Diamond Version 5 User Manual: Working with Diamond

Undo Buffer

Undo and Redo can be done with multiple steps together, assisted by thumbnail pictures of the previous conditions

-  Undo/Redo can be done with multiple steps together, assisted by thumbnail pictures of the previous conditions.
- "Undo/Redo" docking window: Click on a thumbnail to restore all undo steps through the clicked one. The same works for redo steps, if undo steps have been performed immediately before. Slight differences in shape between the two kind of undo and redo thumbnails.
- Dropdown list from toolbar with thumbnail of last undo and redo, rsp., steps.

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Next article: Full Screen View of Structure Picture

To demonstrate the enhancements in Undo and Redo, we open the sample document "PCD-V2O3-1125497.diamdoc", which shows up with picture "Unit cell with bonds" of data set #1125497 of Pearson's Crystal Data (PCD). We also open the docking window "Undo Buffer" using the command "Undo Buffer" from the "View" menu. (Maybe it is necessary to dock ("pin") the window at the left side of the Diamond application window, by pressing the pin symbol in the "Undo Buffer" docking window's title bar.)

PCD-V2O3-1125497.diamdoc with picture of the unit cell with atoms and bonds, viewed along a-axis, and undo buffer window still empty. Note: Screenshots on this page made with version 4 of Diamond. 

The "Undo Buffer" window is still empty. We now perform the following changes to the picture and watch the updates in the "Undo Buffer" window:

1) Destroy all: "Build" -> "Destroy" -> "All" (or simply Shift+Ctrl+D or the symbol that you already know from Diamond version 3).
2) Fill unit cell: "Build" -> "Fill" -> "Unit Cell" (or simply Shift+Ctrl+U or the symbol that you already know from Diamond version 3).
3) Connect atoms: Wait! Before you hit Shift+Ctrl+N or the symbol that you know, use "Connect Atoms" command from the "Build" menu. The dialog has been enhanced, you can now select atom groups and/or sites to be considered for being connected -- and the type of bonding sphere. Here we switch to "Generic", if you did not already during earlier excercises with Diamond 4 beta. ("Generic", that means the bonding spheres from connectivity, is what Diamond version 3 uses in that context anyway.) Connection method is "Between all atoms of structure picture". Then close the dialog with OK.
4) Fill coordination spheres directly: Use Shift+Ctrl+S or the symbol in the Build toolbar.
5) Repeat step 4.
6) Center and adjust: Press the F9 key.
7) Create broken-off bonds: We make a creation of coordination spheres but with broken-off bonds (and hidden neighbouring atoms): Press key combination Shift+Ctrl+K.

The resulting Diamond window should now look like this:The "Undo Buffer" window contains thumbnails of the picture's conditions before the command execution each with the latest action on top. A tooltip window may offer you additional information, for instance how many (invisible) atoms were created in the last step of creating broken-off bonds.

Alternatively, you can use a drop-down menu in the main toolbar (right beneath the "Undo" symbol), which opens a list of the last (here: seven) actions and a thumbnail of the condition you would restore when undoing the last N actions.

After "undoing" the last four actions, we return to the state of the picture before the first filling of coordination spheres, and the "Undo Buffer" window now looks like this, and the four actions have moved into the redo buffer, whose drop-down menu we also opened in the following screenshot:

Note: The shape of the frames in the Undo Buffer window looks different, the background is somewhat darker and the labels white rather than black to indicate that these steps are redo actions, not undo actions.

The conventional way of making undo and redo stepwise - like in version 2, 3, and 4 of Diamond - is still available, too: Edit -> Undo or Ctrl+Z; Edit -> Redo or Ctrl+Y, rsp.

Previous article: Recent Pictures
Next article: Full Screen View of Structure Picture

Reference:
PCD:1125497 - V₂O₃ rt - karelianite - structure type: Al₂O₃,hR30,167
Varga T., Mitchell J.F., Yamaura K., Mandrus D.G., Wang J., "A Ca substitution study of NaV₂O₄: high-pressure synthesis of the Na_1-xCa_xV₂O₄ solid solution", Solid State Sci. (2009) 11, 694-699.