These notes refer to a legacy product that is no longer supported. Please upgrade to CrystalDiffract 7 for new features, continued update and service!
Miscellaneous Enhancements. This release fixes a file-modification date issue and an occasional window-update problem:
Fixed a problem with the ASF.dat file's modification date, which could lead to incorrect diffraction intensity calculations.
The Graphics pane is now updated properly when a structure is loaded using methods other than drag-and-drop.
Miscellaneous Enhancements. This release contains a few improvements to the handling of sample strain values, and to the display of preferences on non-Roman systems:
Fixed a problem which caused the Preferences dialog panes to be sized incorrectly on Japanese (or any non-Roman language) systems.
Strain percentage values entered via the Percent Strain dialog and Parameters window Strain item are now correctly handled.
Miscellaneous Installer Improvements.
A problem which caused an invalid licence code error when running the Full Installer on existing installations has been fixed.
Information regarding the Uninstaller is now correctly written to the Registry when a reboot is required following installation or updating.
Fixed bug in installer which caused the check for All User installations to fail; app exit code now distinguishes between an app that was already licensed and one that has just been licensed.
When installing on Windows XP systems with the File Associations option selected, the user will no longer have to deal with the Run As dialog and risk seeing spurious crash alerts.
NOTE: When performing the Edit > File Associations command on Windows XP systems, the Run As dialog will be displayed by the operating system. You must un-tick (clear) the 'Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity' checkbox, or file associations will not be set and a spurious 'application crashed' alert will appear.
Stability Enhancements. This release fixes a problem that could cause long-term application instability.
Miscellaneous Fixes and Enhancements. This release contains a few improvements made since the 1.4.7 release:
Automatic update checking is now performed even if the application is launched via drag-and-drop or double-clicking of data files.
Miscellaneous minor stability improvements.
File Association Support. The Installer and Updater now allow the user to fine-tune file associations. Choosing the File Association component during installation or update brings up the File Associations dialog, which allows you to specify which document types are opened by default by CrystalDiffract.
You can also do this from within the application by choosing Edit > File Associations.
Toolbar Captions Fixed. The captions on the Film/Graph and Mix/Unmix toolbar buttons now reflect the state of the button correctly.
File Association Support. The Installer and Updater now allow the user to fine-tune file associations. Choosing the File Association component during installation or update brings up the File Associations dialog, which allows you to specify which document types are opened by default by CrystalDiffract.
You can also do this from within the application by choosing Edit > File Associations.
Toolbar Captions Fixed. The captions on the Film/Graph and Mix/Unmix toolbar buttons now reflect the state of the button correctly.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes various minor improvements:
Right-clicking in the Help Viewer window now displays a contextual menu.
The Unlock Application and Reset Licence commands are now separate menu items. Reset Licence now displays a Delete Licence button in the Personalisation dialog; clicking this will erase all licensing information and return the application to Demo mode.
Editable Site Occupancies. Site occupancies can now be edited in the Edit Crystal dialog. For example, you could now define a disordered site by changing its occupancy from "Si 1.0" to "Si 0.5 Al 0.5". You would then be able to use the Parameters window to fine-tune the occupancies between the two extremes: "Si 1.0" and "Al 1.0".
Miscellaneous Fixes and Enhancements. This release contains a few improvements to the user interface, the installer, and to neutron diffraction simulations.
Right-clicking in the Toolbar displays an active tool popup menu, which allows you to select which tools are displayed. This menu now includes a Standard Toolset menu item which enables you to easily reset the Toolbar to its default configuration.
The Shift tool button in the Toolbar now displays a popup menu when Toolbar is in text-only mode (Window > Toolbar > Text Only).
The Installer will now warn you if you attempt to install an upgrade of CrystalDiffract over an earlier version already installed on your system.
Minor corrections have been made to neutron scattering lengths in the ASF.dat file.
Minor reorganisation of items in the Help menu to improve clarity and consistency.
Fix for Licensing Dialog. This release corrects a problem in which entering a new-style licence code into the licensing dialog could be made difficult due to a shift in keyboard focus.
