Display of Unit Cell
Previous  Top  Next

Dialog Box - called from: Input2 Menu

For alternate ways of drawing unit cells, and problems sometimes encountered with crystal edges, see Drawing Crystal and Unit-Cell edges.

The unit cell is a simple box, with front and back edges having the colors specified. No distinction is made between "front" and "back" edges. In 2D Drawing modes, the unit cell is shown in front of the structure, like the structure axes, while in 3D Drawing mode it has a definite location in space and may interpenetrate with the structure depending on the Displacements.

In 2D Drawing modes, only the edges may be shown, while in 3D Drawing Modes faces may be shown as opaque or translucent planes.

Edges may be Dashed in 2D Drawing modes only. The dash length and interval are set in the Preferences dialog in the Settings menu or the Crystal Edges dialog in the Input2 menu.

If the Include in scaling box is checked the unit cell will not go off-scale in either the Universal or Maximize for each view scaling modes (Scaling dialog, Input2 menu).

For non-primitive lattices, you can choose either the Bravais or Primitive cell; the primitive cell will have the same shape as that generated by the Default Unit Cell boundary option (if a primitive cell is selected in that option also).

In 3D modes the edges may be shown as lines, which are always one pixel wide, or as cylinders with the specified radius. In 2D Drawing modes edges are always drawn as lines - the width is set in the Line Widths dialog (Input2 menu).

The unit cell is not shown in Stereopairs in 2D Drawing modes since it does not have a definite location in space, but it is shown in stereopairs in the 3D Drawing mode.

In 3D Drawing mode, and in perspective viewing in 2D Drawing modes, the unit cell applies to only one location in three-dimensional space. Change this location with the Displacements button, which calls the Unit-Cell Displacements dialog.

See Input Colors/Patterns/Pens for general aspects of color input.