WHAT IS PLUTON AND HOW TO GET STARTED
PLATON HOMEPAGE
PLUTON
The previously available standalone molecular graphics program PLUTON
(by A.L.S),
a decendent of the well known PLUTO (Motherwell & Clegg) program from
around 1978, is
now available only as a build-in option within the PLATON suite.
The original PLUTON is now
obsolete and no longer supported & maintained as a stand-alone program.
There are six ways to run the PLUTON option within PLATON.
The first three provide a direct path to PLUTON, the last three
an indirect path.
- With the '-p' option on the command line
Example: platon -p sucrose.spf
- With a 'softlink' of 'pluton' to the 'platon' executable:
i.e. ln -s platon pluton
sothat PLUTON can be invoked as usual: pluton sucrose.spf
- Clicking on 'toPluton' in the PLATON menu on the right side.
- The PLATON keyboard instruction 'PLUTON'
- Clicking in the main PLATON-MENU on the button PLUTONauto will result
in a PLATON-run to generate an input file for PLUTON to make both
consistent.
- Clicking on PLUTON-ELD in the ORTEP-menu.
PLUTON can be run in the (old) 'Menu-Off' mode by invoking PLATON with
two switches:
Example: platon -o -p sucrose.spf
SHORT INTRO TO PLUTON
(This is the 'direct path' version assuming Tektronix emulation;
the X-windows mode runs slightly different)
PLUTON is a program for interactive molecular graphics. It is designed
for use in a crystallographic context. However, it can be used for the
display and analyses of molecules in an orthogonal (Angstrom) coordinate
system as well.
Method of use:
- Pertinent data are given on/ read from a file (normally prepared
either with an editor or by another program. The data may be in
several formats including those of the supplied testdata files.
Formats that should work are: CIF, shelxl.res, PDB, Cart3d, Fdat.
The name of the file is not essential i.e. no information on the
file contents is taken from its name. The data type is guessed
from the file contents.
- The program is started with the command line 'pluton cyto.spf'
with the data-file as argument.
- The program prompts the user for instructions (A build-in help
function lists all available instructions). Most instructions
are defaulted. A PLUTON session consists of a cyclic process of
content/style/viewpoint type of modification instructions and
a PLOT instruction to inspect the result of the current settings.
- As an example, try the following simple sequence of instructions
with the
cyto.spf
file. (Note: Instructions given in upper-case
here, however lower case is also acceptable)
a) PLOT This will give a default stick style plot. The plot
style may be changed into the 'straw-mode' with the
instruction
b) STRAW (Note: Keyboard control is retained after hitting the
Return key)
followed by:
c) PLOT to inspect the result.
d) XROT 45 followed by
e) PLOT will result in a molecule rotated by 45 degrees
over the horizontal X-axis.
f) CPK GLOBE will change again the plot style into a space filling
model followed by
g) PLOT
h) SET META PS and (Note: Postscript is default on UNIX versions)
i) SET META ON and
j) PLOT will generate a disk-file that can be send to a
PostScript laserprinter (Other options are described
in the HELP GRAPHICS option
k) END finishes the session
For more details see PLUTON MANUAL
PLATON HOMEPAGE
01-mar-1999 A.L.Spek