QMGA
QMGA [1] is a customized OpenGL-based program for the interactive, rendered representation of large ensembles of convex bodies, useful especially in liquid crystal research. Coarse-grained modelling of molecular fluids is often based on non-spherical convex rigid bodies like ellipsoids or spherocylinders representing rodlike or platelike molecules or groups of atoms, with site-site interaction potentials depending both on the distance among the particles and the relative orientation. In this category of potentials, the Gay-Berne family has been studied most extensively. However, conventional molecular graphics programs are not designed to visualize such objects. Usually the basic units are atoms displayed as spheres, or as vertices in a graph. Atomic aggregates can be highlighted through an increasing amount of stylized representations, e.g., Richardson ribbon diagrams for the secondary structure of a protein, Connolly molecular surfaces, density maps, etc., but ellipsoids and spherocylinders are generally missing, especially as elementary simulation units.