The Optical Properties Section contains two fields for the following properties:

The Abbreviations Dialog shows the definitions of all the abbreviations used in Cranium and Synapse. To activate the dialog, select the Help menu's Abbreviations command. See here for documentation.

Each property field contains a label, a datum control, an estimated value control, and a units control.

1	Datum Control: displays the field's physical property's data value. A green triangle in the datum control's upper right corner indicates that additional data are available. (See below.)
2	Estimate Control: displays the field's physical property's estimated value.
3	Units Control: refractive indices are dimensionless values. (A refractive index is defined as the speed of light through a vacuum divided by the speed of light through a chemical. The ration thus results in a dimensionless value.) Because these values are dimensionless, the Units Control is not enabled.

Both fields in this section contain dimensionless, numerical values. Thus, they appear similar and are edited in the same manner.

Values for the optical properties listed in this section can also be entered as functions of temperature in the Temperature Dependent Section and as functions of temperature and pressure in the Temperature and Pressure Dependent Section.

The Data column of each field displays a physical property data value. A green triangle in the data control's upper right corner indicates that additional data are available. (See the documentation on the Datum-Reference All Data Dialog for details on managing data having different status.)

Clicking the right mouse button within the field's datum control activates the field's datum commands menu.

The menu's commands enable you to copy, cut and paste values to and from the data control. See Common Menu Commands for documentation on the commands commonly found on command menus. Some of this field's more specific commands are:

• Edit All Data: uses the All Data dialog to enable editing data having status values of passive, rejected or unknown. See Datum-Reference All Data Dialog for documentation.)
• Edit Data: enables you to view and mofidy the current physical property's datum. The property value, accuracy, reference and comments can be viewed and edited. See Datum-Reference Edit Dialog for detailed documentation.

  Each property field runs a set of verification tests to check the validity of an entered value. Specifically:

  • Liquid Index of Refraction (nD,l,293): value must be greater than 0.0
  • Solid Index of Refraction (nD,s,293): value must be greater than 0.0

  Cranium or Synapse will signal an error if the entered value fails a physical property verification test.

The Estimates column of each field displays the physical property's estimated value.

Clicking the left mouse button on an estimate control activates the Estimation Details dialog.

The Estimation Details dialog shows the estimated value, the technique used to generate the estimate, and any comments generated during the estimation. The dialog also has two buttons to provide more information about the technique used to generate the estimate:

• Tech Notes: displays the general notes associated with the estimation technique.
• Tech Ref: display the document associated with the technique's reference.

The Estimates column of each field displays the physical property's estimated value.

Clicking the right mouse button on the estimate control displays the command menu.

The menu's commands enable you to copy, cut and clear values from the estimate control. (You cannot paste a value into an estimate control.) See Common Menu Commands for documentation on the commands commonly found on command menus. Some of this field's more specific commands are:

• Compute Estimate: activates the Property Estimation dialog which enables you to estimate the current physical property. The functionality of this command is similar to that of the Commands menu Compute Estimates command. The key difference is that the estimates control's menu command limits the estimation to only the current physical property. See Estimating Chemical Properties for additional documentation.
• Select Technique: enables you to specify the estimation mode and the estimation technique used to estimate the current physical property. Selecting this command activates the Estimation Technique Information dialog.

  The dialog lists two estimation modes: Automatic and Manual. By default all estimations are initially set to Automatic Mode. Once you choose Manual Mode, the list of estimation techniques is enabled allowing you to choose any estimation technique known to the application. See documentation on Manual Techniques Dialog for details about manually selecting estimation techniques.
• Detail Estimate: activates the Details Dialog displaying information about the estimation technique used. See documentation on the Estimate-Technique Detail Dialog for details.

The refractive index is a dimensionless quantity so both fields' units controls are not enabled.

Topic	Description
Estimating Chemical Properties	a short video demonstrating how to estimate physical properties using either Synapse or Cranium.
Getting Started using Cranium	provides a quick tour of Cranium's capabilities including a discussion of structure editing.
Chemicals Chapter	the chemicals chapter contains numerous sections for entering and displaying data and estimates including the chemical structure section.