Dialog Box - called from: Input2 Menu
In the 3D Drawing Modes, crystal edges (Crystal Edges and Faces dialog), structure axes (Crystal Axes dialog) or unit-cell edges (Unit Cell dialog) may either be lines or cylinders. If they are lines, the width is set in the Line Widths dialog (Input2 menu). Rims of atoms and bonds and edges of polyhedra are never shown, so the relevant values are for edges (which include axes and unit cell) and bonds (which include skeletal bonds. Width of lines in VRML files cannot be controlled. Wide lines in 3D generally do not look good, so if width is to be more than one pixel, cylinders are better.
Spheres (atoms) and cylinders (bonds or vectors) are actually drawn as assemblages of planar polygons, the number of which is determined by the Subdivisions... setting (below).
If the Thermal ellipsoids box is checked, and if temperature factor data have been entered, atoms will be shown as ellipsoids in 3D Drawing modes. Some of the parameters in the Ellipsoid Parameters dialog may need to be adjusted - see that dialog for further details.
Subdivisions per quadrant... Spheres or ellipsoids (atoms) and cylinders (bonds or other lines) are drawn as assemblages of flat faces, and this parameter determines the fineness of the subdivisions. The default value of 5 may need to be increased for very large atoms. This parameter replaces the Slices and Stacks parameters in V4.0 of ATOMS - in V4.0 files, values of Subdivisions will be obtained from the sphere Slices number. The Slices for spheres and cylinders number is 4 times the Subdivisions, and Stacks for spheres is 2 times the Subdivisions. Cylinders have only one stack. Ellipsoids are distorted spheres (it could also be said that spheres are special ellipsoids) and they use the same subdivision parameters.
Bonds between ellipsoids, which are drawn in ORTEP style, have either 4 or 8 Subdivisions per quadrant, according to whether the value entered is less than, or equal to or greater than 6.