The How-to-Get Up-and-Running Page

Reference: A.L.Spek (2002) PLATON, A Multipurpose Crystallographic Tool, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

PLATON HOMEPAGE

Note: All FTP traffic is logged!

PLATON/UNIX Sources (f77 & C), executables and test data can be found on the:
PLATON ANONYMOUS FTP-SERVER SITE (xraysoft.chem.uu.nl).

and Windows95/98 & Windows-NT executables (Thanks to Dr. Louis Farrugia!) on:
PLATON MS-WINDOWS WEB-SITE (Dr. L. Farrugia, Glasgow, Scotland)

In order to get a copy of the program source you will have to copy (and uncompress) the two files

1. platon.f.Z (Complete Fortran source of PLATON - over 94000 lines of code)
2. xdrvr.c.gz (C-interface to X-window library Xlib)

A compiled version - not always up-to-date - may be extracted by copying and uncompress platon.Z from the appropriate platform directory i.e.

• SUN,
• SGI,
• DEC,
• LINUX

Alternatively, copy platon.tar.gz which contains all files in the generic 'unix' directory (will compile without any change on DEC, SGI, SUN and LINUX platforms).

For the Validation feature, a copy of the file check.def will be needed. (Also included in 'platon.tar.gz).

f77 -o platon platon.f xdrvr.c -lX11

Some compilers need additional options (e.g. -Nl250).

Sometimes additional directions should be added on the compile line to indicate the location of libraries such us X11: -L /usr/X11/lib or -L /usr/X11R6/lib.

Some compilations crash when there is no sufficient space in /tmp. Use a cshell command such as

setenv TMPDIR .

instead (or any other directory with enough scratch space).

Some compilers only function when the source code platon.f has been split in smaller pieces (try parts of 10000 lines each) to be compiled separately.

The platon executable is best moved to a globally accessible directory

e.g. mv platon /usr/local/bin

In addition a link ln -s pluton platon in the same directory will give a direct path to PLUTON.

Some environment variables can be set (for programs etc. that are not in standard locations)

• POVEXE for POVRAY. E.g. 'setenv POVEXE /usr/local/bin/povray'

  (Note: Select the x-povray version from the distribution).

• RASEXE for RASMOL. E.g. 'setenv RASEXE /usr/local/bin/rasmol'

• R3DEXE for RASTER3D. E.g. 'setenv R3DEXE /usr/local/bin/render'

• CHECKDEF for the location of the file 'check.def'.
  E.g. 'setenv CHECKDEF /mnt/spea/check.def'

• QUESTEXE for the location of QUEST. E.g. 'setenv QUESTEXE /csd/bin/quest'

• NETEXE for the location of Netscape. E.g. 'setenv NETEXE /usr/local/bin/netscape'

• PLAHTM for setting the PLATON HTML menu tree to the root of a local copy (as opposed to over the internet).
  

  E.g. 'setenv PLAHTM /http/platon/'

  The full HELP-Tree is available From Here (Please Check regularly for updates).

Finally, check whether things work with sucrose.spf (on the ftp server). with:

platon sucrose.spf

which should bring up the PLATON Main Selections Menu.

Click on CALC ALL

Two listing files are produced: 'sucrose.lis' (lineprinter format) and a postscipt version in A4-format sucrose.lps.

The author is interested in reports of misbehaviour and suggestions for additional features.

There is a charge of 5000 Euro or US$ 5000 for commercial users (as a contribution to our continuing research efforts).

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PLATON HOMEPAGE