Improved File Input and Overall Performance. File input speed has been significantly improved and application overhead when loading all file types has been greatly reduced. The result is much faster loading of multiple files.
Please note that lengthy multi-file loads can now be cancelled by pressing the Escape key.
Streamlined User's Guide. The CrystalDiffract User's Guide has been streamlined to make it easier to use. The guide now features a one-page table-of-contents, for at-a-glance navigation, plus extensive rewriting and reorganisation of chapters.
Standalone Tutorial. The CrystalDiffract Tutorial, which was previously part of the User's Guide, has now been moved to a separate document, and can be accessed via the new Help > Tutorial command.
Improved Support Commands. The Help > Request Technical Support command now assists you by pre-loading important parameters into the support form, including the program name and version, its serial number, and your operating system name and version.
A new Help > Register CrystalDiffract command provides assistance in the registration process, supplying the program name, its serial number, and your operating system to the online registration form.
Toolbar Captions Restored. Captions can again be displayed in the Toolbar; both the Window > Toolbar > Icon and Text and Text Only commands are again available.
Some groups of tools now have a single caption; the tools can be distinguished by their icons or by passing the cursor over them to display their tooltips. In Text Only mode, each tool is individually labelled.
Note that groups of tools are removed as a unit from the Toolbar if the width of the Toolbar is insufficient to accommodate the entire group. The individual tools will appear as menu items in the overflow popup menu at the right end of the Toolbar.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes various bug fixes and enhancements:
A serial number is now displayed in the About box (Help > About CrystalDiffract). This serial number is unique to your licence, and can be used in place of the licence code when requesting technical support (please don't forget to specify 'Windows' as your operating system!).
When performing any action which requires browsing for a folder, the most recently visited folder is now used as the starting point in the folder browsing dialog.
If the User's Guide or Setup Guide fail to open, you can now click a button to go to Adobe's Web site to download Adobe Reader.
Thermal ellipsoid data are now ignored on input unless at least one valid record is read.
The File > Export Diffraction Data and Export Structure Factors commands now export data for all structures if no structure is selected.
The Status Window should appear less frequently than before.
Miscellaneous changes. This version includes various minor bug fixes and improvements:
The Diffraction Data dialog can now be resized horizontally.
Data are now correctly added when opening a structure file using File > Open in Same Window.
Fixed potentially incorrect sorts when sorting list columns in descending order.
Significant performance improvements have been made in various operations, and in particular when reading, writing, and displaying site information.
Fixed a problem which prevented updates and installations in other than the default location.
Fast Session Files. Session files created by this version now include all reflexion data, thereby allowing near-instant loading of a saved experiment.
(Previous versions saved structural data, but had to recalculate intensities as the session was loaded, which could take some time, especially for multi-structure sessions.)
All Diffraction Patterns Saved. Any diffraction patterns which have been hidden (unchecked) are now automatically saved in the session file. (Previously, only visible diffraction data were saved.)
If a session contains one or more patterns which have never been plotted (i.e., they correspond to unprocessed crystal or data files), the program will optionally load each file and process the diffraction data prior to saving the session file.
Improved Patterns List. The Structures List of previous versions has been renamed the Patterns List, to better reflect its content, which can include both simulated diffraction patterns (from a CrystalMaker crystal binary file), or an observed diffraction pattern (from a text file containing experimental data).
The following related changes have been made:
The Patterns List Actions menu items have been reorganised and, in some cases, renamed, to improve clarity.
Pattern names derived from file names now have their extensions removed.
Icons in the Patterns pane are smoother and cleaner in appearance.
Redrawing of the Patterns list during handling of drag-and-drop operations has been reduced. The selected pattern count is also now updated correctly, and responsiveness to clicks in pattern checkboxes has been greatly improved.
Adding a file to the Patterns pane now marks the document as modified.
Rename Diffraction Patterns. The names of individual patterns can now be edited by selecting and clicking on the name of the pattern.
Click outside the editing field to end the edit, or press Enter or Return. To cancel an edit, press the Escape key.
Duplicate Diffraction Patterns. A new Duplicate command has been added to the Patterns List Actions menu. This will duplicate any selected Patterns List entries.
