The PLATON subprogram link PLUTON, a decendent of the well known PLUTO program, is a molecular graphics tool for the study and display of molecules in their crystallographic environment, producing vector graphics output rather than raster graphics.
The default algorithms used by PLATON and PLUTON respectively for collecting connected sets of atoms differ to some extent. This may cause some unnecessary confusion. PLATON therefore provides through the PLUTONauto option a path to PLUTON that insures consistency of ARU-codes with those given in PLATON/CALC listings.
This consistency goal is achieved with the generation of a new input file with extension .eld as an intermediate that is used as input for the PLUTON link.
This structural parameter file is saved for optional future use.
In parallel, a file with extension .def is generated. This file contains a set of PLUTON instructions for a default display. The .def file is read after reading the .eld file.
PLATON may be made to behave as the original standalone PLUTON program in tthree ways to run on the data file sucrose.spf:
With a UNIX softlink in the directory where the PLATON executable
recides:
ln -s platon pluton
e.g. pluton sucrose.spf
e.g. platon -p sucrose.spf