Interface Overview¶

The CGAspects main window is divided into five regions:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Menu Bar: File | View | Crystallography | Help             │
├──────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬───────────────┤
│              │                              │               │
│  Left Panel  │    3D Viewport               │  Right Panel  │
│  (Import &   │    (OpenGL crystal view)     │  (Crystal     │
│   Analysis)  │                              │   Info)       │
│              │                              │               │
├──────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴───────────────┤
│  Movie Controls (frame slider, play/pause, FPS)             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Status Bar                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Four menus provide access to all application features:

File — Import data, export results, open the plotting dialog
View — Control visualisation appearance, align the camera, toggle panels
Crystallography — Add planes and directions, set lattice parameters
Help — Keyboard shortcuts reference, About dialog

See Menus & Actions for a complete reference.

Left Panel¶

The left panel is the main control area for loading data and running analyses.

Import Controls - Folder path field — Shows the currently loaded data folder - Import XYZ Files button — Browse for a folder containing XYZ simulation output - Import CSV for Plotting — Load a CSV file directly into the plotting dialog

Analysis Buttons (enabled when the relevant data files are present) - Calculate Aspect Ratio — Shape analysis and Zingg classification - Calculate Growth Rates — Time-series growth rate computation - Calculate Site Analysis — Crystallization event and site property analysis

Results Directory button — Opens the output folder where analysis results are saved

3D Viewport¶

The central viewport shows the crystal as an interactive 3D point cloud. You can:

Orbit the camera (left-click drag)
Zoom (scroll wheel)
Select individual points (Shift+Click)

Crystallographic planes, directions, and coordinate axes are overlaid on the point cloud.

See 3D Viewport for full details.

Right Panel — Crystal Info¶

When a crystal is loaded, the right panel shows computed properties for the current frame:

Property	Description
Primary Aspect Ratio	Short / Middle dimension ratio (S:M)
Secondary Aspect Ratio	Middle / Long dimension ratio (M:L)
Shape	Zingg morphological class (Block, Plate, Lath, Needle)
Volume	Convex hull volume
Surface Area	Convex hull surface area
SA:Vol Ratio	Surface area to volume ratio

An optional Point Info Panel (toggle with Ctrl+B or View → Toggle Point Info Panel) shows information about the currently hovered or selected point.

Movie Controls¶

Displayed at the bottom of the window when a multi-frame XYZ trajectory is loaded:

Frame slider — Drag to jump to any frame
Frame spinbox — Type a frame number directly
Play / Pause button — Animate the crystal growth trajectory
FPS control — Set playback speed in frames per second

Status Bar¶

The status bar at the bottom of the window shows: - Current operation or status message - Progress bar during long-running analyses - Warnings and informational notices