This command is useful when experimenting with different Parameter settings. One can keep a pristine, original, pattern, then work with a copy, so that any changes are immediately apparent.
Improved Memory Handling. Previous versions could crash if a maximum number of reflexions had not been defined (and a structure with a large unit cell was being processed). The new version handles memory allocation more intelligently and will also warn the user, via an alert, if the current settings are likely to result in an excessive number of reflexions being generated.
New Edition of the User's Guide. The User's Guide has been expanded from 36 to 46 pages, in a major new edition. This includes a detailed introduction to the program, and to powder diffraction in general, with extra sections covering use of the Parameters- and Patterns Lists, plus large numbers of new figures.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes a number of miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
Revised the intensity calculation for angle-dispersive neutron diffraction. A polarization correction is no longer applied to the neutron intensity, as this turns out to be inappropriate. (The correction was never applied to time-of-flight diffraction.)
The Edit > Apply Preferences command can now be used to apply the saved preferences settings to the current plot. This will update the plot type, radiation, wavelength, and other settings to match the current preferences.
Fixed a crash which could occur if importing data failed on the first dataset, leaving the document with invalid data. We now ensure that imported data are not merged into the existing data until after diffraction has been performed, reducing the likelihood of such problems.
The maximum size of the Sample Size parameter in Parameters window is now 1 micrometre.
The range of legal values for the Particle Size item in the Parameters Window now matches that used by Particle Size dialog.
Data read from session files no longer undergo phase equalisation unless data are loaded into an existing plot.
Hiding all diffraction patterns no longer resets the window title.
The Demo Mode licensing dialog again allows unlocking of the app using old-style licence codes.
The Edit Crystal sheet can now be resized horizontally, so that atomic displacement parameters (if present) can more easily be viewed.
The file extension '.crystaldiffract' is now supported, for use with session files. This is in addition to the (default) '.crdf' extension.
The naming of Diffraction windows is now primarily through the Window > Window Title command. The title will also be read from session files or crystal data binary files when opening into a new window.
The Zero Correction item in the Instruments folder of the Parameters window is a local parameter, not a global one; it requires the user to select a pattern.
Fixed a colour conversion error that caused menus to be drawn in the wrong colour under Windows XP.
The x axis can now display more decimal places, which better supports display of reciprocal d-spacing plots.
Pressing the Return or Enter key when one or more patterns are selected and the Patterns pane has the focus now starts an edit session on the first selected text item.
When holding down the Shift key to speed up scaling, the increase in speed is now more reasonable, so that, e.g., observed data points do not scale too quickly.
Clicking a row in the Edit > Diffraction dialog now highlights the row for better visibility.
Improved cursors, using higher-quality graphics. A new 'Info Tool' cursor replaces the Arrow tool cursor.
The Status Window is no longer quite so obtrusive.
The Status Bar is no longer available.
Fix for Demo Mode Installation. This release corrects a problem in the licensing dialog which prevented the Demo Mode button from functioning properly.
Improvements to File Handling.
When browsing for folders in file dialogs, CrystalDiffract now remembers the most recently visited folder.
Storage of the document title and file path has been improved, so that the correct default filename appears in the Save dialog.
Session files generated by CrystalDiffract for Windows can again be read by CrystalDiffract for Mac.
User-Interface Enhancements. Various subtle changes have been made to the interface to improve the look-and-feel and improve system compatibility.
Improved the appearance of drop shadows for thumbnails, atom icons, and other UI elements.
Information subtitles and tooltips now support overbars and arrows.
Improved the appearance and positioning of Toolbar buttons.
If a Windows High-Contrast theme is enabled and the background colour for buttons is too dark, bitmaps will be inverted for better visibility.
Fixed a scaling error which prevented proper printing of Y axis label and tick marks.
Text justification in list controls now matches the justification of the corresponding column header.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes the following miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes:
The units used in the Particle Size dialog and the Parameters Window's Particle Size entry now match, and changes in one are now correctly reflected in the other.
Palette window states are now recorded correctly when the application becomes inactive or is quit whilst in the background.
