CACAO98 (Beta Version)

This page provides information on how to download and install CACAO98, the Extended Huckel Molecular Orbital (EHMO) Package developed by Carlo Mealli and David Proserpio.


1. Download via this link a self extracting zipfile (CACAO98.exe) of the CACAO98 Suite, and locate
    the file in any temporary directory, e.g., c:\TEMP.

2. Running CACAO98.EXE will generate three subdirectories:

        disco1, disco2 and disco3.

    (You can locate these in the same temporary directory as CACAO98.exe itself)

3. Use Windows Explorer to locate the setup.exe file in the disco 1 subdirectory.  Run setup.exe
    to  install CACAO98.  This is a straightforward process, made colorful by the use of windows
    commands in italian (capiche?).

    Use this installation process to create directory c:\moan.  In principle, you could use any
    filename, but older versions of the software required the use of moan (Molecular Orbital
    Analysis), and I'm not sure if there are any old file location specific commands lurking in the
    software.

4.  When the installation is complete, this is what you should have inside c:\moan... 


WINEH    FRM        13,442  02-17-99  4:11p Wineh.frm
CACAO    EXE       562,688  03-15-99 10:21a CACAO.EXE
WINCACAO EXE        39,936  02-17-99  4:12p Wincacao.exe
DOSXMSF  EXE       393,942  09-10-96  3:33p DOSXMSF.EXE
DOSXNT   386         9,343  09-10-96  3:33p DOSXNT.386
DOSXNT   EXE       393,942  09-10-96  3:33p DOSXNT.EXE
EH       BAT         5,671  02-27-99 11:15a EH.BAT
EHC      EXE       665,600  03-17-99  5:06p EHC.EXE
HELP     ENG        12,159  03-13-99 11:39a HELP.ENG
MANUAL   DOC     2,468,352  09-12-99  4:17p MANUAL.DOC
PLUTO    EXE       252,416  03-13-99  5:59p PLUTO.EXE
PARAM    DAT         3,133  02-19-96  5:45p param.dat
PL       BAT         3,572  03-13-99 11:16a pl.bat
PLOTF    BAT         1,611  01-10-96 12:05p plotf.bat
SIM      TAB        25,456  03-23-98  6:22p SIM.TAB
SIMIEN   EXE       168,960  02-09-99  3:14p SIMIEN.EXE
WCACAO   BAT           759  01-23-98  6:02p WCACAO.BAT
WCACAO   INI            57  02-06-98  5:42p wcacao.ini
ST5UNST  LOG         7,455  09-12-99  4:17p ST5UNST.LOG
XMDRAW   EXE        36,352  02-17-99  3:47p xmdraw.exe
FILES          <DIR>        09-12-99  4:17p files 



 

The Files subdirectory contains the following INPUT Files:



PSTOOL   IN            266  07-08-97  1:40a PSTOOL.IN
ETHYLDM  IN            245  03-17-99 11:23a ETHYLDM.IN
ETHYLEN  IN            121  03-17-99 11:25a ETHYLEN.IN
FERROCEN IN            172  05-15-98  4:18p FERROCEN.IN
N2       IN            136  03-17-99 11:28a N2.IN
NIOLEF   IN            424  07-08-97  1:55a NIOLEF.IN
NAPHT    IN          3,108  09-10-98  7:04p napht.in
O2H2     IN            238  07-08-97  1:37a O2H2.IN
CO2      IN            118  03-17-99 11:30a CO2.IN
NMEI2SU  IN            223  03-17-99  5:27p nmei2su.IN
CAMBR    IN             54  03-17-99  4:55p cambr.IN
FOSF2    DAT       143,872  04-01-98  4:03p fosf2.dat

5. The software is well documented, but the manual.doc file is quite large.  Here is a PDF version of
    the manual which can be opened more quickly.  Read the "Getting Started" section on page 5,
    and also the discussion of EHC (page 6) and MOAN (page 7).

6. We will go over the most of the operational nuances of the software in class, but the best way to
    learn how to use this software is settle down and work with it.  I recommend you place the moan
    subdirectory of the path statement in your autoexec.bat file, i.e.,
 
            Path ...c:\moan;...

    This will allow you to run the software from any directory on your PC.

7. When the installation is complete, you can delete the entire c:\temp directory and it contents.  If
    you need or want to reinstall, you can always find the CACAO98.exe file here.

8.  You will rapidly learn that you can run the software in a windows environment, by double
    clicking on wincacao.exe.  Alternatively, you can run it from your MS DOS shell (this is my
    personal preference).

9.  The hardest aspect of using CACAO98, or any molecular computational package, is the definition
     of the geometry.  This most recent incarnation of CACAO is much easier than previous versions,
     but you should still read instructions starting on the bottom of page 20.  We'll walk through this in
     class, and you will learn to make your own input files, but here, for future reference, are two text
     files containing ascii listings of input files for a variety of common structures.

        Input_1.txt
        Ah_n.txt

      To help make your day, the format of input files for the new version of CACAO differs from
      that of earlier versions, so heavey editing is necessary to make these files work.  As files
      become available I will post them here.  Save them as *.in in order to run them from Wincacao.

       [Mo2Cl8]4- A metal-metal quadruple bond

10.  By the end of the course you should be able to provide a fully annotated, text-plus-graphics
       description of the electronic structure of most any transition metal complex.

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