RASTOP

MOLECULAR VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE

Version 2.2, June 2007
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to RasTop molecular visualization software, Version 2.2.
RasTop is a molecular graphics program intended for the
visualization of proteins, nucleic acids and small molecules.
The program is aimed at display, teaching and generation of
publication quality images. RasTop derives from RasMol
initially developed by Roger Sayle.
Read the file credit.txt to learn about all contributors and
associated copyrights; Read the file version.txt to learn about
previous versions of RasTop and RasMol; read the file notice.txt,
and raslic.txt to learn about RasTop notices and licenses.
NEWS
As of RasTop 2.2, RasTop is now hosted on SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rastop/.
LICENSE
RasTop is released under the terms of the Rasmol license (located in
the file Raslic.txt).
NOTICE ON USING THE SOURCE
RasTop 2.2 is open source, but is not in the public domain.
Certain conditions apply to users and to developers to ensure
that RasTop remains open source. If you do not agree with all
NOTICEs constituted of RasMol 2.7.1.1 Notice, RasMolv2.6. Notice,
IUCR Policy, CBFLIB Notice, and CIFPARSE Notice, please do not
use RASTOP. These notices are located in the notice.txt file
and the license.txt file.
RECOMMENDED HARDWARE
To run RasTop, a Pentium or equivalent processor is recommended,
as well as 16 MB of RAM. A web browser is required to access
the help site, at best a version 4 or higher, but no connection
to the network is required. Many web browsers are available free
of charge.
WHAT DO I NEED, 32-bit or 8-bit VERSION?
As of RasTop 2.2, the 8-bit version is not distributed anymore.
INSTALLING RASTOP
RasTop is available for Windows and Linux platforms. To run
on Linux, you must install wine before (see www.winehq.com).

Windows emulator are available on Mac, but are not free.

Extract the RasTop folder from the rastop.zip file. Install
the RasTop folder in the directory of your choice. To start
RasTop, double click on the RasTop icon.
RasTop is a multi-document interface. Several graphic windows,
each displaying one or several molecular files, can be opened
at the same time. Graphic windows are independent from each
other, but communicate using the clipboard to transfer various
information such as spatial position or current atom selection.
PROBLEM GETTING STARTED
- with rastop version 2.2 for Windows
If you cannot get started and always receive the warning message
"missing mfc42.dll", download and unzip the patch mfc42.zip;
install the file mfc42.dll in the folder containing
the RasTop.exe file.
Get the file mfc42.dll on RasTop for windows home page
at http://www.geneinfinity.org/rastop/download.htm
PREFERENCES
In RasTop 2.2, Preferences are in the file "rasmolprefs" located
in your user directory ("C:\Documents and settings\yourname").
Preferences are automatically generated the first time you
launch RasTop. The Preferences dialog box is located under
the file>Preferences menu.
USING THE HELP FILE
Open your browser off-line. Open the page index.htm in the
RasTop help folder, and navigate or just press F1 from inside
RasTop.
GETTING STARTED WITH MOLECULES
Read the tutorial in the help.
CONTRIBUTING TO RASTOP PROJECT, COMMENTS and BUG REPORTS
Please direct your bug reports and comments to the authors.
Contributors are welcome, please contact us at the forge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rastop/.
Philippe Valadon
San Diego, June 12, 2007.