Avogadro

Avogadro is an advanced molecular editor designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible rendering and a powerful plugin architecture.

From the very beginning Avogadro was designed as a library implementing all core functionality and an application that exposes and extends this functionality. The library allows other programs like Kalzium to easily integrate chemical visualization and editing. Almost all features are based on dynamically loaded plugins, so it is easy to add a new feature or tool.

serves as central part of a workflow for both researchers and students working in chemistry and related areas
allows users to build molecules from conceptual structures, perform geometry optimizations and perform more advanced calculations/simulations in other programs by providing suitable input files
almost all functionality is implemented in plugins, allowing for ultimate flexibility and extensibility
good support for python scripting, virtually everything that can be done in C++ can also be scripted in python

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"We have made extensive use of the Qt plugin framework to dynamically load almost all functionality at runtime."
Dr. Marcus D. Hanwell

"In short, Qt has allowed us to quickly establish a professional, easy-to-use science application. The features provided: translations, undo/redo, multi-threading, OpenGL, plugins... the list provided by Qt is amazing."
Prof. Geoffrey Hutchison

Avogadro and Qt

Avogadro Logo From the very start Avogadro was built as a cross-platform application. Qt enabled us to write powerful, extensible cross-platform code very easily. Avogadro looks like a native application on each platform it is compiled for using native file widgets.

With the release of Qt 4.4 we were able to take advantage of the new QtConcurrent framework. This enabled us to easily take advantage of multi-core systems while keeping our code simple and readable.

Avogadro continues to benefit from the clean API Qt offers, and we follow the Qt API style in our own library API. This has allowed several students to quickly find their way around our code and complete short projects.