XTALDRAW Site

XTALDRAW
(Abbreviation for "Crystal Draw")

Xtaldraw is an interactive computer graphics program that displays, manipulates and analyzes ball and stick, polyhedral and thermal ellipsoid colored drawings of any crystal structure or molecule.

The program can be used as both an educational and research tool in the fields of mineralogy, crystallography, chemistry and mathematics. The user can address such topics as crystal chemistry, rotational and translational symmetry, crystal classes, structure types, closest packing, atomic radii, optical and physical properties, diffraction theory or just generate cool images. The program is menu-aided and user-friendly and includes data files for generating hundreds of crystal structures. In addition, data set construction is simple, especially to those that have a limited knowledge of space group and structural theory.

The program runs in DOS or a full screen DOS shell within Windows^{^®} 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 and ME (This version does not execute within Windows^{^®} NT, 2000 or XP). Click Here to download (or save to your disk) the shareware version (a working copy of the program with reduced features and data files). Once the file "openxtal.exe" is received, execute it to extract the necessary files for installation of the program. Once extracted, run the program "setup.exe" to install the actual program and data files into the desired folder (or directory). After the program is installed successfully, go to that folder (e.g. C:\Xtaldraw) and run "xtaldraw.exe". Once the introductory screen is displayed on your monitor, enter a data file name or strike the "F1" key for a list of all data files and then select the file to display. After the structure is displayed, push the mouse to the top of the screen to activate the pull-down menus.

Users that register will receive the key necessary to activate the restricted features of the shareware version (registration details here).

Registered Users Enter HERE.

Xtaldraw | Quartz | Left/Right handed quartz | Silicate Structures | Garnet Sample data file
Unit Cell