The Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) is a database of small molecule organic and organometallic crystal structures elucidated using X-Ray and neutron crystallography. The CSD is distributed alongside a system of software (the Cambridge Structural Database System) to academic and industrial users. The system contains a number of applications (in particular DASH, ConQuest, and Mogul) that can be used to aid crystallographers in the solution and refinement of crystal structures from powder diffraction data, and in the interpretation of crystal structure models (in particular, Mercury). This publication uses a racemic form of ornidazole (Z′ = 3) to illustrate the efficacy of DASH in the crystal structure solution from powder diffraction data. Furthermore, numerous features in Mogul and Mercury that aid crystal structure solution and interpretation of crystallographic data are revised. Finally, a review of a new method for using database-derived geometric information directly in structural solution is presented.
