Using CAD Tool to 3D Print Molecule Models

The workflow shown below is what we have developed at FNW3D.com to print molecules from x-ray crystallography data. The first shows a Grasshopper definition that brings the x-ray data into the Rhino CAD environment. This is key because the typical output from crystallography viewing program (e.g. Mercury or Pymol) are mesh files which can be problematic to edit. Using Grasshopper, the x-ray can be converted into NURBS objects which can be edited to “flatpack” them as shown in the second picture. This makes the printing far more efficient and, more importantly, makes it possible to print large molecular assemblies. The assembled molecule is shown last – this is the iconic inorganic molecule [Ru(bpy)3][PF6]2 built from x-ray data published by Ludi et. al. in the Journal of the American Chemical Society 1992, 114, 5197.