CrystalMaker Help > Guide > Building

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Opening a Structure

The full version of CrystalMaker lets you save files in either binary or text format. (The demonstration version lets you open, but not save, binary files.)

You can open a CrystalMaker text or binary file in one of the following ways:

  • Double-click the document icon;
  • Drag the document icon onto the CrystalMaker application program icon;
  • Use CrystalMaker's File > Open command;
  • Drag-and-drop the document icon into an existing CrystalMaker Graphics window.
  • Drag-and-drop the document icon into the Views pane of the Overview window.
  • If your document is already listed in the Files pane (of the Overview window), simply click its thumbnail to load the structure.

Binary files contain everything needed to rapidly display a structure on screen, including structural data, notes, rendering, selection and labelling information. Binary files come in two types: Crystal files (indicated by the blue icon) or Molecule files (orange icon).

CrystalMaker Text files can be edited with a text processor, and contain basic structural information (e.g., atomic coordinates and colours), without the full range of display settings that are stored in binary files. Text files use less disc space than binary files - but take much longer to load. See the formatting reference for more information about CrystalMaker's text file format.

Unable to open a file?

If you are unable to open a file using CrystalMaker's Open File dialog, or if a file appears to have lost its icon, then chances are the file has lost its standard Mac file type and creator codes. This may happen if Mac files are transferred to other, "flat", file systems (e.g., Unix or Windows).

Under those circumstances, it is advisable to use file extensions (e.g., "my crystal.cmdf" or "my molecule.cmmf").

Importing a non-CrystalMaker Text File

CrystalMaker can import text files produced by other programs, in file formats such as ICSD, CIF, PDB, etc. To import such a text file, you can either use the File > Open command (in which case CrystalMaker will attempt to detect the file format itself), or you can use the File > Import submenu to specify which file format should be used when reading the data.