Mineralogy
GEOLIB
is a mineralogical database that contains all minerals approved by the IMA, as well as some not yet approved ones. It also makes use of the systematic classification of H. Strunz including later extensions, literature references, a cataloging system for your mineral collection etc. etc.
You may download a free shareware version at their site.

The MINERAL Database
a computerized mineral reference book in a PC database format containing data for more than 4800 minerals. The data has been assembled and evaluated by E. H. Nickel, Vice-Chairman of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, and M. C. Nichols, Sandia National Laboratories. The data contained in MINERAL will be updated annually. An electronic user manual accompanying the computerized reference contains readily understandable instructions for installing and using the system plus examples of typical searches.
MINERAL is designed to allow extremely rapid searches of the more than 7400 entries in the database. Searchable information includes: name (Fragment or Synonym), elemental and poly atomic data, x-ray powder data, type localities, mineral group name, related species name(s), measured and calculated densities, hardness, reference to name origin and date, crystal system and space group, lattice parameters, c/a, a/b, unit cell volume, status, mineral classification, luster and color, general references, crystal structure reference, notes field for other data or comments, JCPDS number, date of the most recent update, chemical formula.
In addition to simple searches, MINERAL allows multiple field searches and complex search criteria (e.g. not equal, less and greater than, contains etc.). It is also possible to print, or view on the screen summaries of those minerals which meet elemental or other criteria you establish.

MINER
is a database containing files of all known minerals and allows for searching on criteria like physical properties, chemical and crystallographic data of minerals. It is available in French language only. It is updated on a yearly basis. MINER requires a database programme like FileMaker Pro, Access, Foxpro, Approach to be used.

The Digital Rockhound's Companion
is a database application that is the compilation of a lifetime's interest in rock and mineral collecting. The program includes: 260,000 mining locations from North America and the world, chemical and physical data for more than 3800 mineral species, bibliography with over 17,000 mineral and mining related references, 3300 digital map images (including all of the Streets for the USA), personal address book to organize dealer contacts includes fields to store e-mail and World Wide Web addresses, and you can use it catalog and organize your collection. Using DRC, you can view and search the databases and add your own data! Digital images can be stored added to the databases. Build and view custom maps of mine locations, Search EBay Auctions and search Microsoft's Terraserver site for Aerial photos, relief maps, and topographic maps with a simple click of a button. Export your mineral collection data to HTML for display online or simply to store on CD-R/CD-RW.

Mineral names from A to Z
An alphabetic listing (52 K) of all the valid mineral names (no chemical formulas) up-to-date till 2004.



mineral collecting
Lithos
is a tool to keep track of your mineral collection. It offers an integrated database with all IMA acknowledged mineral species up to december 2000. The information available for each species includes name, crystal system, crystal class, hardness, density, color, streak color, cleavage, fracture and crystal grid parameters. It links from over 1000 trade names, old or obsolete names, and mineral groups to the real acknowleged species. Over 1000 crystal drawings of approx. 600 species. A database for your own collection with several search facillities.

MineralLabel
is freeware designed specifically for mineral collectors and dealers, and lets you quickly print labels for your specimens, shelf ID cards in several formats for display cabinets, lists of your minerals from the built-in database, and even price lists for you dealers out there. And MineralLabel can handle chemical formulas properly.

MineralDB
is an integrated mineral database and cataloguing system for mineral collectors, dealers and museums.
It includes a mineral properties database for 4,000+ mineral species (with up to 45 different data types per record). A mineral locality database with over 55,000 entries, 3,000+ example mineral images, support for multiple collection catalogues and unlimited storage of specimen/mineral digital photographs.

Ed’s Db v3
A cataloguing and reference database for mineral, rock and gemstone collectors, curators and professionals in the earth sciences.
Includes lots of information on 4500+ minerals, 800+ gemstones, 390+ rocks, 2100+ localities and 1400+ pictures of specimens. Extensive searching using both 'and' & 'or' criteria inc. chemical elements. Reference and personal picture library integration. Interactive Picture viewing via your favourite viewer. Print data sheets in a variety of formats. Print and edit labels in a variety of standard sizes inc. plastic box size. etc.

My Collection Explorer
is an easy-to-use inventory and cataloguing system designed to organize your mineralogical collection.

