Changing the Structure View
Changing the Display Style
The same display options apply for changing the appearance of the atoms during a refinement as can be used for generating images. These can be found under View|Quick-Drawing-Styles, alternatively right click on the graphics display window and under Draw Style select the desired appearance.
Atom Display Quality
The quality of the atom appearance can be adjusted by right clicking in the display window and under Draw quality is the option to change between High, Medium or Low. Alternatively type >>qual -h/m/l in the command-line. When very large structures or packing diagrams are displayed, the graphics may respond slowly if the draw quality is set too high - besides, you will see the same regardless of which quality setting you choose.
Rotating a Structure
To rotate the structure, click with the LEFT MOUSE button in the graphics screen (avoiding atoms or Q-peaks) and move the mouse. Holding CTRL down at the same time rotates the structure around in the plane of the screen. You can also use SHIFT + DIRECTION keys to rotate the structure using the keyboard.
It is also possible to rotate the structure by a user-defined amount relative to the screen orientation under View|Rotate, x rotates the structure from top to bottom, y rotates from left to right and z rotates around in the plane of the page. On the command-line, >>rota 1 30 will rotate the molecule by 30 degrees around axis 1.
Zooming
Holding the RIGHT MOUSE button down in the graphics screen (avoiding atoms or Q-peaks) and moving the mouse will zoom into or out of the structure. If you do this while pressing the ALT-Key, the zooming will be smoother and more precise.
View Along a Specific Direction
Right click on the background of the graphics window, under View select the desired viewing direction from 100, 010, 001, 110, 101, 011 or 111.
In general, you can use >>matr to align the model along a direction in real or reciprocal spaces (with >>matr -r). Sometimes you find a good view, and would like to find the corresponding direction: type >>direction and Olex2 will tell you in which direction the structure is oriented.
The viewing direction can be saved and loaded using >>save view <name> and >>load view <name>, where
Displaying Basis Vectors and Cell Axes
- Show Basis: Toggle to display/hide the basis vectors. Alternatively right click in the display window under Model is the option to Show / Hide Basis or type
>>basis. The basis vectors can be moved by dragging them with left mouse button while holding down Shift, and zoomed by dragging it with the right mouse button. - Show Cell: Toggle to display/hide the cell axes. Alternatively right click in the display window under Model is the option to Show / Hide Unit Cell or type
>>cell. The directions (a, b, c and origin) are also displayed. While holding Shift down, you can move these labels with the left mouse button.
Stereo View
Various output options for Stereo viewing are available under View|Stereo-View. Some of these produce stereo images on a standard monitor, but stereo output on dedicated 3-D monitors is also supported for either of the two commonly available systems.