Chime Source and Reference Page

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Chime Source and Reference Page

The Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules™

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Download the free Chime plug-in from MDL and install before viewing the molecules and minerals in the Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules collection. (They may require registration of name and e-mail address, but are not pesky about unsolicited mailings.)

About Chime:

Chime is a free plug-in made available by MDL that renders common chemical model formats such as *.mol, *.pdb, and *.xyz into web-based 3-D images. The current versions require the following OS/browser combinations:

Operating System		Chime Version	Browser:
Operating System		Chime Version	Netscape	MS IE
Windows:
	XP, 2000, NT4	Chime 2.6 SP6	v. 4.8^*	v. 6.x
	98, 95	Chime 2.6 SP3	v. 4.8^*	v. 4, 5
	Macintosh:
	OS8.6, 9.0	Chime 2.6 SP3	v. 4.8^*
	OSX.x	--not supported
SGI IRIX		Chime 0.9z
Linux		--not supported

^*Netscape v. 4.8 is available from Netscape archives. Kluges for Chime installation for Netscape 6 and 7 have been reported but are not supported by the Chime installer for any operating system.

Failure to choose the correct Chime and browser versions for a given operating system may lead to erratic results.

Paradoxically, Chime continues to work well w/o the latest browser or operating system--it works as well on Win98 w/ Netscape 4.8 as XP w/ MSIE6!

Editorial Note: Over the years, the availability of Chime plug-ins has been adversely affected by the platform wars and the browser wars, to the extent that MDL is now continuing releases only for a single platform (Windows) and a single browser (IE). Although users of free plug-ins can't be too choosy, it is a sad day when--in this modern age of cross-platform compatibility for many programs--legitimate audiences for educational and scientific materials are shut out.

Manipulating Chime models:

From MDLI's Chime Frequently Asked Questions:

"The Chime plug-in is live on the HTML page and can be manipulated:

With the mouse pointer over a Chime plug-in, clicking and holding the mouse button on the Macintosh, or clicking the right mouse button under Windows, brings up a property sheet which allows the user to:

Change the display type.
Change the display options.
Change the display color.
Bring up an "About box".
Turn on and off molecule rotation.
Turn on and off animation.
Render molfiles as either 2D or 3D.
Store the input file locally.

Clicking and holding down the mouse button (left mouse button under Windows) while over a plug-in allows the user to manually rotate the structure on display.
Clicking and holding down the mouse button (left mouse button under Windows) and simultaneously depressing the "Shift" key while over a plug-in allows the user to resize the structure on display.
Under Windows, clicking and holding down the right mouse button and simultaneously depressing the "Control" key while over a plug-in allows the user to translate (shift) the structure on display. On the Macintosh clicking and holding down the mouse button while simultaneously depressing the "Control" and "Option" keys provides the same capability."

This page is part of the Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules™.
©All rights reserved to the Minerals & Molecules Project.
For further information about the CHIME plug-in, see the Chime Source and Reference Page.
Original release: 20 May 1998; Last modified: 15 Sep 2004