This page remains available mainly as an historical document
Most or all of the features are no longer available via the CDS/DL
website since provision of the EPSRC UK national Chemical Database
Service has been taken over by the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1st
January 2013.
Some related features may be available via the RSC/CSD portal.
For details of what is currently available on the CDS/DL website and
also links to the RSC/CDS portal follow the link to the CDS/DL Homepage.
The information below was produced before January 2013 and may be
incorrect at the present time.
IsoStar Knowledge Base
The IsoStar package is available to CDS users.
IsoStar is a knowledge base of experimental and theoretical
information on non-bonded interactions compiled by the Cambridge
Crystallographic Data Centre.
It has been designed to play a prominent role in the field of
molecular invention and will be of special interest to anyone involved
in rational drug design, etc.
The database contains information derived from the Cambridge
Structural Database (CSD), the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank (PDB) and
theoretical calculations.
Further details of IsoStar (including a quick tour of the program),
are available from the Cambridge IsoStar
Product page.
Browser Client software is available.
IsoStar can be accessed using XWindows with the "isostar" command when
logged onto the CDS server.
There is also a link to IsoStar from the enhanced Version of the
Mercury visualisation package which is available via X-Windows on the CDS server.
Is is also accessible through a Web Browser link on the CDS Homepage (this is probably the best option for most users).
The IsoStar browser client software can be configured to access the
data on the CDS server, but does the manipulation and display on your
local machine.
This lowers network traffic considerable as compared to the XWindows
implementation of IsoStar, and generally results in a much improved
response.
To use this facility you are required to install and configure the
software, and you may need to configure your Web browser.
For instructions on how to do this go to the IsoStar
Download area.
If you have already installed the Browser client you can access the
Knowledge Base (after first logging on) via the
menu situated at the top left of the menu options on all CDS Web Pages.
Full documentation is freely available
The IsoStar program comes with interactive Tutorial Material included.
This can access be accessed directly via our link to the Cambridge IsoStar
Support documentation
We also maintain a
News file
which gives release information and other recent details of the CDS
IsoStar implementation.