ChemViewer3D is a molecular display and analysis program based on latest real time 3D technology. It renders three dimensional models (Lines, Dreiding, Ball&Stick, Space Fill) from 3D atom coordinates, e.g. from x-ray data, 3D-databases, publications or other chemistry software and lets you manipulate them in real time. It features following highlights:
* Real time animation of rendered molecular models and the light source.
* Movement of a spotlight over the surface of a model.
* Adjustable specular highlights and rendering types.
* High resolution color printing (300 dpi, 16 bit color).
* Possibility to combine all available model types in one single model.
* Import of any background picture.
* Extensive editing options.
* Alignment of the model to a point, a bond, or a plane.
* Display of a color legend for element colors and structural types.
* Fast search functions, also protein structure specific (for pdb-files).
* PDB, Coordinates and MicroWorld text import.
* 3DMF and PICT file export
* And more...
Hardware Requirements
* Power Macintosh
* System 7.5 or higher
* 32 MB installed memory, or 16 MB installed with RAMDoubler on
* 16 bit graphics capability (thousands of colors)
* QuickDraw3D 1.5.1 or higher installed (included in MacOS 8; or download the
latest version from http://www.quickdraw3d.apple.com). Version 1.5 will not work.
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Please read the following part of this document to learn more about specific technologies used in ChemViewer3D. Also refer to the "Mini-Manual" for additional information.
Real-Time Animation
ChemViewer3D allows the real-time manipulation of all full models, including the light source. Please refer to the "Animation Help..." item of the "Animation" menu for detailed instructions. Should the animation get too slow, the models are temporarily reduced in detail for speedup (adaptive animation). ChemViewer3D also offers the exclusive possibility to move a spotlight over the surface of your model.
Freedom of Creation
If desired, every atom of the model can independently receive its own model type (Lines, Dreiding, Ball&Stick or SpaceFill), thus offering many combination possibilites and structural perception enhancement options. The file "->CreationSite" in the Models folder will give a good impression on this feature.
Automatic 3D-Hardware Acceleration Support
ChemViewer3D automatically takes advantage of any installed 3D-hardware acceleration compatible with QuickDraw3D. Most recent Macs (i.e. the 6500 series) and many clones have such hardware already built in. The result is a dramatic speed improvement for 3D-object manipulation.
Plugin Support
ChemViewer3D supports QuickDraw3D plugins from third parties. At the time of this writing, there is only one such plugin available: "Lightworks Superlite" from Lightworks. It renders antialiased models with optional shadows (demo and full version available at http:// www.lightwork.com). Although this renderer produces good results for small molecules, it does not render text (labels) and crashes without mercy on larger models (this is a problem of the plugin, not of ChemViewer3D). There might be more stable plugin renderers in the future. All renderers present in the system may be accessed via the Plugin items of the Model menu.
Printing
ChemViewer3D produces high quality 16 bit color print output at a resolution of about 300 dpi at A4, US Letter or US Legal format. At this resolution, all lines look absolutely smooth, no anti-aliasing is necessary. This is in contrast to most other QuickDraw 3D based applications, which often merely produce 1:1 screen dumps for printing, if they let you print at all (this is because QuickDraw3D does not support printing). Obviously, print spool files of this resolution are large (about 14-18 MB). So please don't expect to push the print button and to get the printout immediately. For most current laser printers (like the LaserJet 5 MP) it will take about 3 minutes to complete a printout over the network. Others may take about 20 minutes, while old laser printers may take forever. However, there is no problem with ink printers, as they usually work fast and offer the additional benefit of affordable high quality color capability.
3DMF File Export
ChemViewer3D allows the export of your models in 3DMF file format. Such files can, in principle, be imported by any 3DMF capable 3D-application. However, at the time of this writing, almost none of the leading 3D-modelling and animation applications seen to be able to interpret the standard sphere and cylinder primitives used in ChemViewer3D models. This is not a problem of ChemViewer3D, which adheres strictly to the 3DMF standard. You can easily check this by flawlessly viewing your generated 3DMF-files using the 3DMF-viewer application from Apple, which comes with every QuickDraw3D installation. Please contact the manufacturer of your favorite 3D-modeller if you cannot import molecule models from ChemViewer3D.
Credits
Special thanks to Dr. Paul (Nukem) Spurr for testing and letting me constantly crash his Mac at work. And of course to my wife Maren, who, in contrary to her repeated statements, still has not tought my Mac basic flying techniques (e.g. to fly through closed windows, if it is not switched off immediately, and so on).
