Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ TikZ for 3d stick pictures of molecules

[ruth]

I would like to use tikz (or something else possibly) to produce some figures for a presentation I am preparing. I want to produce a pdf file, but texniccenter falls over when I try LaTex -> pdf. LaTex -> ps works, so it's not my (very little piece of test) code. I'm using adobe reader 9.0 if that makes any difference. I want to use it (or possibly sketch) to produce some 3d stick pictures of molecules, so if anyone has any suggestions for a better package to use, I'd be grateful for that too (it doesn't have to be TeX-based). Thanks

[josephwright]

tikz works fine for PDF output, in general. Could you give us an example of what you are trying, so we can see what might be wrong.

On another point, what type of molecular diagrams are we talking here? If they are "serious" chemistry, TeX-based approaches are not necessarily best.
--
Joseph Wright

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Ruth,

welcome to the board!
Perhaps post also your .log file as attachment here, we could try to find the cause there.

Stefan

[ruth]

No, not serious chemistry - these are going to be diagrams of ammonia with axes attached to show how to relate body-fixed axes to space-fixed axes (hence the need for 3d projections), and also to show the effect of nuclear permutations.

Cancel the question re pdf problems! Bizarrely, today it works. But any guidance on other graphics packages to use is always welcome!

[phi]

Asymptote is an extremely powerful vector graphics language that is very well suited for 3-D graphics. Have a look at the gallery, on page 2 there is an example molecule (cyclohexane). It can produce high-quality vector graphics with 3-D Postscript, render images with OpenGL (giving nice shadows and other features), and even create interactive 3-D models that Acrobat Reader users can zoom, drag and rotate. Furthermore, it comes with a powerful Java-like programming language that can be used for complex mathematics, numerical algorithms (nonlinear root-finding, integration, linear equation solving...) and much more.