3.7.1. Molecule¶

class Molecule(filename=None, inputformat=None, **other)[source]¶

A class representing the molecule object.

An instance of this class has the following attributes:

• atoms – list of Atom objects that belong to the molecule
• bonds – list of Bond objects between atoms listed in atoms
• lattice – list of lattice vectors in case of periodic structures
• properties – Settings instance storing all other information about the molecule

Note

Each Atom in atoms list and each Bond in bonds list has a reference to the parent molecule. Moreover, each atom stores the list of bonds it’s a part of and each bond stores references to atoms it bonds. That creates a complex net of references between objects that are part of a molecule. Consistency of this data is crucial for proper functioning of many methods. Because of that it is advised not to modify contents of atoms and bonds by hand. When you need to alter your molecule, methods add_atom(), delete_atom(), add_bond() and delete_bond() can be used to ensure that all these references are updated properly.

Creating a Molecule object for your calculation can be done in two ways. You can start with an empty molecule and manually add all atoms (and bonds, if needed):

mol = Molecule()
mol.add_atom(Atom(atnum=1, coords=(0,0,0)))
mol.add_atom(Atom(atnum=1, coords=(d,0,0)))

This approach can be useful for building small molecules, especially if you wish to parametrize some of atomic coordinates (like in Simple example), but in general it’s not very practical. Usually one wants to import atomic coordinates from some external file:

mol = Molecule('xyz/Benzene.xyz')

The constructor of a Molecule object accepts four arguments that can be used to supply this information from a file in your filesystem. filename should be a string with a path (absolute or relative) to such a file. inputformat describes the format of the file. Currently, the following formats are supported: xyz, mol, mol2 and pdb. If inputformat is ase the file reader engine of the ASE.io module is used, enabling you to read all input formats supported by ASE interface. See read() for further details. If the inputformat argument is not supplied, PLAMS will try to deduce it by examining the extension of the provided file, so in most of cases it is not needed to use inputformat, if only the file has the proper extension. Some formats (xyz and pdb) allow to store more than one geometry of a particular molecule within a single file. See the respective read() function for details how to access them. All other keyword arguments will be passed to the appropriate read function for the selected or determined file format.

If a Molecule is initialized from an external file, the path to this file (filename argument) is stored in properties.source. The base name of the file (filename without the extension) is kept in properties.name.

It is also possible to write a molecule to a file in one of the formats mentioned above or using the ASE.io engine. See write() for details.

The lattice attribute is used to store information about lattice vectors in case of periodic structures. Some job types will automatically use that data while constructing input files. lattice should be a list of up to 3 vectors (for different types of periodicity: chain, slab or bulk), each of which needs to be a list or a tuple of 3 numbers.

Lattice vectors can be directly read from and written to xyz files using the following convention (please mind the fact that this is an unofficial extension to the XYZ format):

3

    H      0.000000      0.765440     -0.008360
    O      0.000000      0.000000      0.593720
    H      0.000000     -0.765440     -0.008360
VEC1       3.000000      0.000000      0.000000
VEC2       0.000000      3.000000      0.000000
VEC3       0.000000      0.000000      3.000000

For 1D (2D) periodicity please supply only VEC1 (VEC1 and VEC2). Writing lattice vectors to xyz files can be disabled by simply reseting the lattice attribute:

mol.lattice = []

The detailed description of all available methods is presented below. Many of these methods require arguments that are atoms belonging to the current molecule. It can by done by using a reference to an Atom object present it the atoms list, but not by passing a number of an atom (its position within atoms list). Unlike some other tools, PLAMS does not use integer numbers as primary identifiers of atoms. It is done to prevent problems when atoms within a molecule are reordered or some atoms are deleted. References to Atom or Bond objects can be obtained directly from atoms or bonds lists, or with dictionary-like bracket notation:

>>> mol = Molecule('xyz/Ammonia.xyz')
>>> mol.guess_bonds()
>>> print(mol)
  Atoms:
    1         H      0.942179      0.000000     -0.017370
    2         H     -0.471089      0.815951     -0.017370
    3         N      0.000000      0.000000      0.383210
    4         H     -0.471089     -0.815951     -0.017370
  Bonds:
   (1)--1.0--(3)
   (2)--1.0--(3)
   (3)--1.0--(4)
>>> at = mol[1]
>>> print(at)
         H      0.942179      0.000000     -0.017370
>>> b = mol[(1,3)]
>>> print(b)
(         H      0.942179      0.000000     -0.017370 )--1.0--(         N      0.000000      0.000000      0.383210 )
>>> b = mol[(1,4)]
>>> print(b)
None

Note

For the purpose of mol[i] notation, the numbering of atoms within a molecule starts with 1. Negative integers can be used to access atoms enumerated in the reversed order (mol[-1] for the last atom etc.)

