StructureFinder

StructureFinder indexes all .cif and/or .res files below a certain directory(s) and makes them searchable. Additionally, it is able to search for unit cells in the Bruker APEX2/3 software database.

Downloads

Current release
StructureFinder-setup-x64-v56.exe	2021-10-05	Windows
StructureFinder-v56_ubuntu	2021-10-05	Ubuntu Linux
StructureFinder-v56_opensuse	2021-10-05	OpenSuSE Linux
strf_cmd-v56.zip	2021-10-05	Web Interface

Recent Changes

Changelog

Screenshots

In the main tab, you can import CIF files to a database, you can save this database, you can open an existing database or open the APEX2/3 database on your computer. To search the APEX database, just click on the 'Open APEX Database' button. The program will try to connect the database on the local computer with the default username and password. If that fails, it will ask for a different.

Selecting a certain entry of the database shows the unit cell, the residuals and the asymmetric unit.

Basic search options for unit cells and text is also available. The cell search takes six parameters a, b, c, α, β, γ. The search is unsharp so 10 10 10 90 90 90 would find the same cell as 10.00 10.00 10.00 90.00 90.00 90.00.

The text search field searches in the directory, name and .res file text data. You can concatenate words with ? and *. For example foo*bar means 'foo[any text]bar'.

Pro tip: Double click on the unit cell to copy the cell to the clip board.

The 'all cif values' tab shows all cif values available in the database. These are not necessarily all but most values from the cif file.

The 'Advanced Search' tab allows you to search for several options at a time and also allows to exclude parameters. I will add more options in the future. I would be happy if you suggest more search options if you need more.

Indexing cif and/or res files

The 'Import Directory' button starts indexing of cif or res files below the selected directory recoursively, depending on which file ending is enabled. It will scan all subdirectories for cif/res files as well as zip files containing cif files. The time for indexing mostly depends on the speed of your hard drive. Scanning a complete 256 GB SSD takes about 50s. An eight years old complete file server with over 100 user directories and 10.000 crystal structures can take an hour.

You should not run the import over a network connection. It will take ages!

Command Line file Indexer

With the strf_cmd.py script, you can index directories without a graphical user interface.

The options -d and -e can be given multiple times like -d /foo -d /bar.

The command line indexer only needs Python >= 3.4.

$ python3.6 strf_cmd.py
usage: strf_cmd.py [-h] [-d "directory"] [-e "directory"] [-o "file name"]
Command line version of StructureFinder to collect cif files to a database.
StructureFinder will search for cif/res files in the given directory(s)
recursively. (Either -c, -r or both options must be active!)
optional arguments:
-h, --help      show this help message and exit
-d "directory"  Directory(s) where cif files are located.
-e "directory"  Directory names to be excluded from the file search.
                Default is: "ROOT", ".OLEX", "TMP", "TEMP", "Papierkorb",
                    "Recycle.Bin" Modifying -e option discards the default.
-o "file name"  Name of the output database file.
                Default: "structuredb.sqlite"
-c              Add .cif files (crystallographic information file) to the database.
-r              Add SHELX .res files to the database.
--delete        Delete and do not append to previous database.
    

Indexing Example

Creates the file structuredb.sqlite in the current directory:

python3.6.exe ./strf_cmd.py -d D:\Github\StructureFinder -o test.sqlite -c -r --delete
collecting files below D:\Github\StructureFinder
74 files considered.
Added 262 files (258 cif, 4 res) files (212 in compressed files) to database in: 
  0 h, 0 m, 2.05 s
---------------------
Total 262 cif/res files in 'test.sqlite'. Duration: 0 h, 0 m, 2.81 s

The command line version always appends all data to an already existing database in the current working directory.

Should I add support for pdb files? Please send me an email if you think I should.

Database Format

The database format is just plain sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org/). You can view the database structure with the fantastic sqlitebrowser (http://sqlitebrowser.org/).

The database structure is not supposed to change, but I might add compression to the file format in the future.

CSD search

StructureFinder is able to search for unit cells in the CSD with the CellCheckCSD program. As soon as CellCheckCSD is installed, you can search the CSD. Double-Click on a result row to get the detailed structure page.

Web interface

Instead of the regular user interface, you can run StructureFinder as web service. First, create a database with strf_cmd.py. This can be automated with a cron job to do it regularly. The zip file strf_cmd_version.zip above contains all you need to start the web service or use the Git repository. The web interface needs the Gunicorn WSGI HTTP Server to be installed (via "pip install gunicorn").

Change the variables

host = "127.0.0.1"
port = "80"
dbfilename = "/path/to/database.sqlite"

in cgi_ui/cgi-bin/strf_web.py to your desired webserver address and database path. Some operating systems do not allow users to run services at port 80. You might use port 8080 instead.

Go into the Structurefinder main directory and run

python3 cgi_ui/cgi-bin/strf_web.py

Be aware that running a web server has security implications. Do not expose this server to the internet unless you know what you are doing!

The web site should look like this after clicking on a table row:

Open Database Automatically

If you want to open the same database file with the Windows version, you can add the database file as command line parameter in the start menu shortcut:

You may cite StructureFinder as

D. Kratzert, I. Krossing, J. Appl. Cryst. 2019, 52, 468-471. https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576719001638. (local copy)

License

StructureFinder is free software and licensed under the beerware license.