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Tutorials and Examples

Platon (Shelx Compatible) Structure Analysis Toolkit Software by Ton Spek

Interacting with Platon and Obtaining Required Options

The CCP14 Homepage is at http://www.ccp14.ac.uk

[Tutorials page] | [Platon Tutorial Index]
[Platon Introduction] | [Obtaining Platon] | [Installing and Running Platon] | [Starting out with Platon] | [Runthroughs of some Platon functionaltiy]

Platon is very powerful but initially may be confusing to people more familiar with standard Windows like interfaces.

However, once savvy with some of the ways Platon allows you to go through various options, it allows you to access a wide variety of powerful functions.

For the UNIX version, clicking right mouse button on an option will spawn a version of Netscape and go to the relevant help page. If you have the correct Environment variable setup in your Windows PC, this will also work for the Windows version of Platon.


Please note the following screen dumps have been taken and reduced in very low resolution 640x480 pixel mode for web based screen dumps. The higher the screen resolution, the clearer and nicer the Platon menus and graphics will look.

Platon is very powerful but initially may be confusing to people used to a standard Windows like interface.

If you find yourself on the Platon Command line, type Menu [ENTER] to get the graphical menu.

For the purpose of this demonstration, if you find yourself in the main Platon menu, click on PLUTONauto just below the GRAPHICS to enter the Pluton structure viewing and analysis area.

  • Platon Starting Menu
  • Platon/Pluton Structure Viewing

In Pluton mode, there are a wide variety of options but you may not realise how to bring these up. You will notice in the OptionMenu area is cut into 4 sections. Clicking on the quartets brings up the various options. In the above screen shot, it is in the default "Pluton Menu" mode. In the following screen shots, you see the 5 possible options menus by either clicking with the mouse on the text, or the lower 4 quartets. Whereever you see quartets like this, implies there are more options or is an indication of the level (e.g., when rotating the structure).

No Quartet Selected -  Pluton Menu First Quartet Selected - Contents Menu Second Quartet Selected - Style Menu Third Quartet Selected - View Menu Forth Quartet Selected - Geometry Menu


When in graphics mode, to get back to the main menu, click twice on the bottom right EXIT option.

Bottom Right Exit back to Platon Main menu Option

Back to the Platon Main Menu


For some options, the output may go to the Dialog Window and with more exhaustive listings to the output file which can be opened with a text editor to view.

This may occur when requesting a total list of bond lengths, atoms, bond angles, etc. So if nothing seems to be happening on the graphics screen, the output may have gone to the output file or the Dialog Window. For instance, the following screen dump has part of an atom listing requested with the List Atoms menu item on the right hand Platon Menu.

Platon Dialog Window


[Tutorials page] | [Platon Tutorial Index]
[Platon Introduction] | [Obtaining Platon] | [Installing and Running Platon] | [Starting out with Platon] | [Runthroughs of some Platon functionaltiy]

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