Patent ID: 7801688

Claim:
A computer system including a display and running a three dimensional creation and rendering application defining a host system which allows the user to create virtual objects within a three dimensional virtual space, the three dimensional creation and rendering application implementing an Application Programming Interface (API) including functionality for selecting an object or a plurality of objects, for creating either a reference to or a copy of a selected object or plurality of objects, for establishing parent/child relationships among objects, for setting the scale of an object, for setting the rotation of an object, and for setting the translation/position of an object; and computer program code executing in said computer system and employing said API for: creating multiple instances of at least one virtual object as selected within the host system in accordance with a selected one of a plurality of crystallographic space groups and associated parameter values, grouping the resulting set of virtual object instances as a unit cell having an origin, and outputting the unit cell to the host system for display to a user of the host system.