CCL: cavity determination

 Sent to CCL by: "Victor  Rosas-Garcia" [quimico69 _ yahoo.com]
 Hello everybody,
 I am trying to calculate the size of the molecular cavity for a series of
 macrocycles, and someone suggested the use of alpha shapes.  I am not very
 familiar with these.  I have located some (highly mathematical) literature and
 web pages about alpha shapes.  In addition, I am trying to get a copy of
 Edelbrunner's papers on its application to chemical species (don't have them
 yet).  So my questions are:
 a) How widely used are alpha shapes in working with molecular cavities? (my
 library search has turned up very little)
 b) Can anyone recommend software to calculate alpha shapes of molecules?
 So far I have found Hull by Ken Clarkson, and Alpha Shapes at Duke, but I'm
 still trying to get them to compile with gcc.
 thank you for you attention
 Victor M. Rosas Garca, PhD
 Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas, UANL
 e-mail: quimico69|-|yahoo.com