MyMinerals
This application for MacOS X provides tools to organize and describe the specimens in a collection (as well as keep photographs), to print labels and collection books, and to publish a collection as a complete web site.




mineral determination
Dana App.
(178 K) is a database-like mineral reference for Windows. Dana App. has no database table associated with it that the user can modify. You point and click your way through the systematic classification of minerals according to the Dana-system and find the properties of the most common minerals. Maybe you need vbrun300.zip to get things work! If you want more information about Dana, please contact the author: Mike Mueller at mikejm@westworld.com

MinIdent-Win
a very powerful and comprehensive mineral identification software that can be used very easily by professionals, collectors and students. This program is made by Micronex Mineralogical, Petrographical and Microanalytical Services, a company owned and operated by professionals with many years experience in the areas of mineralogy, meteoritics, microanalysis and software development.

MinLogic
by M.J. Swenson. MineraLogic is an easy to use mineral identification tool and mineral database. MineraLogic helps collectors and students new to mineralogy to learn the logical process of mineral identification. As one becomes more familiar with mineral identification the program has advanced features for use as a mineralogy database and search tool. Initially, MineraLogic has 70 of the most common minerals defined to the database. However, the program has no limitation on the number of minerals that can be added.

Mineral Mastery Pro
software to identify and catalog mineral specimens. The software presents information on 200 of the most common minerals and any number can be added or deleted. Information is presented via 4 tabs named Physical Properties, Images, Facts, Notes.

PoleMic
Software for the identification of minerals in thin sections by Niels Hede Pedersen. PoleMic is a computer programme that identifies a mineral using the optical properties of the transparent mineral as observed in thin section. PoleMic is designed to be used mainly for educational purposes in introductory courses on polarizing microscopy.

Mineral Identification Project
an on-line aid to the identification of 300 of the most common minerals. Input hardness, streak, habit or other characteristic and get descriptions and photos of the minerals fitting your search data.




chemistry & formulas
Chemistry Formatter
Add-ins for Microsoft Word and Excel. The chemistry formatter is software that does some of the formatting one would otherwise have to do by hand. Chemistry formatters are provided for Microsoft Excel and Word that perform functions like the appropriate numbers in a chemical formula are subscripted, as in H₂O. Charges are superscripted. -> is converted to → and numbers in the form of 3.2E8 are converted to 3.2 × 10⁸.

Mineral Formula Wizard
is a VBA macro program for Microsoft Word 97. It helps you to format crystal chemical formulas of minerals (and all other chemical formulas). You don't need to make a "manual" formatting of all sub- and superscript coefficient etc. The details are described in a preliminary manual (MS Word 97 file, size about 175 kb).

Periodic Table
with the usual information regarding all the known elements. It also contains a formula weight calculator, allows for adding individual notes, etc. Freeware.



gemology
The Adamas Advantage Gem ID Kit© For Windows
gem identification software with a database containing extensive parameter information on over 500 gemstone varieties. A full function demo of The Adamas Advantage Gem Identification Kit For Windows© is available for download. The demo uses a very limited subset of the complete gem and mineral database to give you a flavor of its power. The Adamas Advantage Gem Identification Kit©. for Windows database currently contains extensive parameter information on over 500 gemstone varieties. The complete mineralogical database will add over 3200 mineral (non gem) varieties to the software and is published separately as The Adamas Advantage Gem And Mineral Identification Kit©.

Gemcad
is a program that enables you to create your new faceted gem design on screen in a matter of minutes. GemCad's purpose is to do the tedious calculations, behind the scenes, as you design a new cut. GemCad simulates a faceting machine. The stone is shown on the screen as each facet is cut. You can type in the angle and index of a facet and set a point with the mouse to indicate cutting depth, and GemCad will cut the facet and all others related to it by symmetry. The final result of GemCad is a fully checked faceting diagram that you can take to your faceting machine and cut.

