Crystal Renderer¶

SVG and 3D Visualization - Renders crystal structures from CDL notation with export to multiple formats including SVG, STL, and glTF.

Interactive companion

See live examples in the Crystal Gallery, experiment with CDL notation in the CDL Playground, or take a practice quiz on related material.

Overview¶

Crystal Renderer provides comprehensive visualization capabilities:

CDL Visualization: Generate SVG images from Crystal Description Language notation
Multi-Format Export: SVG, PNG, JPG, STL, glTF
Customizable Rendering: Face colors, axes, grid, labels
Info Panels: FGA-style property panels on visualizations
3D Projection: Configurable elevation and azimuth angles
Color Schemes: System-based and form-based coloring

Installation¶

pip install gemmology-crystal-renderer

For raster image export (PNG, JPG):

pip install gemmology-crystal-renderer[raster]

Requirements¶

Python >= 3.10
numpy >= 1.20.0
matplotlib >= 3.5.0
gemmology-cdl-parser >= 1.0.0
gemmology-crystal-geometry >= 1.0.0

Optional Dependencies¶

cairosvg - SVG to raster conversion
Pillow - Image processing
ase - Atomic structure visualization

Quick Start¶

from crystal_renderer import generate_cdl_svg

# Generate SVG from CDL notation
generate_cdl_svg("cubic[m3m]:{111}@1.0 + {100}@1.3", "crystal.svg")

# Export to 3D formats
from crystal_geometry import create_octahedron
from crystal_renderer import export_stl, export_gltf

geom = create_octahedron()
export_stl(geom.vertices, geom.faces, "octahedron.stl")
export_gltf(geom.vertices, geom.faces, "octahedron.gltf")

Output Formats¶

Format	Extension	Description
SVG	`.svg`	Vector graphics, scalable
PNG	`.png`	Raster with transparency
JPG	`.jpg`	Compressed raster
STL	`.stl`	3D printing format
glTF	`.gltf`	Web/AR 3D format

cdl-parser - Crystal Description Language parser
crystal-geometry - 3D geometry engine
mineral-database - Mineral preset database

License¶

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.