PLATON

PLATON for MS-Windows



Current versions of the program PLATON for Windows are available from this site. The source code and compiled versions of the program for various other UNIX platforms are available from the official PLATON ftp-site. A full manual for PLATON is available from the PLATON homepage

PLATON is written by Ton Spek, and is a versatile crystallographic tool implementing a large variety of standard geometrical calculations (i.e. bonds, angles, torsions, planes, rings, inter-molecular contacts (H-Bond analysis), Coordination etc), tests (i.e. for missing symmetry, voids in the lattice etc.), utilities (cell transformation, SHELXL input etc.), graphics (e.g automatic labelled 'ORTEP-lookalike plots and the molecular graphics program PLUTON) and several filters (e.g. the DIFABS technique for empirical absorption correction (Walker & Stuart), and the SQUEEZE option for handling disordered solvents, described by Sluis & Spek, Acta Cryst. 1990,A46, 194). This latter option places great demands on the available memory.

Parameter data may be given in various formats including CSD-FDAT, CIF, PDB & SHELX RES standards. A CIF file should be used when e.s.d.'s on the derived geometry parameters are desired. Most features are currently available only for non-protein structures.


PLATON for Windows
This is an MS-Windows implementation of the latest UNIX version of PLATON. It is identical to the UNIX version, except that System S is not included (it is too Unix specific). It is suitable for all current flavors of Windows (95 /98 /ME /NT /2000 /XP).

A PC with a Pentium (or equivalent) processor and with at least 32 Mb of RAM memory is recommended. The program works with all screen resolutions, but is best suited for 800x600 or higher. The program has been extensively tested on all Windows platforms (any problems please contact me).

The program is provided free of charge for academic, scientific and non-commercial purposes, provided usage is acknowledged.

Commercial users can only download Platon for Windows if they have previously obtained a license (currently US$5000) from Prof. Dr. A.L. Spek using this application form

http://www.cryst.chem.uu.nl/platon/applfrm.html

PLATON for Windows is released in a format which allows for easy updating (a new UNIX version often appears several times per week). The Platon for Windows Taskbar (PWT) is a GUI which runs PLATON and allows access to all the UNIX shortcuts from the Windows environment. It acts as a launcher for the PLATON executable. You need to download both programs.
Place the PLATON.EXE executable in the same directory as the Taskbar, or in the wingx\bin directory if using WinGX to run PLATON.
Place CHECK.DEF in the location pointed to by the environment variable CHECKDEF.

Click on the buttons below to :

Download the PLATON for Windows Taskbar (current version is 1.10 - uploaded September 27th 2006).
You only need to download this if new revisions are posted. This happens quite rarely.

Download the PLATON executable. This is updated frequently - current PLATON version is dated 14th November 2006. Overwrite your old versions of PLATON.EXE and CHECK.DEF with these new versions.
IMPORTANT - This version requires PWT 1.10 or later - please download this also if you do not already have it.

See the README file for installation instructions.


If you have any problems with these programs, please contact me at the email address below. Please DO NOT contact Ton Spek directly.

Louis J. Farrugia

Department of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building,
University Of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Telephone +44 (0)141 330 5137
FAX +44 (0)141 330 4888

E-mail louis@chem.gla.ac.uk

Please check out the other software available from this site

This page was last updated on:November 16th, 2006.