However, if you feel more familiar with identifying atoms by natural numbers, you can use set_atoms_id() to equip each atom of the molecule with id attribute equal to atom’s position within atoms list. This method can also be helpful to track changes in your molecule during tasks that can reorder atoms.

copy(atoms=None)[source]¶

Return a copy of the molecule. The copy has atoms, bonds and all other components distinct from the original molecule (it is so called “deep copy”).

By default the entire molecule is copied. It is also possible to copy only some part of the molecule, indicated by atoms argument. It should be a list of atoms that belong to the molecule. If used, only these atoms, together with any bonds between them, are copied and included in the returned molecule.

add_molecule(other, copy=False)[source]¶

Add some other molecule to this one:

protein += water

If copy is True, other molecule is copied and the copy is added to this molecule. Otherwise, other molecule is directly merged with this one The properties of this molecule are soft_updated with the properties of the other molecules.

add_atom(atom, adjacent=None)[source]¶

Add a new atom to the molecule.

atom should be an Atom instance that does not belong to any molecule. Bonds between the new atom and other atoms of the molecule can be automatically added based on adjacent argument. It should be a list describing atoms of the molecule that the new atom is connected to. Each element of adjacent list can either be a pair (Atom, order) to indicate new bond’s order (use Bond.AR for aromatic bonds) or an Atom instance (a single bond is created in this case).

Example:

mol = Molecule() #create an empty molecule
h1 = Atom(symbol='H', coords=(1.0, 0.0, 0.0))
h2 = Atom(symbol='H', coords=(-1.0, 0.0, 0.0))
o = Atom(symbol='O', coords=(0.0, 1.0, 0.0))
mol.add_atom(h1)
mol.add_atom(h2)
mol.add_atom(o)
mol.add_atom(Atom(symbol='C', coords=(0.0, 0.0, 0.0)), adjacent=[h1, h2, (o,2)])

delete_atom(atom)[source]¶

Delete an atom from the molecule.

atom should be an Atom instance that belongs to the molecule. All bonds containing this atom are removed too.

Examples:

#delete all hydrogens
mol = Molecule('protein.pdb')
hydrogens = [atom for atom in mol if atom.atnum == 1]
for i in hydrogens: mol.delete_atom(i)

#delete first two atoms
mol = Molecule('geom.xyz')
mol.delete_atom(mol[1])
mol.delete_atom(mol[1]) #since the second atom of original molecule is now the first

add_bond(arg1, arg2=None, order=1)[source]¶

Add a new bond to the molecule.

This method can be used in two different ways. You can call it with just one argument being a Bond instance (other arguments are then ignored):

>>> b = Bond(mol[2], mol[4], order=Bond.AR) #create aromatic bond between 2nd and 4th atom
>>> mol.add_bond(b)

The other way is to pass two atoms (and possibly bond order) and new Bond object will be created automatically:

>>> mol.add_bond(mol[2], mol[4], order=Bond.AR)

In both cases both atoms that are bonded have to belong to the molecule, otherwise an exception is raised.

delete_bond(arg1, arg2=None)[source]¶

Delete a bond from the molecule.

Just like add_bond(), this method accepts either a single argument that is a Bond instance, or two arguments being instances of Atom. In both cases objects used as arguments have to belong to the molecule.

delete_all_bonds()[source]¶

Delete all bonds from the molecule.

find_bond(atom1, atom2)[source]¶

Find and return a bond between atom1 and atom2. Both atoms have to belong to the molecule. If no bond between chosen atoms exists, the retured value is None.

set_atoms_id()[source]¶

Equip each atom of the molecule with the id attribute equal to its position within atoms list (numbering starts with 1).

unset_atoms_id()[source]¶

Delete id attributes of all atoms.

neighbors(atom)[source]¶

Return a list of neighbors of atom within the molecule.

atom has to belong to the molecule. Returned list follows the same order as the bonds attribute of atom.

bond_matrix()[source]¶

Return a square numpy array with bond orders. The size of the array is equal to the number of atoms.

separate()[source]¶

Separate the molecule into connected components.

Returned is a list of new Molecule objects (all atoms and bonds are disjoint with the original molecule). Each element of this list is identical to one connected component of the base molecule. A connected component is a subset of atoms such that there exists a path (along one or more bonds) between any two atoms.

