The primary purpose of this site is to maintain, for the good of the community, that software developed under the successful CCP13 (Collaborative Computational Project for Fibre Diffraction and Solution Scattering) software project that ran from 1992–2006. But it is our intention, with the help of the community, to develop this site into a true 'One-Stop Shop' for small-angle scattering related resources.

CCP13 developed software to analyse data from the wide variety of "non-crystalline" samples that give rise to characteristic types of diffraction pattern. It also helped to foster interactions and collaborations between non-crystalline diffractionists around the world. Its major activity was the provision of software to analyse fibre specimens - materials having an ordered structure with preferential alignment along one axis. Typical of such structures are long chain polymer molecules with a regular, axial repeat, but with different degrees of lateral packing between molecules, varying from almost crystalline to more liquid-like. Software was also developed for the analysis of diffraction data from randomly-oriented, preferably homogeneous, particles in solution and for texture studies in synthetic polymers and other systems.

The project made major progress with the extraction of useful intensity data from fibre diffraction patterns. The nature of these patterns can be quite diverse, ranging from those which exhibit Bragg sampling in polycrystalline specimens (e.g. particular types of DNA structure or synthetic polymers such as PET or Kevlar) to patterns where the intensity is continuously distributed along layer lines reflecting a complete lack of lateral register in the sample (e.g. filamentous viruses or very often diffraction patterns recorded during structural changes). In addition to consolidating and developing work on data extraction, CCP13 developed a framework for modelling fibrous structures at various resolution levels.

Although Software for Small-Angle Scattering does not have funding at the present time for software development ,it is our intention to make the original CCP13 source code available to skilled developers in the community on the understanding that any improvements will be redistributed.  If this is of interest to you, please contact us.

The software for small angle scattering you will find on this site has been developed to run on a variety of platforms including the Windows® and Linux® operating systems. Executables are available free of charge to academic users.

Software for Small-Angle Scattering is a not-for-profit project.