Interactive 3D Design

If you're building a three-dimensional nanoscale device or component you need to work in three-dimensions. It is not enough just to visualize the nanoscale, you need a complete set of tools to create and edit your nanoscale component, device or system. nanoXplorer IDE includes an advanced 3D interactive editor for NanoFiles and their components. Position and orient components, add or remove atoms, bonds, interfaces and connections. Rotate branches. Move individual nuclei. Zoom in on selected components. View your creation from any vantage point. Do all this and more with nanoXplorer IDE.

Nanodevice Model

nanoXplorer IDE adopts the nanodevice as its main design focus. Unlike other applications that concern themselves with molecules or protein structures, nanoXplorer IDE instead focuses on nanoscale components and their interrelationships within an overall device design. To support arbitrarily complex designs, nanoXplorer IDE defines the nanosystem, which may include any number of sub(nano)systems. Nanosystems may also contain molecular devices, which in turn can contain any number of device components. Device components group together atomic systems and volumes into identifiable pieces. All these components can be added individually, assembled into more coherent structures and saved into NanoFiles. Because of its unique design focus, nanoXplorer IDE is the essential software resource for the nanotechnology workgroup.

Workspace

The Workspace holds all of your projects, folders, NanoFiles and other files. With its ability to look inside NanoFiles and present their component hierarchy without actually loading the file's atomic system data, the workspace provides a very efficient environment for finding what you need and staying organized.

Real-Time Collaboration

With nanoXplorer IDE you can publish a NanoFile on your network for others to view and optionally edit along with you. This advanced real-time collaboration capability is ideal for joint design activities and demonstrations/lectures. When you make a change to your shared NanoFile, everyone will see the change occur on their workstations immediately. Imagine working with the quantum dot expert down the hall on a particularly sensitive part of your design or leading a team teleconference by highlighting the key design elements of a hypothetical nanosensor on everyone's computer.

Nanocomponent Wizards

nanoXplorer IDE includes wizards to help create and configure various common nanoscale entities, such as nanotubes, buckyballs and DNA. All of the available nanoscale components are found in the Widgets View and can be included with a simple double-click or drag and drop. Each wizard is tailored for its particular component. Specify the chirality of a nanotube. Assign the base pairs of a single- or double-stranded B, A or Z type DNA molecule. Select a buckyball from a database. In every case the wizard makes creation easy while still providing tools for advanced users.

Interfaces and Connections

Relationships between components, including chemical bonding between the nuclei of their atomic systems, are established using nanoXplorer IDE's interfaces and connections. Importantly, with this approach, components can retain their identity for continued editing and manipulation, while at the same time provide chemically correct descriptions for simulations.

Selection Highlighting

nanoXplorer IDE optionally uses scoped lighting to indicate the component that currently has focus. Selections can be made simply by clicking on a component and nanoXplorer IDE supports selection toggling and grouping for editing multiple components simultaneously.

Hide Components

When designing a nanoscale device it's often necessary to iteratively edit components and those components may often obscure each other from various viewpoints. nanoXplorer IDE provides intuitive control over the visibility of each component through controls in the Outline View. Any component can be hidden or restored with a single click, so you can easily expose and edit any component no matter how deeply embedded in you device.

Nanocomponent Plug-ins

If nanoXplorer IDE doesn't include a particular kind of nanocomponent in which your workgroup is interested, you can add it yourself using the nanocomponent and nanowidget extension points. With a little Java programming and some data format translations your own component can be available as a first-class component citizen, just like all the others. The benefits of doing so are the benefits of the integrates development environment... higher productivity and better work flow.

Widget Sets

Display available nanocomponent widgets by category to organize your workbench and streamline your workflow. Built in categories include all, common and carbon allotropes but you can also define your own widget sets. The Widget Set Manager makes creating and editing sets easy.