Preferences, Operation Tab
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Dialog Box Tab - called from: Settings Menu

See also Preferences - Constants Tab.

Sounds. This turns on or off the sounds emitted by ATOMS, for example at the beginning and end of calculation and/or plotting (some system sounds are unaffected).

Draw into buffer. If this box is checked, the image is drawn into an off-screen memory buffer, and then copied to the screen. If not, the drawing is made directly to the screen, and then copied afterwards into the buffer. Drawing into a buffer is usually faster, but the difference may be small. No memory is saved by not checking the box, since the buffer is always used anyway for refreshing the window after another window is draw over it.

Confirmatory alerts in New input. If this box is checked, during input of a New structure file (File menu), after every input dialog there is an alert or dialog box (Entering New Data Set) giving the choice of proceeding to the next dialog, aborting data input, or revising the last dialog. Without these dialogs, there is no escape from the sequence of Input1 dialogs, and no escape from the sequence of Input2 dialogs.

Calculate query on file open. If this box is checked, you are asked if you want to calculate the structure - if not, the structure is calculated as soon as it is read in.

Scale lettering to screen. If this box is checked, in printed output or output to a file, the labels in that output will be scaled to approximately the same relation to the drawing itself as on the screen. This is a very approximate process, and trial-and-error adjustment will still be necessary to get the desired label sizes in output. This option should be thought of as adjusting the labels on the screen to look similar to those in the output, rather than the other way around.

Screen start-up. This sets the color/black-and-white state of the screen at start of ATOMS. It can be changed with the Color command in the Display menu.

Mark selected atoms. This refers to selecting atoms in the screen plot with the mouse. If Show last is selected, the last atom selected is outlined in a contrasting color, but this marking disappears when another atom is selected, or an empty area is clicked. If Show all is selected, all markings remain until a Replot.

Skeletal mode during interactive rotation. When rotating using the mouse cursor, ATOMS can switch to a skeletal mode so as not to slow down the motion. This is not usually necessary when the number of atoms is small as the redraw is usually fast enough, so the best choice may be "If more atoms than". The number of atoms may be several hundred or so, but this will depend on the speed of your system.

Color for line bonds. When in the skeletal drawing modes (Bond colors option above), and when bond radii are 0.0 in the Standard drawing mode, the colors for lines representing bonds may be either the rim or fill colors given in the Bond Data dialog.

Coordinate system for Input=Generated mode. This controls the display of structure coordinates in the Generated Atom Data dialog. Original crystal will give the coordinates of the current point in terms of the original crystal (or other ) structure axes. Structure Cartesian gives the coordinates in terms of the original Cartesian axes - only this setting will correlate directly with the coordinates listed in the Input Atoms dialog in the Input1 menu. This setting also affects the axes used in the Align on Face or Vector and Current Orientation dialogs in the Rotate menu.