JShape

Java Crystal Shape Viewer  
© Steffen Weber, 1998

 
This page introduces JShape, a tool for displaying crystal shapes. This is not an applet but a stand-alone application. In order to run it you need some Java Virtual Machine (JVM) like the freely available JDK 1.1.3 (and higher) . Then you can use either the "java" tool or the "jre" (Java Runtime Environment) to execute JShape.  e.g:   java JSHAPE  or  jre JSHAPE.

To download the JDK go to  www.javasoft.com. Installation instructions are given there. (its best to use JDK1.1.6, since JDK1.2 ist still beta and not available for all oparating systems)
 

Main Features of JShape

• renders a hkl-list into a crystal shape
• real time rotations by mouse drags
• inputfile editor
• output of PostSript (not screen dump)

Operating System

Since JShape is written in Java it runs on any machine with a Java Virtual Machine installed (Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac..)

Release

 Installation

1. download the file jshape.jar (this is a JAR file,  Java's own compression format similar to TAR for UNIX)
2. put it in a directory on your hard disk
3. execute "jar  xvf  jshape.jar"  (you need to have JDK1.? on your machine for the "jar" tool)
4. that will create the directory JShape and extract all individual files including some subdirectories
5. then you may run JShape with "java JSHAPE"  (make sure your jdk1.?/bin directory is in the path)

In case nothing happens when trying to run it, most probably your CLASSPATH settings are not correct. Read the JDK doc, to find out how to set the CLASSPATH for your operating system.

Screen Shot

Usage

Load an input file (subdirectory hkl/) and edit it. You may also change  the filename it the blue textfield. So you can create other files from a present one. The file format is as follows

a  b  c  alpha  beta  gamma
number of planes
h    k    l      distance from center     custom color code (0-15)
.
.
.
 
The 16 custom colors with the corresponding number can be seen in below the editor's text area. The other colorbar (does not look correct on Windows)  on the bottom left is for the Canvas color (right mouse drag) and for the shape's color (left mouse click). If you find bugs, let me know. If you created nice shapes I would be happy if you could send me some files. For rotating drag the shape with right/left mouse key !