Pattern Preview¶
The Preview workspace shows the loaded pattern as an interactive Plotly chart before any analysis — use it to sanity-check the data, tune the background, and review candidate phases.
Switch to it with the toolbar's Preview segment (or View → Workspace → Preview). Loading a pattern lands here automatically.
The preview chart¶
- Interactive Plotly canvas: scroll/drag to zoom, double-click to reset.
- Shows the raw counts vs. 2θ for the active pattern (click a different file in the Data panel list to switch).
- When background subtraction is enabled on the Refine panel, the fitted background curve is drawn over the data.
Manual background¶
With background mode set to Manual on the Refine panel:
- Anchor points appear on the preview plot, seeded from the auto fit.
- Drag anchors up/down to shape the background under your data.
- Reset points (Refine panel) re-seeds them from the auto fit.
The manual background is used for the subsequent search/refinement.
Overlay phase reflections¶
Clicking Overlay phase reflections (Data panel) enters a guided candidate review on top of the preview:
- The theoretical Bragg positions of one candidate CIF at a time are drawn as tick marks over your pattern.
- A side panel steps through the candidates:
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| Pin phase | The overlay matches — pin it so every solution includes it |
| Unpin phase | Remove a previously pinned phase |
| Skip | Move on to the next candidate |
| Back to results | Leave the review |
This is the fastest way to lock in obvious majors before a search, which shrinks the combinatorial space and improves ranking of the minors.
Note
Reflection positions are computed from the CIF lattice + your wavelength
(the compute_phase_reflections tool on the MCP server
does the same headlessly).
Local CIFs only
Only CIFs loaded under Additional CIFs / Pinned phases are reviewed — COD chemical-system candidates are not downloaded until the search runs. To review COD structures, search the system once, then add the downloaded files from the per-system CIF cache as Additional CIFs (details).