hofmann

hofmann is a modern Python reimagining of Methfessel’s XBS ball-and-stick viewer (1995), named after August Wilhelm von Hofmann who built the first ball-and-stick molecular models in 1865.

hofmann renders crystal and molecular structures as depth-sorted ball-and-stick images, producing publication-quality static output (SVG, PDF, PNG) and trajectory animations (GIF, MP4) via matplotlib.

LLZO garnet with ZrO6 polyhedra rendered with hofmann

Quick example

from hofmann import StructureScene

scene = StructureScene.from_xbs("structure.bs")
scene.render_mpl("output.svg")