Example:

>>> mol = Molecule('xyz_dimers/NH3-H2O.xyz')
>>> mol.guess_bonds()
>>> print(mol)
  Atoms:
    1         N     -1.395591     -0.021564      0.000037
    2         H     -1.629811      0.961096     -0.106224
    3         H     -1.862767     -0.512544     -0.755974
    4         H     -1.833547     -0.330770      0.862307
    5         O      1.568501      0.105892      0.000005
    6         H      0.606736     -0.033962     -0.000628
    7         H      1.940519     -0.780005      0.000222
  Bonds:
   (5)--1.0--(7)
   (5)--1.0--(6)
   (1)--1.0--(3)
   (1)--1.0--(4)
   (1)--1.0--(2)
>>> x = mol.separate()
>>> for i in x: print(i)
  Atoms:
    1         N     -1.395591     -0.021564      0.000037
    2         H     -1.629811      0.961096     -0.106224
    3         H     -1.862767     -0.512544     -0.755974
    4         H     -1.833547     -0.330770      0.862307
  Bonds:
   (1)--1.0--(3)
   (1)--1.0--(4)
   (1)--1.0--(2)

  Atoms:
    1         O      1.568501      0.105892      0.000005
    2         H      0.606736     -0.033962     -0.000628
    3         H      1.940519     -0.780005      0.000222
  Bonds:
   (1)--1.0--(3)
   (1)--1.0--(2)

guess_bonds()[source]¶

Try to guess bonds in the molecule based on types and positions of atoms.

All previously existing bonds are removed. New bonds are generated based on interatomic distances and information about maximal number of bonds for each atom type (connectors property, taken from PeriodicTable).

The problem of finding molecular bonds for a given set of atoms in space does not have a general solution, especially considering the fact the chemical bond in itself is not a precisely defined concept. For every method, no matter how sophisticated, there will always be corner cases for which the method produces disputable results. Moreover, depending on the context (area of application) the desired solution for a particular geometry may vary. Please do not treat this method as an oracle always providing a proper solution. The algorithm used here gives very good results for geometries that are not very far from the optimal geometry, especially consisting of lighter atoms. All kinds of organic molecules, including aromatic ones, usually work very well. Problematic results can emerge for transition metal complexes, transition states, incomplete molecules etc.

The algorithm used scales as n log n where n is the number of atoms.

Warning

This method works reliably only for geometries representing complete molecules. If some atoms are missing (for example, a protein without hydrogens) the resulting set of bonds would usually contain more bonds or bonds with higher order than expected.

in_ring(arg)[source]¶

Check if an atom or a bond belonging to this Molecule forms a ring. arg should be an instance of Atom or Bond belonging to this Molecule.

supercell(*args)[source]¶

Return a new Molecule instance representing a supercell build by replicating this Molecule along its lattice vectors.

The number of arguments supplied to this method should be equal the number of lattice vectors this molecule has. Each argument should be a positive integer.

The returned Molecule is fully distinct from the current one, in a sense that it contains a different set of Atom and Bond instances. However, each atom of the returned Molecule carries an additional information about its origin within the supercell. If atom is an Atom instance in the supercell, atom.properties.supercell.origin points to the Atom instance of the original molecule that was copied to create atom, while atom.properties.supercell.index stores the tuple (with lentgh equal to the number of lattice vectors) with cell index. For example, atom.properties.supercell.index == (2,1,0) means that atom is a copy of atom.properties.supercell.origin that was translated twice along the first lattice vector, once along the second vector, and not translated along the thid vector. Values in cell indices are always non-negative (translation always occurs in the positive direction of lattice vectors).

unit_cell_volume(unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Return the volume of the unit cell of a 3D system.

unit is the unit of length, the cube of which will be used as the unit of volume.

translate(vector, unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Move the molecule in space by vector, expressed in unit.

vector should be an iterable container of length 3 (usually tuple, list or numpy array). unit describes unit of values stored in vector.

rotate_lattice(matrix)[source]¶

Rotate only lattice vectors of the molecule with given rotation matrix.

matrix should be a container with 9 numerical values. It can be a list (tuple, numpy array etc.) listing matrix elements row-wise, either flat ([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]) or in two-level fashion ([[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]).

Note

This method does not check if matrix is a proper rotation matrix.

rotate(matrix, lattice=False)[source]¶

Rotate the molecule with given rotation matrix. If lattice is True, rotate lattice vectors too.

matrix should be a container with 9 numerical values. It can be a list (tuple, numpy array etc.) listing matrix elements row-wise, either flat ([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]) or in two-level fashion ([[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]).

