Specification of Structural Viewer and Analytical Tool (JECP/SVAT)

Java Electron Crystallography Package (JECP) is a collection of programs for crystallography and electron diffraction analysis. The package is designed and written by Dr. X.Z. Li. The software can be used as a research tool as well as a teaching aid. The need of a structural viewer/an analytical tool, using the same input data format as the JECP and proJECT software, becomes obvious with the growth of the JECP and proJECT programs and users. There exist many programs for structural design and/or display in various levels developed by individual, research group or software company. Some of them are expensive software with multi-purpose and advanced graphics, which maybe not be suitable for beginners. Others are simply programs for building/dislaying crystal structures. The motivation for the development of JECP/SVAT is to provide a structure viewer and also working as a analytical tool. JECP/SVAT provides mouse/arrow-key drived real-time 3D display of crystal structure in a unit-cell, including the chemical bonds and magnetic moments. The structure can also be displayed in animated modes including rotation or wobble. The structure can be analyzed (i) as a projection in a user selected [uvw] direction or layer by layer, (ii) as a local structure (or polyhedral cluters) by defining a center atom, and a radius of spherical range. Tools for calculate the bond length/angle are included. One important feature is that user\u27s work on the structure can be saved to a file, which can be reloaded for a quick display next time or continue on an unfinished work. The display of a structure can be sent directely to printer for printing or saved as JECP and TIFF image files. More details of the features are described below