Release notes are no longer displayed in Demo mode.
A problem in the Updater which prevented conversion from single- to multi-user installations has been fixed.
If the Installer is run in silent mode, it now also Uninstalls previous installations silently.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes:
Rotating the mouse wheel now affects only the window directly under the cursor, and is ignored if the cursor is not over an application window.
The Installer and Updater now correctly handle single-user installations on accounts served under Active Directory, whether or not the target computer is connected to a network.
Pressing the Space bar after clicking on certain Toolbar buttons no longer causes the actions associated with those buttons to be performed.
The User's Guide layout has been updated and more time-of-flight neutron diffraction information provided.
Improved Diffraction Window Behaviour.
The Diffraction window can now be resized across multiple displays, either by dragging its edges or by clicking its maximise button. Please note that when the Maximize command is used, the Diffraction window will expand to fill the nearest display.
New Diffraction windows are no longer created if an empty Diffraction window is open and available; the empty window is brought to the foreground and any requested structure (i.e., dragged-and-dropped or double-clicked file) is loaded into it.
A new Diffraction window no longer staggers its position if there are no other Diffraction windows open.
The Help Viewer window now maintains its visibility and location state more reliably when switching between Diffraction windows.
Checkmarks are now placed only next to appropriate tools (e.g., Hand and Arrow) in the Overflow menu in the toolbar.
Subtitles are again drawn in the Info bar when tools are clicked in the Toolbar.
Other User Interface Improvements.
Various items in the Help menu (e.g., CrystalMaker Web Site) again open pages in your default Web browser as expected.
All Open and Save File dialogs now track the file type most recently selected by the user.
The last directory to which a file was saved or from which a file was o
pened is now remembered correctly.Selected items in the Structures pane can now be deleted by pressing the Backspace or the Delete key.
Installation and Licensing Changes. Substantial changes and upgrades have been made to the Installer software, to improve general performance and stability, and for improved compatibility with Windows Vista, roaming profile accounts, and installation by non-Administrator users.
Changes in the way licences affect installation include the following:
The licence code now determines whether an All Users installation is permitted: All Users installations on a given computer may only be performed if the licence supports multiple users, and multi-user licences now require an All Users installation. Single-user licences may now only be installed for a single user on a given computer.
If an earlier version of CrystalDiffract was installed for a single user under a multi-user licence, the Installer will now convert the installation to All Users.
NOTE: System administrators who are using the command line or scripts to perform installations should contact CrystalMaker Technical Support for information regarding the new installation mechanism.
Resetting from single- to multi-user license codes using the Help > Reset Licence command is now handled correctly. The user will be asked to quit the application; the licence change will be performed, and any necessary files moved to new locations as appropriate (e.g., the Examples folder will be moved either to the user's or the All Users documents folder).
The licensing dialog is now displayed during installation; the user is now required to enter his licence code before installation will continue.
Users installing free updates to licensed copies of CrystalDiffract will usually not see a licensing dialog; this affects only fresh installations or paid upgrades.
Users are now alerted 14 days (rather than 10) before a licence is due to expire.
In addition, some fixes have been made to the licensing process:
Multi-user installations with old-style licence codes are now updated and the licence code recorded correctly (this fixes a problem in which the user had to continually re-enter the licence code at app launch).
The Installer now correctly installs licence information for Roaming Profile users.
Other changes to the way installations and updates are handled include the following:
Non-Administrator users can now install and update CrystalDiffract, provided they can enter an Administrator password into the credentials dialog displayed by Windows.
The Installer will now automatically uninstall a Demo installation of CrystalDiffract if it finds one.
The Installer and Uninstaller now properly support installation of the CrystalDiffract application and optional folders (e.g., Examples) in locations other than the default. When updating or uninstalling, the user will be asked for the location of any of these folders which have been moved from there standard locations.
NOTE: Non-administrator and roaming profile users may wish to re-locate their existing Examples folder, which may have been installed in incorrect locations by earlier versions of the Installer.
The Installer now correctly identifies the location of a My Documents folder residing on a remote share.
File associations are now always stored on a per-machine basis. Custom file associations, set by the user via the Open With dialog, are still maintained by Windows.
The Installer log file (often useful when contacting Technical Support), is now stored in the CrystalMaker Software folder in the Common application data folder, and is updated by any user's installation. Existing logs are merged into the common log on update.
A number of spurious run-time errors have been eliminated.
Workaround for Ad-Aware Issue. A bug in some past versions of Lavasoft's Ad-Aware anti-malware utility caused a kernel memory leak, which was especially noticeable whilst using CrystalMaker products. This release of CrystalDiffract mitigates this problem significantly; it should no longer be a major issue for users who have Ad-Aware installed on their systems.
Versions 8.0.3 and later of Ad-Aware fix this problem. Users of Ad-Aware are strongly urged to download and install one of these releases.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes several other changes and bug fixes:
The preference to limit the number of generated reflexions (Limit number to in the Profile pane of the Preferences dialog) is now read and applied correctly.
The number of reflexions for structures with small d-spacing is now calculated correctly.
File > Close Without Saving no longer generates an error after the window closes.
Clicking on links in online Help pages that invoke other applications now works correctly.
The Wait (hourglass) cursor now appears more reliably when required.
Clicking the Credits button in the About box works again.
CrystalDiffract now allows users to replace icons associated with its data files with custom icons using either the Folder Options command (Windows XP) or third-party utilites (Vista). Whenever possible, these icons will be retained when updates are installed.
Fixed several memory leaks.
The User's Guide has been updated and miscellaneous changes have been made to online help files.
Help Viewer. A new Help Viewer window is now available for the online help system. This floating window allows help topics to be displayed within the program, without disrupting the window visibilities, and without requiring use of an external program (such as a web browser).
Choosing any online Help item from the Help menu opens the new Help Viewer. As with other floating (palette) windows, this window remembers its position and visibility, and loads the last Help page visited when opened.
Clicking on a link to an Internet-based Web page (or any other file which lies outside the CrystalMaker Help folder, or which is not HTML) will open a default application.
Note also that pressing the F1 key will now display either general or context-sensitive help in the Help Viewer.
Improved Support for Massive Structures. CrystalDiffract no longer maintains a 'hard-wired' limit to the maximum number of merged reflexions, making it possible to work with very-high-angle reflexions for massive structures. The maximum number of reflexions is now controlled entirely by the user via the Profile pane of the Preferences dialog.
Improved Support for Multiple Displays. All window positions, including those of palette windows, are now correctly calculated, retained, and restored on systems with multiple displays.
File and Data Handling Improvements. Shortcuts (links) to data files or folders can now be dragged and dropped onto the Diffraction window or its panes, or onto the application icon; links contained within dropped folders will also be resolved.
Files containing invalid atomic displacement parameters are now detected and an alert is displayed to warn the user.
A problem which prevented CrystalDiffract from opening x-y data (*.dat) text files using the File > Open menu command has been fixed.
Enhanced Colour Picker. The colour picker window, displayed when a colour selection button is clicked, now shows a suite of standard CrystalMaker-specific colours. The new picker also displays custom colours and retains them across application launches.
You can define custom colours by clicking the More Colours button in the picker, and using the standard Windows Colour dialog to add colours to the custom colour set.
A minor issue in which the colour picker and dialog were not displayed on secondary displays has been corrected.
Expanded User's Guide. The PDF User's Guide has been updated and expanded, with the addition of an index.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes a number of other minor changes and bug fixes:
Improved Shell Interaction. CrystalDiffract now uses an improved mechanism for handling dropping of files onto the application's icon or double-clicking of files from Explorer windows. This should result in better performance and reliability, especially on Windows Vista.
Miscellaneous Changes. This version includes the following minor changes and bug fixes:
All Users Installation. All Users installations now save licence information correctly for individual members of the licensed group on the same computer.
Improved Screen Text. Text smoothing, especially for angle and distance displays, has been improved; ClearType is used explicitly when possible.
Miscellaneous. A number of miscellaneous changes and bug fixes have been incorporated into this release.
A number of new features, improvements, and fixes are available in this update:
New Licence Code Support. CrystalDiffract for Windows now supports the new extended licensing introduced with CrystalMaker for Windows 2.
The unlocking dialog will accept both licence code formats; existing users with old-style licence codes who wish to enable this feature will need to contact us to arrange for a new licence code.
The Help > Unlock Licence menu item now changes to Reset Licence once the application is unlocked, allowing you to update to a new-style licence code.
Improved Toolbar. The Diffraction Window's Toolbar allows the display of icons in large or small format, with or without text captions and provides an 'overflow menu' popup button at its right end. Toolbar icon appearance has been improved as well.
Display options are available from the Window > Toolbar menu. As before, tools can be added or removed from the Toolbar by right-clicking and selecting the desired tools from the popup menu.
Better Window Layout. If an empty Diffraction window is available, opening a crystal data file from the explorer (or from CrystalMaker via the Transform > Diffraction Pattern > Powder command) will plot the diffraction pattern in that window, rather than opening a new one.
When opening a new Diffraction window, it is now offset slightly from the most recent Diffraction window, rather than occupying the same position.
Faster File I/O. File I/O performance has been improved significantly; in most cases, reading both CrystalMaker binary files and text files is from 5 to 8 times faster than before
More Flexible Installation. The CrystalDiffract for Windows Installer now allows installation by users who are members of the Power User group, in addition to Administrators.
Updated User's Guide and Help Files. CrystalDiffract's Online Help files and the PDF User's Guide have been updated for this release. The licence agreement has been updated to include reference to our new Classroom and Site Licences.
Updated Examples Files. The CrystalMaker binary files included as examples have been updated for full compatibility with the latest release of CrystalMaker.
What's New. You can read about the latest new features by choosing Help > What's New .
Improvements and Fixes. A number of outstanding issues have been addressed in this release:
Support for Roaming Profiles. Users with Roaming Profile accounts on Windows Active Directory servers will now have their preferences and licence information follow them when they log into different computers.
Important: As always when using Roaming Profiles, make sure that you log out from one computer before logging in on another. Also, make sure the same version of CrystalDiffract has been installed on all computers to which you log on, and that all are running the same version of Windows. Failure to do so could lead to corruption of your profile or Registry data.
Also note that installation of the Examples folder into your My Documents folder on a Roaming Profile account could slow down your log-on and log-off process, unless the My Documents folder is non-roaming. See your System Administrator or contact CrystalMaker Technical Support if you require help.
Works with Vista! CrystalDiffract for Windows has been upgraded for full compatibility with Windows Vista. Please note that CrystalDiffract now requires a minimum of Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Faster intensity calculation. Calculation of intensities for structures with very-large unit cells is now up to 250% faster. Greatest improvements will be seen for structures with large numbers of identical atoms in the unit cell (such as carbon atoms in a protein crystal).
Improved List Editing. When editing items in lists, pressing the tab key will start an editing session on the next editable item in the row, regardless of any reordering of the columns which you may have performed. In addition, item in the sorting column no longer vanishes if the currently-editable item is not in the sorting column.
Other Improvements:
New Online Help System. The online Help system has been completely revised and now features better organisation and expanded coverage. In addition, Help buttons have been added to the Diffraction Data, Edit Crystal, and Wavelength dialogs, for easy access to the relevant online Help sections.
Multibyte File Path Support. CrystalDiffract now properly supports the reading and writing of text files on systems such as Japanese in which file paths can have multi-byte characters.
Improved Diffraction Window Behaviour. Several improvements have been made to the way data are read and displayed in the Diffraction window:
Displaying d-spacing in the Data Listing dialog. When Edit > Diffraction Data is chosen and Diffract > D-Spacing has been used to set the axis type, the Data Listing dialog now displays only a single d-spacing column.
Also note that in all cases the column containing X-axis data points is now labelled to match the current axis type.
Structures pane shortcut fix. Using the ‘S’ keyboard shortcut to toggle the Structures pane no longer causes a crash.
Other enhancements
Better Drag and Drop. Dragging and dropping multiple files to the application icon will now open multiple windows; Windows Taskbar tiles appear for each window.