Note

This method does not check if matrix is a proper rotation matrix.

align_lattice(convention='AMS', zero=1e-10)[source]¶

Rotate the molecule in such a way that lattice vectors are aligned with the coordinate system.

This method is meant to be used with periodic systems only. Using it on a Molecule instance with an empty lattice attribute has no effect.

Possible values of the convention argument are:

• AMS (default) – for 1D systems the lattice vector aligned with X axis. For 2D systems both lattice vectors aligned with XY plane. No constraints for 3D systems
• reax (convention used by ReaxFF) – second lattice vector (if present) aligned with YZ plane. Third vector (if present) aligned with Z axis.

zero argument can be used to specify the numerical tolerance for zero (used to determine if some vector is already aligned with a particular axis or plane).

The returned boolean value indicates if any rotation happened.

rotate_bond(bond, moving_atom, angle, unit='radian')[source]¶

Rotate part of this molecule containing moving_atom along axis defined by bond by an angle expressed in unit.

bond should be chosen in such a way, that it divides the molecule into two parts (using a bond that forms a ring results in a MoleculeError). moving_atom has to belong to bond and is used to pick which part of the molecule is rotated. A positive angle denotes counterclockwise rotation (when looking along the bond, from the stationary part of the molecule).

resize_bond(bond, moving_atom, length, unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Change the length of bond to length expressed in unit by moving part of the molecule containing moving_atom

bond should be chosen in such a way, that it divides the molecule into two parts (using a bond that forms a ring results in a MoleculeError). moving_atom has to belong to bond and is used to pick which part of the molecule is moved.

closest_atom(point, unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Return the atom of the molecule that is the closest one to some point in space.

point should be an iterable container of length 3 (for example: tuple, Atom, list, numpy array). unit describes unit of values stored in point.

distance_to_point(point, unit='angstrom', result_unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Calculate the distance between the molecule and some point in space (distance between point and closest_atom()).

point should be an iterable container of length 3 (for example: tuple, Atom, list, numpy array). unit describes unit of values stored in point. Returned value is expressed in result_unit.

distance_to_mol(other, result_unit='angstrom', return_atoms=False)[source]¶

Calculate the distance between the molecule and some other molecule.

The distance is measured as the smallest distance between any atom of this molecule and any atom of other molecule. Returned distance is expressed in result_unit.

If return_atoms is False, only a single number is returned. If return_atoms is True, the method returns a tuple (distance, atom1, atom2) where atom1 and atom2 are atoms fulfilling the minimal distance, with atom1 belonging to this molecule and atom2 to other.

wrap(self, length, angle=2*pi, length_unit='angstrom', angle_unit='radian')[source]¶

Transform the molecule wrapping its x-axis around z-axis. This method is useful for building nanotubes or molecular wedding rings.

Atomic coordinates are transformed in the following way:

• z coordinates remain untouched
• x axis gets wrapped around the circle centered in the origin of new coordinate system. Each segment of x axis of length length ends up as an arc of a circle subtended by an angle angle. The radius of this circle is R = length/angle.
• part of the plane between the x axis and the line y=R is transformed into the interior of the circle, with line y=R being squashed into a single point - the center of the circle.
• part of the plane above line y=R is dropped
• part of the plane below x axis is transformed into outside of the circle
• transformation is done in such a way that distances along y axis are preserved

Before:

After:

get_center_of_mass(unit='angstrom')[source]¶

Return the center of mass of the molecule (as a tuple). Returned coordinates are expressed in unit.

get_mass()[source]¶

Return the mass of the molecule, expressed in atomic units.

get_formula(as_dict=False)[source]¶

Calculate the molecular formula of the molecule.

Here molecular formula is a dictionary with keys being atomic symbols. The value for each key is the number of atoms of that type. If as_dict is True, that dictionary is returned. Otherwise, it is converted into a string:

>>> mol = Molecule('Ubiquitin.xyz')
>>> print(m.get_formula(True))
{'N': 105, 'C': 378, 'O': 118, 'S': 1, 'H': 629}
>>> print(m.get_formula(False))
C378H629N105O118S1

apply_strain(strain)[source]¶

Apply a strain deformation to a periodic system.

