Your own structures

You can make your own structure library very easily. First (before starting ADFinput) define an environment variable 'SCM_STRUCTURES'. It should point to some directory in which to search for possible structures. When you start ADFinput, the $SCM_STRUCTURES directory INCLUDING all subdirectories will be searched for structures. A structure is stored in an .adf file, you can just use any .adf file that you have created yourself.

The structures pull-down menu will have the same structure as the subdirectories within $SCM_STRUCTURES. One way to use this feature: set SCM_STRUCTURES to $HOME. Automatically any .adf file that you saved somewhere in your home directory will be found. However, if you have many files the start-up of ADFinput will be significantly slower since it needs to search all your files. In that case it is more convenient to make a special directory in which you put the .adf files that you wish to show up in the Structures menu.

To be able to actually use the structures as described earlier, it is necessary to define one of the atoms as having xyz-coordinates (0,0,0). This will be the atom that will actually appear at the spot of the atom that is replaced by the structure. To do this, simply select the atom and use the 'Set origin' command from the Edit menu. Next, save the structure in $SCM_STRUCTURES. As mentioned above, dummy atoms behave a little different when defined in this way.