Interactive computer display and analysis of small-molecule crystal structures

Stereo-diagrams of crystal structures are quickly produced and easily examined with interactive computer, graphics. The viewer can rotate, scale, edit, search and mark the drawing in real time. This gives the image an extra dimension over static, hard-copy plots and facilitates the analysis of crystal packing. Our implementation can `instantly' display structures in the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Files. High speed is achieved, in part, by using the graphics hardware to generate crystallographic symmetry.