This method can be used only for periodic systems (the ones with a non-empty lattice attribute). strain should be a container with n*n numerical values, where n is the size of the lattice. It can be a list (tuple, numpy array etc.) listing matrix elements row-wise, either flat ([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]) or in two-level fashion ([[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]).

perturb_atoms(max_displacement=0.01, unit='angstrom', atoms=None)[source]¶

Randomly perturb the coordinates of the atoms in the molecule.

Each Cartesian coordinate is displaced by a random value picked out of a uniform distribution in the interval [-max_displacement, +max_displacement] (converted to requested unit).

By default, all atoms are perturbed. It is also possible to perturb only part of the molecule, indicated by atoms argument. It should be a list of atoms belonging to the molecule.

perturb_lattice(max_displacement=0.01, unit='angstrom', ams_convention=True)[source]¶

Randomly perturb the lattice vectors.

The Cartesian components of the lattice vectors are changed by a random value picked out of a uniform distribution in the interval [-max_displacement, +max_displacement] (converted to requested unit).

If ams_convention=True then for 1D-periodic systems only the x-component of the lattice vector is perturbed, and for 2D-periodic systems only the xy-components of the lattice vectors are perturbed.

substitute(connector, ligand, ligand_connector, bond_length=None, steps=12, cost_func_mol=None, cost_func_array=None)[source]¶

Substitute a part of this molecule with ligand.

connector should be a pair of atoms that belong to this molecule and form a bond. The first atom of connector is the atom to which the ligand will be connected. The second atom of connector is removed from the molecule, together with all “further” atoms connected to it (that allows, for example, to substitute the whole functional group with another). Using connector that is a part or a ring triggers an exception.

ligand_connector is a connector analogue, but for ligand. IT describes the bond in the ligand that will be connected with the bond in this molecule descibed by connector.

If this molecule or ligand don’t have any bonds, guess_bonds() is used.

After removing all unneeded atoms, the ligand is translated to a new position, rotated, and connected by bond with the core molecule. The new Bond is added between the first atom of connector and the first atom of ligand_connector. The length of that bond can be adjusted with bond_length argument, otherwise the default is the sum of atomic radii taken from PeriodicTable.

Then the ligand is rotated along newly created bond to find the optimal position. The full 360 degrees angle is divided into steps equidistant rotations and each such rotation is evaluated using a cost function. The orientation with the minimal cost is chosen.

The default cost function is:

\[\sum_{i \in mol, j\in lig} e^{-R_{ij}}\]

A different cost function can be also supplied by the user, using one of the two remaining arguments: cost_func_mol or cost_func_array. cost_func_mol should be a function that takes two Molecule instances: this molecule (after removing unneeded atoms) and ligand in a particular orientation (also without unneeded atoms) and returns a single number (the lower the number, the better the fit). cost_func_array is analogous, but instead of Molecule instances it takes two numpy arrays (with dimensions: number of atoms x 3) with coordinates of this molecule and the ligand. If both are supplied, cost_func_mol takes precedence over cost_func_array.

__len__()[source]¶

The length of the molecule is the number of atoms.

__str__()[source]¶

Return a string representation of the molecule.

Information about atoms is printed in xyz format fashion – each atom in a separate, enumerated line. Then, if the molecule contains any bonds, they are printed. Each bond is printed in a separate line, with information about both atoms and bond order. Example:

Atoms:
  1         N       0.00000       0.00000       0.38321
  2         H       0.94218       0.00000      -0.01737
  3         H      -0.47109       0.81595      -0.01737
  4         H      -0.47109      -0.81595      -0.01737
Bonds:
  (1)----1----(2)
  (1)----1----(3)
  (1)----1----(4)

__iter__()[source]¶

Iterate over atoms.

__getitem__(key)[source]¶

The bracket notation can be used to access atoms or bonds directly.

If key is a single int (mymol[i]), return i-th atom of the molecule. If key is a pair of ints (mymol[(i,j)]), return the bond between i-th and j-th atom (None if such a bond does not exist). Negative integers can be used to access atoms enumerated in the reversed order.

This notation is read only: things like mymol[3] = Atom(...) are forbidden.

Numbering of atoms within a molecule starts with 1.

__add__(other)[source]¶

Create a new molecule that is a sum of this molecule and some other molecule:

newmol = mol1 + mol2

The new molecule has atoms, bonds and all other elements distinct from both components. The properties of newmol are a copy of the properties of mol1 soft_updated with the properties of mol2.

__iadd__(other)[source]¶

Copy other molecule and add the copy to this one.

as_dict()[source]¶

Store all information about the molecule in a dictionary.

