How to draw tetrahedral ice structure?

[calebuiuc]

Is there any software that can easily draw a tetrahedral ice?

I was trying to draw a H2O molecule surrounded by other 4 H2O's (forming a tetrahedral ice) by ChemDraw, which seemingly was not very friendly to me.

 

[alxm]

Well ChemDraw is good for and typically used for 'flat' structures. If you want to show a 3D structure, like say, a unit cell, you'll need the 3D coordinates, either by creating yourself, or getting a file somewhere like the ICSD (internet crystal structure database).

The typical files for this are CIF (Crystal Information file) and there's also XYZ (essentially raw coordinates) and other formats. There's a CIF program, as well as JMol and a bunch of other visualization software for creating images of such 3D structures.

 

[calebuiuc]

Well ChemDraw is good for and typically used for 'flat' structures. If you want to show a 3D structure, like say, a unit cell, you'll need the 3D coordinates, either by creating yourself, or getting a file somewhere like the ICSD (internet crystal structure database).

The typical files for this are CIF (Crystal Information file) and there's also XYZ (essentially raw coordinates) and other formats. There's a CIF program, as well as JMol and a bunch of other visualization software for creating images of such 3D structures.

Got it. ICSD stands for 'Inorganic' Crystal Structure Database.

Thanks a lot. I appreciate it!