Import molecules, crystals, trajectories, and volumetric data (electron densities, molecular orbitals) into Blender through ASE — with geometry-nodes representations, coordination polyhedra, and isosurfaces.
 Molecules — geometry-nodes atoms with gray or element-colored bonds |
 Coordination polyhedra — convex hulls of coordination shells as solid faces |
 Molecular orbitals & densities — .cube / VASP volumes with node-based isosurfaces |
 Density as mesh — marching-cubes isosurfaces, optionally colored by a second density file |
 Partial charges — per-atom charges from a csv file, red-white-blue on atoms and bonds |
 Trajectories — any ASE-readable trajectory, animated frame by frame (including varying atom counts) |
 3D printing — atoms and bonds with generated resin supports, exported as per-element STLs in one zip |
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Dependencies are automatically installed upon activation of the addon using pip if an internet connection is present.
In case no internet connection is available. ASE needs to be installed manually.
- Use the blender scripting view to get the module directory:
bpy.utils.script_path_user() + "/modules" - Install ASE to the path using pip: `pip install ase --target <install_dir>
- Restart Blender
Click the Download Add-on button above for blender_importASE.zip built straight from the current main (rebuilt automatically on every push - see .github/workflows/build-latest.yml). For a stable, versioned copy instead, grab it from a tagged release instead. Either way: in Blender go to edit -> preferences -> addons; click install; find the zip file and install it. Then activate the new addon in the list. Viewpoint rendering (render -> render vpts) is part of the addon, so there is nothing else to install.
Symlink the blender_importASE folder into your addon directory (by default under linux ~/.config/blender/x.x/scripts/addons).
You can now import molecules from the File -> import tab and use render -> render vpts to render all collections seperately for your list of cameras.
Images will be put in the folder with the collection name and the name of the camera (name them top, side, front. camera.001 and camera.002 won't help you understand it).
With "load e-density" enabled, volumetric data is imported as a Blender volume with a node-based isosurface (adjustable isovalue and directional cutoffs):
.cubefiles (Gaussian cube format)- VASP files:
CHGCAR,CHG,PARCHG,AECCAR*. For spin-polarized calculations a second volume with the spin difference is created, with green (spin-up excess) and pink (spin-down excess) isosurfaces.
Note that densities are shown in e/A^3 (ASE convention), so isovalues from tools that use the raw CHGCAR values (e.g. VESTA) do not transfer directly.
Imported structures get a panel in the 3D viewport sidebar (N key -> ASE tab) with the most important settings in one place: per-element switching between covalent and vdW radii, hiding bonds per element pair, bond distance/radius and resolution, supercell repeats, outline thickness, per-element visibility, and the isovalues of any imported densities.
Select two atoms of an imported structure (edit mode, pick the two vertices) and press "Add custom bond" in the ASE sidebar. The bond type dropdown in the redo panel (F9) picks the style:
- Dotted - a row of spheres between the two atoms
- Scaled - a solid bond that gets thinner the longer it is, capped at the chosen radius. It is measured against the bond's natural length (the two atoms' covalent radii added), so a normal-length bond is full thickness and a stretched or partial one thins in proportion
- Dashed - alternating cylinder segments
Use them for partial bonds in a transition state, hydrogen bonds, or any interaction the distance-based bond search does not draw. All three take the bond colour (blended between the two atoms), match the structure's own bond radius unless you set one, and get the outline. Each bond is listed in the ASE panel of the structure, so the two atoms can be changed there afterwards. The bond samples the atom positions live, so it follows the structure and its trajectory.
"replace solid bond" additionally hides the normal bond between the two atoms, so the custom one takes its place. Note this is one replacement per atom: if you replace 0-1 and then 0-2, the 0-1 bond reappears. "Reset custom bonds" brings every replaced solid bond back and deletes the custom bond objects again.
The materials used by the geometry-node representations are the ones in the object's Material Properties tab (sorted by element, bond material last), so you can swap or edit them there and the viewport/render follows.
The "3D print" representation (formerly bonds_fromnodes) imports real
sphere meshes plus geometry-node bond tubes with icospheres at every atom
position ("joint radius" on the modifier), so bonds fuse into a printable
solid. File -> Export -> "ASE 3D print (.zip)" then writes one STL per
element (atoms joined), the bonds, and simple resin supports (base plate +
tapered pillars under the lowest atoms; skipped if the collection already
contains your own "supports" object) into a single zip for the slicer.
File -> Export -> "ASE xyz (.xyz)" writes the active nodes-representation structure back to a plain xyz file, using the vertex positions (in world coordinates, i.e. including any edits) and the stored element numbers.