Hi all!
I’ve been working on Molfig, a package that renders molecular structure files (PDB / mmCIF / BinaryCIF) as static figures directly in Typst documents, and wanted to share it here.
Molfig parses structure data on the CPU using a Mol*-like (molstar.org) Model/Structure/Unit layering, exports static meshes (OBJ / STL / PLY), and hands off the final rendering to maquette. The core is implemented as a Rust-based WASM plugin.
Key features:
- Input formats: PDB, text CIF/mmCIF, and BinaryCIF
- Representations: Mol* default, spacefill, ball-and-stick, cartoon, ribbon, and backbone
- Support for biological assemblies and altLoc (alternate conformation) selection
- API:
render,render-object,to-obj,to-mtl,to-stl,to-ply,info,mesh-info
Limitations:
Since it’s focused on static mesh export, it doesn’t support Mol*'s interactive WebGL rendering, molecular surfaces, or volumetric rendering.
Links:
- Source code: https://github.com/rice8y/molfig
- Universe package: https://typst.app/universe/package/molfig
Here’s a sample render:
I think this could be useful for embedding structural figures in papers, reports, or other static documents. Would love any feedback, bug reports, or feature requests!