Dialog Bar - Left
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Dialog Bar - Left

This is actually a special type of Control Bar, which resides on the left side of the Main window. It can be turned on or off with the Dialog Bar - Left command in the Display menu.

The upper part controls rotation of the structure in simple ways (for more ways to rotate or align the structure, see the commands in the Rotation menu). The current orientation is shown at the top. The a, b and c axis labels are attached to the positive ends of the axes, and the part of the axes extending forward (positive x) are drawn with heavier lines. The rotation buttons below this are for rotation on x, y and z, respectively; positive angle (clockwise looking outward on the axis) is on the left, and negative rotation on the right. The angle of rotation is in the box below the buttons. The initial value of this angle is set in the Preferences dialog in the Settings menu.

If the Auto box is checked, the drawing is replotted immediately after each click on a rotation button. If it is not checked, the rotations are accumulated into a matrix, and the drawing is not replotted until you click on the Replot button lower in the dialog (or select Replot from the Display menu).

The buttons and other controls beneath Auto duplicate some common commands, mostly from the File menu and the Display menu. You can use Open to start up ATOMS by reading in a file.

Replot - Replots the image (does not recalculate).
Calculate - Reproduce atoms within specified boundaries and locate bonds and polyhedra.
Open - Open an old ATOMS data file.
Import - Open a crystallographic or molecular data file from other sources.
Import - Open a crystallographic or molecular data file from other sources.
Save - Save an ATOMS data file.
Save as - Save an ATOMS data file with a new name
Print - Print out the graphics image.

The Model Mode drop-down or box controls the Model Mode - this duplicates a submenu in the Display menu. The options are Standard, Ellipsoid, Cavities and Protein.

The Drawing Mode drop-down or box controls the Drawing Mode - this also duplicates a submenu in the Display menu.

The Fullscreen button switches from normal windows to display using the entire screen. From ATOMS V6.4 this can be done with any combination of Model and Drawing Modes and on Macintosh, Windows or Linux (although there are some different controls for Linux)

The Animate button, present when you have read in a .MOT file from VIBRATZ and have atomic-motion data for vibrational modes, will start an animated (moving) display. Exit the animated mode by clicking the mouse or hitting any key. Speed and other parameters of this display are set in the Vibrational Modes dialog in the Input1 Menu. That dialog also controls making movies or "video" files.