NAME

       Raster3D - molecular graphics package

SYNOPSIS

       The Raster3D molecular graphics package consists of a core program render and a number of ancillary
       programs (balls, rastep, rods) which produce input files for rendering from PDB (Protein Data Bank) files
       of atomic coordinates.  Raster3D can also render images composed using other programs such as MOLSCRIPT
       [Per Kraulis (1991), J. Appl. Cryst. 24, 946-950].

       Raster3D is freely available. If you use the package to prepare figures for publication, please give
       proper credit to the authors.  The proper citation for the current version is Merritt & Bacon (1997).

            Bacon & Anderson (1988) J. Molec. Graphics 6, 219-220.
            Merritt & Murphy (1994) Acta Cryst. D50, 869-873.
            Merritt & Bacon  (1997) Meth. Enzymol. 277, 505-524.

DESCRIPTION

       Raster3D uses a fast Z-buffer algorithm to produce high quality pixel images featuring one shadowing
       light source, additional non-shadowing light sources, specular highlighting, transparency, and Phong
       shaded surfaces.  Output is in the form of a pixel image with 24 bits of color information per pixel.
       Raster3D does not depend on graphics hardware.

       The following image output formats are supported: AVS, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and SGI libimage.  To actually
       view or manipulate the images produced, you must also have installed an image viewing package (e.g. John
       Cristy's ImageMagick or the SGI libimage utilities).  A filter utility avs2ps is included in the package
       which can convert an AVS format output stream directly to a dithered monochrome PostScript image.

       Although Raster3D is not intended as a general purpose ray-tracing package, nothing in the rendering
       process is specific to molecular graphics.

EXAMPLES

       Using only programs included in the Raster3D distribution one can create and render space-filling models,
       ball-and-stick models, ribbon models, and figures composed of any combination of these.  The following
       set of commands would produce a composite figure of an Fe-containing metalloprotein with a smoothly
       shaded ribbon representation of the protein and spheres drawn for the Fe atoms:

            #
            # Draw smooth ribbon with default color scheme 2,
            # save description (with header records) in ribbon.r3d
            #
            cat protein.pdb | ribbon -d2 > ribbon.r3d
            #
            # Extract Fe atoms only, and draw as spheres.
            # Color info is taken from colorfile.
            # Save description (with no header records) in irons.r3d
            #
            grep "FE" protein.pdb | cat colorfile - | balls -h > irons.r3d
            #
            # combine the two descriptions and render to a PNG image
            #
            cat ribbon.r3d irons.r3d | render > picture.png

       Integrated use of MOLSCRIPT/Raster3D/ImageMagick allows one to describe, render, and view 3D
       representations of existing MOLSCRIPT figures:

            molscript -r infile.dat | render | display png:-

SOURCE

       web URL:
            http://www.bmsc.washington.edu/raster3d/raster3d.html

       contact:
            Ethan A Merritt
            University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195
            merritt@u.washington.edu

SEE ALSO

       render(l), rastep(l), rods(l), ribbon(l), balls(l), avs2ps(l), stereo3d(l)

LICENSE

        Raster3D version 3.0 is distributed under the terms of the
        Artistic License, Version 2.0.

AUTHORS

        Originally written by David J Bacon and Wayne F Anderson.
        Ancillary programs by Mark Israel, Stephen Samuel, Michael Murphy, Albert Berghuis, and Ethan A Merritt.
       Extensions, revisions, and modifications by Ethan A Merritt.