Subject: fast bond render

From: Andrew Rohl <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 22:55:53 +0800

I am writing (yet another) java applet for displaying and allowing 
rotation of molecules in a web page. Of the free applets out there, i 
have not found one which displays ball and stick representations to 
my satisfaction. As the applet is to be used in a first year 
undergraduate virtual lab, i think that a good ball and stick 
representation is vitally important and the applet I produce will be 
freeware. I have started with an applet written by Eric Harlow 
([email-masked]) and shamelessly used the atom style in the 
program Ball&Stick by Norbert Mueller and coworkers. The results can 
be seen in the attached (small!) picture. The applet is the top and 
the ball & stick at the bottom. Now my question relates to the best 
way of drawing realistic bonds as in the bottom figure. Dr Mueller 
has been very kind in telling me how Ball & Stick draws the bonds but 
I suspect using his method will lead to the applet no longer having 
satisfactory performance. So does anyone have any algorithms or code 
fragments for the fast rendering of bonds? I am aware of the JMol 
code, but its bonds appear to be ribbons, rather than cylinders and 
so this code loses its 3-Dness.

I will summarise the responses

Thanks

   Andrew

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Andrew Rohl                                    Email: [email-masked]
Senior Lecturer in Computational Chemistry
School of Applied Chemistry                    Phone: +61 8 9266 7317 (Office)
Curtin University of Technology                       +61 8 9266 3780 (Lab)
PO Box U 1987
Perth, 6845                                    FAX:   +61 8 9266 2300
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WWW:  http://chemistry.curtin.edu.au/staff/alr
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