Overview

This tutorial builds on the basic “Expand Atoms” tool from Tutorial 02: Navigation & Mouse Controls and explores shapeXT’s structure growth capabilities. You’ll learn how to fill unit cells, create supercells, incrementally grow structures, complete cut-off molecules at boundaries, and perform targeted expansion on individual atoms. By the end, you’ll know techniques for visualizing coordination environments, generating symmetry-equivalent copies, and preparing complex crystal structures for analysis and presentation.

Video Tutorial

What You’ll Learn

  • Basic Filling
  • Custom Cell Ranges
  • Grow Structure
  • Hydrogen Bond Visibility
  • Reduce Structure
  • Complete Fragments
  • Targeted Atom Expansion
  • Complete Single Fragments
  • Expand Coordination Sphere
  • Symmetry Expansion
  • Fill Sphere