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.

Raster3D V3.0                                   14 December 2010                                     Raster3D(1)