ATOMS uses four types of windows besides dialogs and alerts: the Startup window; the main Graphics window; secondary (Powder and Precession) Graphics windows; and Text windows. Each type of window has its own menu bar. The Help system also has its own windows and menus.
Note that under the Windows operating system the ATOMS windows are not confined to reside within a framework window, as in pre-V6.0 ATOMS.
All the current windows are listed in the Windows menu, and this menu can be used to switch between windows if some are not visible.
When starting up ATOMS, the menus displayed in the Startup window include only a File menu, a Settings menu and a Help menu. Use the commands in the File menu to start a new ATOMS data set, read an old one from a file, or import data from a file with an external format.
After you have entered or read in the data for an ATOMS file, the main Graphics window opens and the Startup window disappears; if you have elected not to Calculate, the Graphics window may be blank, otherwise it will show the current ATOMS drawing. Only one data set at a time is allowed in ATOMS, and there is only one main Graphics window. When this window is active, there is a File menu and various other specialized menus such as Input1 for data input and modification and graphics output.
The main Graphics window may be changed into Fullscreen mode, with a button in the DialogBar - Left. Though some atom identification and rotation options are available in this mode, most adjustment must be done in a normal window.
The secondary Graphics windows appear only when you have selected Powder Diffraction (Graph Option) or Precession Pattern from the Display menu. These windows have their own menu bars, with only a File menu, a Windows menu and a Help menu. When a secondary window is active, output, such as Print, Raster File, etc. in the File menu, is for the Diffraction results, not the atomic structure in the main Graphics window.
The File menu of the main Graphics window has four commands, List Input, List Generated Atoms, List Generated Faces and List Totals, each of which lists the relevant data to a separate Text window. When any of these Text windows is active, the menu bar contains standard menus for saving, printing and editing the contents. Each window actually displays the contents of a file, called respectively INPUT.ATD, GENATOMS.ATD, FACES.ATD and TOTALS.ATD. These files are written over again for each new ATOMS data set, so if they are to be preserved they should be saved with the Save As command in the File menu, using a different name.
A Text window is also generated when Calculation Output is selected in the Input2 menu. The output is written to the file infile.ATD, where infile (.STR) is the name of the ATOMS data file. Similarly, the Coordination button in the Input Atoms dialog of the Input1 menu writes a file called BONDS.ATD, and the Powder Diffraction (List option) dialog writes output to the file LIST.ATD. The List Coords button in the Cavity Parameters dialog lists the fractional coordinates of all grid points which can accomodate the sphere of the specified Particle radius in the file CAVVAL.ATD.
Secondary Graphics windows and Text windows are "children" of the main Graphics window, since their contents pertain only to the current structure, and they are destroyed if the main Graphics window is closed.
An output Text window or a diffraction Graphic window may sometimes come up behind the main Graphics window. If the new window is invisible, use the Window menu to bring it to the front.