From paul at chem.gla.ac.uk Wed Apr 7 12:30:41 2004 From: paul at chem.gla.ac.uk (Paul Mallinson) Date: Wed Apr 7 11:30:45 2004 Subject: Proposed modification to cif_rho local axis definition Message-ID: Christian suggested an extension of the local axis system to provide for the bisector of a bond angle being defined as an axis (potentially useful in applying site symmetry). This can already be done using a suitable dummy atom, but it would require a manual calculation of coordinates. I propose the dictionary definition could be extended as follows. Paul. _atom_local_axes_ax1 Name '_atom_local_axes_ax1' Category: atom_local_axes Data type: char Must appear in a looped list containing '_atom_local_axes_atom_label' Permitted values: x X y Y z Z +x +X +y +Y +z +Z -x -X -y -Y -z -Z mxy mXY myz mYZ mzx mZX +mxy +mXY +myz +mYZ +mzx +mZX -mxy -mXY -myz -mYZ -mzx -mZX Definition Specifies 'ax1' in the definition of a local axis frame. The definition employs three atom site labels 'atom0', 'atom1' and 'atom2', and two axis labels 'ax1' and 'ax2' having values '+/-X', '+/-Y' or '+/-Z'. For the atom defined by '_atom_local_axes_atom_label', whose nuclear position is taken as origin, local axis 'ax1' is the vector from the origin to atom0, axis 'ax2' is perpendicular to 'ax1' and lies in the plane of 'ax1' and a vector passing through the origin parallel to the vector atom1 -> atom2 (its positive direction making an acute angle with the vector parallel to atom1 -> atom2), and a right-handed orthonormal vector triplet is formed from the vector product of the vectors with labels 'ax1' and 'ax2'. In most cases atom1 will be the same as the atom specified by '_atom_local_axes_atom_label'. One or more 'dummy' atoms (with arbitrary labels) may be used in the vector definitions, specified with zero occupancy in the _atom_site_ description. The values of *_atom0, *_atom1 and *_atom2 must be identical to values given in the _atom_site_label list. Alternatively, 'ax1' may have values '+/-mXY', '+/-mYZ' or '+/-mZX'. In this case "m" signifies "median" and ax1 is formed from the sum of vectors origin -> atom0 and a vector parallel to the vector atom1 -> atom2, i.e. axis 'ax1' bisects the angle between these two vectors. Its label is taken as '+/-X', '+/-Y' or '+/-Z' respectively. Axis 'ax2' is defined as above, its label being taken as the last character in 'ax1'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------