Instructions for Viewing Solid State Structures with CHIME

This presentation requires that you have downloaded and installed MDL's free CHIME software, which in turn requires one of the following browsers.

• Macintosh: you must use Netscape Communicator vs. 4 (4.0, 4.7x or 4.8x). These are old versions (mainly lacking some of the security features of newer version), but they are the only versions that work well with CHIME (they also work fine with other plug-ins such as Flash and Shockwave). Version 4.8 is still avaiable for download if you look around on the internet.
• Windows: use Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later

If you meet these software requirements, click below to

Some comments

1. Effective viewing or projection of this presentation requires that you use the mouse to rotate and zoom each view.
2. CHIME offers a plug-in menu with lots of interesting options (feel free to explore! In particular, try out "Select>Mouse Picking Action>Distances" and then click on two atoms in succession to see the distance between them--the distance should show up at the bottom information bar of your browser window). To get the pop-up menu
   • On a Mac, click and hold down the mouse button in the window showing the structure. (You must do this without moving the mouse; if you move it while clicking, the structure will rotate, but you won't see the pop-up menu.)
   • Using Windows, use the right mouse button to get the pop-up menu and the left mouse button to rotate.
3. Here is a review of how to use the mouse with Chime. You may wish to print this for handy reference.
4. After you start the presentation, you will not load the molecular coordinates until you select a topic and press the gray square button labelled "<-start by clicking here".
5. At the bottom of each page is a "utilities" link. This provides tools for measuring distances and angles within the structure shown. This is an alternative to using the pop-up menu described above.
6. The "color scheme" link is designed for viewing protein structures, so will not be useful for viewing these solid state inorganic structures.