More Installer updates. The Installer now allows you to select from Full and Custom installations. Also, this and all future CrystalMaker products will place their folders and files within a single CrystalMaker Software folder. If you installed a previous version of CrystalDiffract in the default location, the Installer will take care of moving your application and sample files to the new folder structure.
Interface and Stability Improvements. Several improvements have been made to the appearance and stability of the user interface, and to overall stability:
Updated Documentation. The online help and PDF user's guide have been updated and also include our new contact details.
Range zooming. A Zoom button now appears in the Info Bar when a range has been selected with the Distance tool. Power users can hold down the Control key and click on the plot to get the same effect.
Scroll wheel support. Scroll wheel support has been enabled: turning the wheel expands or contracts the Y axis; holding the Shift key down scrolls left and right.
Faster selection. Selection of multiple items in the Structures pane (e.g., via Edit > Select All) is now much faster.
Better-behaved splitter. The splitter bar can no longer be moved so as to reduce the Graphics pane width below a minimum size. Also, moving the splitter bar far enough to the left will close the Structures pane.
Info Bar improvements. Text in the Info Bar no longer flickers when the Diffraction Window is resized, and is now redrawn properly when the Structures pane is opened or closed. The Structures pane status text is now updated properly when the selection of structures changes. The Info cursor is now shown and hidden correctly in response to clicks in the Graphics pane with the Arrow tool.
Printing improvements. The Y-axis label is now scaled properly when printing, and X-axis tic marks are properly spaced. The frame is more visible and tic marks are less obtrusive. Printing spool files are now generally much smaller, resulting in faster printing.
Other interface improvements and enhancements:
More Desktop friendly. CrystalDiffract no longer adds its file types to the Desktop's File > New menu.
Improved Toolbar. The Toolbar uses a sleeker design, with improved icon display.
Improved Parameters Window. The appearance of the Parameters window has been improved, with lines, and background shading where appropriate.
The window now appears only once, and in the same location no matter how many copies of CrystalDiffract are running. The edit text box is now much more responsive to movement of the slider control and parameter items now remain highlighted. Items are now updated properly if edited via dialogs.
The Mixtures parameters are initialised properly after structures are dropped into a Diffraction window.
Improved Structures Pane. The Structures Pane now has cleaner colour buttons and guide lines. Selection of items is now much more responsive. File names are displayed without extensions. Dropping nested folders into the pane now works correctly.
Possible problems with the Remove, Remove All and Remove Unchecked Items (Action button menu) have been resolved.
Observed data as well as crystal data are marked as plotted when dropped into the Diffraction window.
Improvements to the Graphics Pane. Dragging and dropping a CrystalDiffract Session file into the Graphics pane now opens the file in the same window; double-clicking on a Session file opens a new Diffraction window.
Clicking left and right scroll arrows in Graphics pane now scrolls less than a page. The Mix/Unmix and Film/Graph button are now updated properly when reading Session files into an empty Diffraction window.
Only bobs for calculated and observed patterns are displayed when using the Info cursor in Mixture mode. Legend labels in Mixture mode now read 'Calculated Mixture' and 'Observed Mixture' for clarity. The mouse cursor now changes to its correct form when over the Info cursor, and the Info cursor now responds properly to clicks.
The default crystal and dataset colours specified in the Plot pane of the Preferences dialog are now applied to the first plot in a Diffraction window.
Improved Diffraction Display. Filled to zero and translucent plot styles and filled overlays now extend down to the baseline as they should. Mixture plot and line styles for observed and calculated data are now read from Session files correctly.
The Info cursor now appears properly when clicking on film with the Arrow tool. The Y axis is automatically scaled when a CrystalMaker binary file is dropped onto an empty Diffraction window. Negative (hkl) values are drawn with proper overbars in plot labels and in Info Bar. Also, the offset to the arrow when drawing the (hkl) label below the arrow has been closed up.
The multiplicity values displayed in the Info Bar are now calculated correctly. Phase names and Iobs values are also now displayed correctly.
Other Changes:
First Windows Release. Please note that the Clone and Synchronize windows commands of the Mac version are not currently enabled in this release.