specifications (see aspirin image above). Also includes new dashed and dotted lines: ideal for showing H-bonding. Custom Atom Colours Select an atom or group of atoms and apply any colour. Particularly useful for highlighting structural features, or for indicating defects/vacancies. Screen shot showing part of the anorthite structure. The Selection > Change Atom Colour command was used to apply different colours to tetrahedra in different layers, in order to emphasize the repeating (but rotated) layer structure. Selection and Editing Tools Selection and editing tools are now available from a dedicated menu. "Hide other molecules" and "select entire molecule" commands make working with molecular crystals so much easier. Extended File Dialogs with Previews CrystalMaker now takes advantage of Apple's Navigation Services (requires MacOS8.5 or later). CrystalMaker has been rewritten to take advantage of the latest OS improvements from Apple. CrystalMaker binary files can now be saved with graphics previews, which makes browsing through large libraries easier and more enjoyable. An example of a CrystalMaker 4.0 file/open dialog, available with Navigation Services. Note the graphical preview displayed for the selected CrystalMaker binary file. Slick new interface All dialogs have been redesigned, taking advantage of the new MacOS8 features such as highlighting for active text items. Separate rendering-specific dialogs now merged into a single, tabbed, Rendering Options dialog. This, and the Model Options dialog, now has an Apply button, making it possible to preview changes without having to close and re-open dialogs. Upgrade Scheme Registered CrystalMaker-3 users may upgrade to the new version at a very low cost. We also have great upgrade deals for users of older versions of the program. Please note that CrystalMaker 4.0 requires a PowerPC processor (e.g., PowerMac, iMac, G3, etc.). Older machines with the 68020, 68030 or 68040- series processors will not run the new program. However, versions of CrystalMaker 3.1 remain available for users requiring "68K" machine support. Our extendable binary data file format (CMDF) ensures that newer files can still be read by older versions (2 and 3) of the program. © 2008 CrystalMaker Software Limited. All rights reserved worldwide.