The General Panel
The items in the General panel control the background color, items displayed in the view, and the fog feature. It is illustrated below.
Display Format General Panel
You can change the View window background color by clicking on the color chip labeled and selecting a new color using the color selection dialog.
The
checkbox causes more distant atoms in the View window to recede to invisible, allowing nearer atoms to become more distinct. The field controls the depth at which atoms become completely invisible. This feature is illustrated below.
The Fog Depth Display Feature
The left illustration shows the molecule with the fog feature disabled. In the right illustration,
fog is turned on, and the frontmost atoms are much more distinct than more distant ones.
Compare the display types between the two windows to understand the effect of fog.
The remaining checkboxes in this panel control the display of various labeling and comprehension tools with the View window. Their effects are illustrated in the displays in the following table (which uses benzene with a dummy atom in the center of the ring as its example for most settings):
Control | Meaning | Default | Non-Default Setting Example |
---|---|---|---|
Display of hydrogen atoms in the View window. | On | ![]() |
|
Display numeric labels indicating atom sequence numbers. | Off | ![]() |
|
Display bonds between atoms. | On | ![]() |
|
Display the chirality of any chiral centers. | Off | ![]() |
|
Display of dummy atoms if present. | On | ![]() |
|
Display the chemical symbol for each atom. | Off | ![]() |
|
Display X,Y,Z axes. This feature is illustrated below. Initially, the origin of the axes is in an arbitrary position (sometimes located on atom 1), and it remains fixed despite changes to the molecule. Use the | menu item to move the origin to the molecule’s current center of mass.Off | ![]() |
|
Open positioning toolbar in View window. | Off | See this help entry |
You can specify default values for these items via the General panel of the Display Format Preferences. You can also exclude labels and symbols on hydrogen atoms or hydrogen and carbon atoms using the and items in the Text panel of the Display Format Preferences (both default to excluding no atom types). Finally, the size of textual labels can be adjusted using the field in the Text panel of the Display Format Preferences.
The figure below further illustrates GaussView’s Cartesian Axes display option. The window on the left shows the initial position of the axes (which is quite arbitrary), and the one on the right shows the origin’s new position after using the
menu item.
Cartesian Axes Display Before (left) and After (right) Reorientation