Guide#

Avogadro is an advanced free and open source molecular editor and visualization tool.

It is highly capable and designed for use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, chemistry education, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas.

It offers flexible high-quality rendering, a modern UI with native styling, and a powerful plugin architecture.

Avogadro is designed for cross-platform use and is fully supported on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Avogadro 2#

In particular, this manual covers the new release of Avogadro 2, a major update, and includes major changes, a revised interface, and new features. Most sections include notes on changes from v1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 to the new 2.0 release, though as there have been so many, coverage is not in any way comprehensive.

Versions 1.90 to 1.99 were beta releases of Avogadro 2 and a lot of this manual applied to those versions too, but note that during the beta phase there were also many improvements made to the UI which have changed the location or appearance of various things.

Look out for boxes highlighting new features or changes for Avogadro 2:

Added in version 2.0: This feature is new.

Changed in version 2.0: This feature now behaves differently.

The revised manual also includes annotations:

Warning

This is a warning – something that may cause problems.

Tip

This is a tip – something that can help you work better.

Note

This is a note – further relevant information.

Thanks#

This book would not be possible without the help and effort of many people, including Avogadro developers, translators, and users world-wide.

Initial funding for the Avogadro manual was provided by the University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemistry.

Version 1 - Summer 2015 - Taylor Cornell and Geoffrey Hutchison
Version 2 - 2022-2024 - Geoffrey Hutchison and Matt Milner