timol 1.2.3

3D Molecular viewer in the terminal

About Timol

Timol is a molecular visualiser inside of the terminal. It relies on ASE to read a molecular file (e.g. xyz) and displays it within a Textual app.

Installation

Timol is installable via pip (see PyPI page) using pip install timol. The minimum python version is 3.9.

Usage

In order to visualise a file of interest, simply call timol <file_path>. An optional argument (-i) can be provided to index the file in case only specific frames are of interest (note that this can also be done from within the app using the i hotkey). This is particularly recommended for large (xyz) files to prevent excessive loading times.

In order to test the app without a molecular file at hand, use timol test.

Note that the first time timol is launched, longer loading times are expected to initialise the package.

Functionalities

Timol provides a set of tools to conveniently manipulate the camera and more:

• Help: Press h to view available hotkeys from within the app
• Rotate/tilt: Drag the mouse or press a/d and w/s
• Spin: Press z/x
• Pan: Hold shift/alt and drag the mouse or press shift+a/d
• Zoom: Scroll or press q/e
• Change index/frame: Press sift+q/e or left/right (up/down) to go to the previous/next (or first/last) frame, press g to manually input the index

MacOS Disclaimer

The default MacOS terminal app does not play nice with Textual apps and might make the rendering choppy. For more information and a solution to some of the issues, see the Textual FAQ