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I am viewing a CSD entry / I have loaded a CIF/SHELX res/pdb file output from the CSD: why can't I view the displacement ellipsoids?

Solution

For ellipsoids to be displayed in Mercury, it is necessary for the relevant Uequiv and Uij values to be present in the CIF or SHELX res file being read by Mercury. For PDB files ANISOU records are required to be present in the file. Temperature factor parameters are not retained when a structure is input to the CSD, thus it is not possible to view ellipsoids for entries stored in or output from the CSD.​