Using Chime |
The tutorial uses a Netscape plug-in called Chemscape Chime. This makes it possible to present views of molecular structures which the user can interact with.Installing Chime
See the section Installing Chime for information on how to install this plug-in!Mouse Controls
You can rotate or translate the molecule by moving the cursor over the figure as you press a mouse button in combination with a key on the keyboard.Note: The X-axis (horizontal) and Y-axis (vertical) are in the plane of the figure. The Z-axis is perpendicular to the plane.
Windows Macintosh Effect Left Unmodified Rotation around the X- or Y-axis Shift-Left Shift Translation along the Z-axis (zooming) Shift-Right Shift-Command* Rotation around the Z-axis Ctrl-Right Command* Translation in the XY-plane Ctrl-Left Ctrl Move the slab plane along the Z-axis Right Hold Down Display the Chime menu *On some Macs, the Option (Alt) key has the same effect as the Command key.
Note: On some PowerPC-Mac running Windows you can simulate a right mouse-button click by pressing down the '=' key on the numerical keypad. The '=' key should be combined with Shift- and Ctrl-keys to obtain the effects described above for Windows computers.
Chime menu
You can activate a Chime menu by pressing the right mouse button (Windows) or just by holding down the mouse button (Macintosh) when the cursor is over a Chime figure. For a PowerPC-Mac running Windows you must press the Command and '=' keys after having clicked in the Chime figure.A simpler way is to click once on the letters MDL that appear in the lower-right corner of most Chime figures.
With the Chime menu you can change the display of the molecule in several ways, such as turning hydrogen atoms on or off (Options/Display Hydrogens) or changing the representation of the molecule (e.g. Display/Wireframe or Display/Ball & Stick).
On PC/Windows computers limited to 256 colors in the palette you can get better image qualities by selecting Color/Force Palette in the Chime menu. However, this will likely result in erratic colors outside the Chime figure. (Chime "sucks" all colors from the palette and leaves only random colors to other applications.) An alternative is to deselect Options/Specular in the Chime menu. The best solution, however, is to increase your system's color palette. In Windows 95, this is done with the Display applet in Control Panel: Click the Settings tab and select High Color (16 bit) under Color palette.
Color Scheme
The atoms are usually colored according to the CPK coloring scheme:
Atom Color Hydrogen white Carbon gray Nitrogen blue Oxygen red Sulfur yellow Phosphor orange The following legend serves as a reminder of the coloring scheme on most pages:
H C N O S P