Diamond calculator (DiamCalc)
is a system of modelling cut gemstones, which enables the precise calculation of the diamond weight and determination of the cut proportions. The real (photorealistic) image of a polished diamond created by the system makes it possible to determine the cut parameters that cannot be measured and to select the optimal combination of the parameters to obtain the best perception (brilliance, fire, scintillation) of the stone. Necessary cut parameters can be obtained by comparison of the real diamond to the computer image.



crystallography
Shape Software
SHAPE is a program for drawing the external morphology (faces) of crystals and quasi-crystals, and also for drawing sections of crystals (Windows and DOS versions). It will draw any single crystal and most twins and epitaxial intergrowths. You enter the crystal axis lengths and angles, the symbol for the crystal class, and one face of each form (symmetry equivalent set). The crystal can be rotated and scaled. A stereonet can be displayed with the crystal, or stereopairs can be drawn automatically. Screen display and hard copy of even complex, interpenetrating intergrowths may be made in final finished form, with no extraneous lines.
Apart from this program for calculating crystal morphology, this site also has programs like ATOMS for atomic-structure display, VIBRATZ for normal-coordinate vibrational analysis and CRYSCON a general crystallographic conversion utility.
demo versions can be downloaded.

JCrystal
is a computer program for creating, editing, displaying and deploying crystal shapes. The present JCrystal-distribution is for PC only (Win95/98/NT/ME, Win2000). JCrystal is a stand-alone Java application.

KrystalShaper
KrystalShaper draws crystal shapes for normal crystals and icosahedral quasicrystals. It is possible to export webpages in the HTML language, which use the provided Applet, so that crystal shapes can be viewed within a Java-enabled webbrowser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. KrystalShaper itself has more rendering options than the applet. It might thus be used as an interface for the creation of interactive webpages.
KrystalShaper is a new crystal shape editing program. It is not an upgrade of JCrystal, but a separate program, which is written in a different language and with a different feature set and file format.

DRAWxtl
this computer program produces crystal structure drawings in the form of an interactive screen representation, as well as VRML files for use on web pages and in classroom teaching, and creates input files for the popular Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray) rendering program for publicationquality graphics, including generation of stereo pairs. DRAWxtl output produces the standard kinds of graphical representations: spheres, ellipsoids, bonds and polyhedra of any complexity. In addition, it can draw arrows to represent magnetic moments, show capped cones to indicate the location of lone-pair electrons and display Fourier contours in three dimensions. Aunique feature of this program is the ability to plot incommensurately modulated and composite structures. This open-source program can be used with operating systems as diverse as Windows (9X, NT, 2000 and XP), Mac OS X, Linux and most other varieties of Unix.

XTALDRAW
is an interactive computer graphics program that displays and manipulates ball and stick, polyhedral and thermal ellipsoid colored drawings of any crystal structure or molecule.
The user can address such topics as crystal chemistry, rotational and translational symmetry, crystal classes, structure types, closest packing, atomic radii, optical and physical properties, diffraction theory or just generate cool images. The program is menu-aided and user-friendly and includes data files for generating hundreds of crystal structures. In addition, data set construction is simple, especially to those that have a limited knowledge of space group and structural theory.

Crystal Studio
is a Windows 95/98/NT software package for crystallography developed by CrystalSoft Corp.. It is a comprehensive tool for user-friendly creation, 3D graphical design, display and manipulation of crystal structures and for the simulation of diffraction patterns. Empowered with a crystallographic database, Crystal Studio lets you create stunning photo-realistic 3D graphics and diffraction patterns with just a few mouse clicks. Free demonstration version available for download.



CD-ROM's
The Photo-Atlas of Minerals
A Windows CD-ROM featuring nearly 16500 high-resolution images, data for more than 4100 known minerals, mineral name pronunciations (audio), origins of mineral names, synonym and variety names, crystal forms, symmetry and twinning, mineral localities with index maps, modern Strunz mineral classification, glossary of mineral terminology, cross-indexes for easy searching, etc.
This CD-ROM is produced by The Gem & Mineral Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

Photographic Guide to Mineral Species
A CD-ROM featuring quality photographs of over 3000 (80%) of the known minerals, indexed by species name and by locality. Easy to use and works on both PC and MAC.

Atlas der Krystallformen
The classical work Atlas der Krystallformen by Victor Goldschmidt contains 23606 crystal drawings and a short description of each drawing. This work which is regarded as a milestone in crystallography, is now available on CD-ROM. All images and text are on two cd's containing approx. 810 MB of graphic files.



Software Links
Athena, mineralogy software
SINCRIS software list Crystallography Software
Geo-Software Indexes at the University of Würzburg
Geological Software at the University of Erlangen



Screensavers
Fluorescent Minerals Screensaver download this free screensaver with 45 photographs of minerals under long or short wave UV