PLUTON INTRO

WHAT IS PLUTON AND HOW TO GET STARTED

PLUTON

The previously available standalone molecular graphics program PLUTON (by A.L.S), a decendent of the well known PLUTO (Motherwell & Clegg) program from around 1978, is now available only as a build-in option within the PLATON suite. The original PLUTON is now obsolete and no longer supported & maintained as a stand-alone program.

There are six ways to run the PLUTON option within PLATON.

The first three provide a direct path to PLUTON, the last three an indirect path.

With the '-p' option on the command line
Example: platon -p sucrose.spf
With a 'softlink' of 'pluton' to the 'platon' executable:
i.e. ln -s platon pluton
sothat PLUTON can be invoked as usual: pluton sucrose.spf
Clicking on 'toPluton' in the PLATON menu on the right side.
The PLATON keyboard instruction 'PLUTON'
Clicking in the main PLATON-MENU on the button PLUTONauto will result in a PLATON-run to generate an input file for PLUTON to make both consistent.
Clicking on PLUTON-ELD in the ORTEP-menu.

PLUTON can be run in the (old) 'Menu-Off' mode by invoking PLATON with two switches:

Example: platon -o -p sucrose.spf

SHORT INTRO TO PLUTON

(This is the 'direct path' version assuming Tektronix emulation; the X-windows mode runs slightly different)

PLUTON is a program for interactive molecular graphics. It is designed for use in a crystallographic context. However, it can be used for the display and analyses of molecules in an orthogonal (Angstrom) coordinate system as well.

Method of use:

Pertinent data are given on/ read from a file (normally prepared either with an editor or by another program. The data may be in several formats including those of the supplied testdata files. Formats that should work are: CIF, shelxl.res, PDB, Cart3d, Fdat. The name of the file is not essential i.e. no information on the file contents is taken from its name. The data type is guessed from the file contents.
The program is started with the command line 'pluton cyto.spf' with the data-file as argument.
The program prompts the user for instructions (A build-in help function lists all available instructions). Most instructions are defaulted. A PLUTON session consists of a cyclic process of content/style/viewpoint type of modification instructions and a PLOT instruction to inspect the result of the current settings.

As an example, try the following simple sequence of instructions with the cyto.spf file. (Note: Instructions given in upper-case here, however lower case is also acceptable)

    a) PLOT        This will give a default stick style plot. The plot 
                   style may be changed into the 'straw-mode' with the
                   instruction

    b) STRAW       (Note: Keyboard control is retained after hitting the
                          Return key)

                   followed by:

    c) PLOT        to inspect the result.

    d) XROT 45     followed by

    e) PLOT        will result in a molecule rotated by 45 degrees 
                   over the horizontal X-axis.

    f) CPK GLOBE   will change again the plot style into a space filling
                   model followed by 
    g) PLOT

    h) SET META PS and   (Note: Postscript is default on UNIX versions)

    i) SET META ON and

    j) PLOT        will generate a disk-file that can be send to a
                   PostScript laserprinter (Other options are described
                   in the HELP GRAPHICS option

    k) END         finishes the session

For more details see PLUTON MANUAL

PLATON HOMEPAGE

01-mar-1999 A.L.Spek