Manual: Rendered and flat representation


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Diamond Version 5 User Manual: Display of structure picture

Rendered and flat representation

This article in brief:
- Rendered Representation: Overview
- Rendered Representation: Features and Limitations
- Switching Rendering On or Off

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Overview

Version 2 of Diamond introduced a new way of representing a structure picture producing high-quality graphics with shaded objects, transparency, material and light properties. This is called the "rendered representation", whereas the "old" standard representation, which is of course still available, is called "flat representation" in contrast.

This article describes the differences between these two kinds of representation, their advantages and disadvantages, depending on the application of the picture or printout, as well as limitations.

Rendered Representation: Features and Limitations

Diamond uses the MS Windows implementation of the OpenGL graphics library for rendered representation. This gives you a lot of possibilites to display photo-realistic shaded models with user-defined light sources, materials properties and optional transparency if wanted. Of course the common old-style drawing mode (the flat representation), which is more useful for black-on-white printouts, is also supported. The following illustration compares flat (left) and rendered (right) representation of the same structure picture:

Rendering representation example

The following table compares advantages and disadvantages of the two kinds of representation:

	Flat	Rendered
Lighting	Light bulbs will be used on atoms. Their position and intensity depends on light source definitions.	Uses shading for all objects (except for text). This gives atoms and bonds the best 3D impression. Several components of a light source can be defined.
Edges	Flat objects mostly have edges for a better distinguishing between objects and background.	There are no edges. The objects distinguish from each other or background because of their shading.
Shading edge, Front emphasizing	Shading edge and emphasizing of lines of front objects can be used to enhance a 3D impression.	Neither shading edge nor front emphasizing are used, since there are no edges in this kind of representation.
Pattern	Patterns may be used (e.g. ORTEP-like patterns) to enhance a 3D impression of atom balls or ellipsoids.	Patterns will not be used, since shading gives a better 3D impression.
Hatching	Hatching may be used for polyhedron faces.	Hatching is not used for polyhedron faces.
Depth cueing	Objects in the rear become darker.	Objects in the rear become darker.
Printout	Best representation on black-and-white printers.	Best representation on color printers.
Metafile/Bitmap	All graphical objects will be saved in the Windows Metafile and can be scaled in other applications. The picture can also be saved as bitmap.	3D graphical objects cannot be saved in a Windows metafile. Save a rendered representation as bitmap - at best with a higher resolution than the structure window has.

Switching Rendering On or Off

To change between flat and rendered representation, click on the (here yellow marked) Picture Settings button in the Picture toolbar:
Picture Settings toolbar button .
This opens a menu where you choose the Rendering command to switch rendering on or off, rsp. (The symbol in the command is marked yellow, if rendering is active.)
Rendering command from Picture Settings toolbar button .

Alternatively, you can choose the Picture Settings command from the Display menu, and change the Rendering checkbox on the Representation page of the Picture Settings dialog.

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Next article: Models