DRAWxtl reads a basic description of the crystal structure, which includes unit-cell parameters, space group, atomic coordinates, thermal parameters or a Fourier map, and outputs a geometry object that contains polyhedra, planes, lone-pair cones, spheres or ellipsoids, bonds, iso-surface Fourier contours and the unit-cell boundary.

Four forms of graphics are produced:

* an OpenGL window for immediate viewing * the Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer (POV-RAY) scene language for publication-quality drawings * the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) for dissemination across the Internet * a Postscript rendering of the OpenGL window for those who want high-quality output but do not have POV-RAY installed.

File formats DRAWxtl can read include CIF, FDAT, FullProf (pcr), GSAS, SCHAKAL, SHELX, DISCUS and WIEN2k.