CAChe Molecular Modeling Tutorials Introduction

This is a series of molecular modeling tutorials developed by Karen J. Brewer for use in the Chemistry Department at Virginia Tech to assist students with utilization of the CAChe molecular modeling package version 3.9 on a SGI workstation using IBM client Satellites for Windows version 3.0. These tutorials are designed to be viewed with Netscape.

The CAChe molecular modeling package available here at Virginia Tech consists of several modules that allow you to construct molecules for analysis, perform computer based calculations and visualize your results. This program provides a computational package coupled to a variety of visualization tools that allow you to easily view your results. Several different types of calculations are possible including mechanics, dynamics, extended Huckel, ZINDO, and MOPAC.

IBM clients are located in the Chemistry Department Computing Lab, Davidson 123E. To run the SGI server version of the software that allows for your calculations to be performed remotely on our SGI server you will need to obtain a password from Karen J. Brewer. The CAChe manuals are available to be checked out from the Chemistry Department Stockroom in 126B Davidson Hall and are on the CD you obtain if you purchase a copy of the software.

New Site License Information
Members of the Chemistry department here at Virginia Tech who are interested in purchasing their own CAChe software can now do so for only $10.00 due to a recent purchase of a site license made by the Chemistry Department. To purchase the software see Kezia Johnson in Davidson 107. Software purchased is governed by the site license and expires Oct. 15, 2001.

Information about the CAChe molecular modeling group server system can be obtained from the CAChe Support Group at Fujitsu.

Chemistry Classes Currently Using the CAChe Software:

Chemistry 4414: Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory: This course is utilizing the CAChe software to visualize chemical structures, create energy minimized structures and in a combined molecular modeling/synthesis experiment. The students model a series of Mo complexes and make predictions about their chemical properties. Next they prepare the compounds in the laboratory and measure their chemical properties. Finally the students look for correlations between predicted and observed chemical properties.

Go to the Main CAChe Molecular Modeling Page

Special thanks to the National Science Foundation DUE-9750680, CAChe Higher Education Program and the Virginia Tech Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for financial support of this project.

This page is maintained by Karen J. Brewer