🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Apr13.183243.24900@cs.wayne.edu> kil@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Joseph I. Landman) writes:
>Hello fellow netters!
>
>I am in need of information regarding visualization of molecular
>dynamics data.  I have triples denoting atomic positions in a lattice,
>and all I want to see are spheres wher each atom type is.  I have
>typically 64 or 65 atoms, of 2 different species.  I would like to 
>display all the atoms on the screen with a color assigned to each atom
>type.  I would like to specify the plane (or normal vector) from which I
>view the crystal.  I would like to navigate through the crystal to look
>at defects as they form. 

What you want is something like SciAn, developed by some folks here at 
SCRI.  It will do all these things and more.  It is even free, having 
been developed by people on gov't contract, and is now in beta release.
Its best feature is that is works on 3-D fields of many kinds and allows 
you to manipulate the display with tools that are quite natural to use. 
Unfortunately ...

>                          Best of all, I would like to do all of this on
>my PC without great expense.  I would be happy with some X widget, but
>the PC is the preferential platform for this (why? because that is the
>sort of computer that currently exists within our group... ;->)

... it runs on graphics workstations.  It is best on a Silicon Graphics 4D, 
where the flyby control is smoothest, but is also supported on IBM RS/6000 
platforms that have graphics library (GL) support.  Anything less and the 
rendering and lighting is hopeless, they tell me.  So you can get the tools 
you need if you can get access to the appropriate hardware.  Its always 
money ... but maybe someone nearby has the box you need, since these power 
workstations are spreading rapidly. 

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)