Twiny is a small computer software for identification or confirmation of the twin element from the morphological analysis of twins. The algorithm used by Twiny is described in detail in the article that presents the software (currently under review for J. Appl. Crystallogr.)
This documentation described how to run the software via ths graphical interface or via the text input file.
Twiny is available as a compressed archive containing all the necessary file. Simply decompress the archive and a new folder "Twiny" will be created, containing all the files.
Warning: do NOT decompress the archive on the Windows desktop.
The easiest and most user-friendly way of running the program is to double-click the file TwinyUI.exe. This will launch a graphical interface described below which allows the user to select the correct options and to type in the necessary information. It also makes some controls to avoid input errors.
Alternatively, the user can directly edit the input.in file and launch Twiny.exe. Because the preliminary checks on the input fields are not performed, this is not the recommended way to launch the program.
The graphical interface is shown in the figure below and contains a few fields whose title is self-explanatory.
The user first of all types in the cell parameters. Then he chosees from a drop-down menu four options:
In case of the rotation twins, the drop-down menu on the right, which allows to choose the type of rotation (2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold or 6-fold) is accessible to the user. In case of reflection twins it is instead desactivated.
Next, the user has to type in the twin element (for options 1 and 2) or the measured angle (for options 3 and 4): depending on the option chosen one or the other field are deasctivated.
Finally, the user has to type in the indiced of the prominent direction [uvw] in the two crystals between the angle has been measured.
The button Run launches the program and it changes to "Running" in red characters, until the computation is finished. The result is the shown in the output pane on the right and can also be access with a text editor in the file output.out.