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iMol is a free molecular visualization application for Mac OS X operating system.
The program is an indispensable tool
for chemists and molecular biologists.
iMol allows loading molecules using several file formats:
PDB, XYZ, MOL2, HIN, CAR, ALC, BIO. The molecules can be saved as
PDB, XYZ or BIO files. The BIO file stores all view and rendering settings
(e.g. colors, lighting, orientation of molecules).
iMol can easily handle both small and large molecules, it can load
multiple molecules, move and rotate them independently.
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iMol uses OpenGL API to display molecules.
The molecules can be rendered using various styles: wires,
points, Van der Waals spheres, balls and sticks, polygons,
strands, ribbon, cartoons, spring, tube, ladder. Individual atoms
and/or residues can be selected and rendered independently. The rendering
styles can be mixed up to visualize complex molecular systems in a more
convenient way. There are several predefined color schemes available
(e.g. residuum order, secondary structure, hydrophobicity), as well as
custom colors. Also, different materials (e.g. plastic, metal, glass)
can be used. The rendered images may be exported as a bitmap, as a Postscript
file, or as a POV-Ray file.
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The program can measure distances, angles, and torsional angles between atoms.
Molecules can be superimposed and RMSD (Root Mean Square Deviation)
between atoms coordinates can be calculated.
Additionally, protein chains can be structurally aligned to detect regions
of high structural similarity. iMol can load multimodel PDB files and display
them as a dynamics trajectory.
iMol supports Quick Time movie format for rendering molecular dynamics
trajectories and molecular animations. The movies are efficiently
compressed for web applications.
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Several rendering effects are available, including automatic rotation,
motion blur, depth cuing (fog), background gradient, perspective,
and stereo projection (using both side-by-side and red/blue anaglyph
methods). Various rendering parameters can be fine-tuned. Atoms
and residues can be labelled using names and numbers.
iMol benefits from Mac OS X Aqua user interface. Rendering, view,
and selection options are placed inside a convenient mobile drawer.
The iMol package includes several example files demonstrating full
rendering potential and visualization capabilities.
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System Requirements
- Mac OS X v.10.2 or newer
- Power PC G3 processor or Intel processor (iMol is universal binary)
- 256 MB RAM
- OpenGL accelerator (at least 32 MB of video RAM is recommended)
- 5 MB of free disk space
iMol is written in Objective-C and C. The source code counts over 15,000 lines.
The program may be freely used and distributed, providing that you don't remove
the copyright information.
Please note: the current version of iMol is still an early development
release. Many features are not implemented yet and there are many issues not solved.
User's manual is very limited and there is no reliable help file.
Your feedback is most welcome, please send your questions, comments or opinions to the author,
Piotr Rotkiewicz.
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