Using Materials Cloud to visualize a crystal structure

Molecules and crystals can be visualized using softwares such as XCrySDen, VESTA and VMD, but sometimes there are difficulties in installing these softwares into the computer we are using, say during a workshop like the CMD workshop. In such a circumstance, it is quite useful to use web-based tools. Quantum ESPRESSO input generator and structure visualizer very useful, not only for visualization, but also to create a template for a Quantum-ESPRESSO calculation. Below, I describe how to use the structure viewer by taking graphene as an example.

Visit the Materials Cloud site:

Download your XSF file, say, C2.xsf to your local computer, and choose it on the web page:

Then you can see the following images:

And by scrolling down …:

Just follow the instruction given in the page. by choosing supercell dimension, we can see something like this: