Changing the Molecule Appearance

Total time: 3 minutes

As you learned in the module on building and modifying molecules, you can change an atom type (from carbon to oxygen) or the hybridization (from sp³ to sp²) and even the formal charge.  This will give you a different molecule.  It is also possible to change the appearance of your molecule as displayed in the CAChe Workspace.   In this lesson you will use the cyclohexanone, water and ammonia molecules you built earlier. 

Task A: Change Bond and Atom Types in cyclohexanone

1. Open the cyclohexanone file: select File|Open "cyclohexanone"
2. If you used the CAChe defaults, it is displayed in the ball and cylinder model type. Let's change it:
3. Click on the Select tool, , and click anywhere in the workspace to select the molecule.
   1. From the menu bar select View|Lines. 
   2.  From the menu bar select View|Lines Only. 
   3. From the menu bar select View|Ball & Cylinder.
   4. From the menu bar select View|Space Filling.

Task B: Hide/Show Hydrogens

If you have a large molecules and the hydrogen atoms "get in the way" you can "hide" the hydrogen atoms.

1. Open the cyclohexanone file: select File|Open "cyclohexanone"
2. Select View|Suppress Hydrogens from the menu bar.

Task C: Hide/Show Lone Paris

If you have a molecule with lone pairs on one or more atoms -- like water or ammonia -- it is helpful to see the lone pairs. 

1. Open the water file: select File|Open "water"
2. Open the ammonia file: select File|Open "ammonia"
3. Select View|Show Electrons from the menu bar.
   1. For water:
   2. For ammonia:  
4. To hide the lone pairs, select View|Show Electrons from the menu bar. The check mark will go away.

This is the last lesson in the module on viewing and manipulating structures.  In the next tutorial module you will learn to compute different properties of molecules.