The returned dictionary is, in principle, identical to self.__dict__ of the current instance, apart from the fact that all Atom and Bond instances in atoms and bonds lists are replaced with dictionaries storing corresponing information.

This method is a counterpart of from_dict().

classmethod from_dict(dictionary)[source]¶

Generate a new Molecule instance based on the information stored in a dictionary.

This method is a counterpart of as_dict().

as_array(atom_subset=None)[source]¶

Return cartesian coordinates of this molecule’s atoms as a numpy array.

atom_subset argument can be used to specify only a subset of atoms, it should be an iterable container with atoms belonging to this molecule.

Returned value is a n*3 numpy array where n is the number of atoms in the whole molecule, or in atom_subset, if used.

from_array(xyz_array, atom_subset=None)[source]¶

Update the cartesian coordinates of this Molecule, containing n atoms, with coordinates provided by a (≤n)*3 numpy array xyz_array.

atom_subset argument can be used to specify only a subset of atoms, it should be an iterable container with atoms belonging to this molecule. It should have the same length as the first dimenstion of xyz_array.

readxyz(f, geometry=1, **other)[source]¶

XYZ Reader:

The xyz format allows to store more than one geometry of a particular molecule within a single file. In such cases the geometry argument can be used to indicate which (in order of appearance in the file) geometry to import. Default is the first one (geometry = 1).

readpdb(f, geometry=1, **other)[source]¶

PDB Reader:

The pdb format allows to store more than one geometry of a particular molecule within a single file. In such cases the geometry argument can be used to indicate which (in order of appearance in the file) geometry to import. The default is the first one (geometry = 1).

read(filename, inputformat=None, **other)[source]¶

Read molecular coordinates from a file.

filename should be a string with a path to a file. If inputformat is not None, it should be one of supported formats or engines (keys occurring in the class attribute _readformat). Otherwise, the format is deduced from the file extension. For files without an extension the xyz format is used.

All other options are passed to the chosen format reader.

write(filename, outputformat=None, **other)[source]¶

Write molecular coordinates to a file.

filename should be a string with a path to a file. If outputformat is not None, it should be one of supported formats or engines (keys occurring in the class attribute _writeformat). Otherwise, the format is deduced from the file extension. For files without an extension the xyz format is used.

All other options are passed to the chosen format writer.

label(level=1, keep_labels=False, flags=None)¶

Compute the label of this molecule using chosen level of detail.

Possible levels are:

• 0: does not pefrom any atom labeling, returns empirical formula (see get_formula())
• 1: only direct connectivity is considered, without bond orders (in other words, treats all the bonds as single bonds)
• 2: use connectivity and bond orders
• 3: use connectivity, bond orders and some spatial information to distinguish R/S and E/Z isomers
• 4: use all above, plus more spatial information to distinguish different rotamers and different types of coordination complexes

If you need more precise control of what is taken into account while computing the label (or adjust the tolerance for geometrical operations) you can use the flags argument. It should be a dictionary of parameters recognized by label_atoms(). Each of two letter boolean flags has to be present in flags. If you use flags, level is ignored.

The level argument can also be a tuple of integers. In that case the labeling algorithm is run multiple times and the returned value is a tuple (with the same length as level) containing labels calculated with given levels of detail.

This function, by default, erases IDname attributes of all atoms at the end. You can change this behavior with keep_labels argument.

If the molecule does not contain bonds, guess_bonds() is used to determine them.

Note

This method is a new PLAMS feature and its still somewhat experimental. The exact details of the algorithm can, and probably will, change in future. You are more than welcome to provide any feedback or feature requests.

readase(f, **other)¶

Read Molecule using ASE engine

The read function of the Molecule class passes a file descriptor into here, so in this case you must specify the format to be read by ASE:

mol = Molecule('file.cif', inputformat='ase', format='cif')

The ASE Atoms object then gets converted to a PLAMS Molecule and returned. All other options are passed to ASE.io.read(). See https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/ase/ase/io/io.html on how to use it.

Note

The nomenclature of PLAMS and ASE is incompatible for reading multiple geometries, make sure that you only read single geometries with ASE! Reading multiple geometries is not supported, each geometry needs to be read individually.

writease(f, **other)¶

Write molecular coordinates using ASE engine.

The write function of the Molecule class passes a file descriptor into here, so in this case you must specify the format to be written by ASE. All other options are passed to ASE.io.write(). See https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/ase/ase/io/io.html on how to use it.

These two write the same content to the respective files:

molecule.write('filename.anyextension', outputformat='ase', format='gen')
molecule.writease('filename.anyextension', format='gen')