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