Overview
This Chapter describes an overview of the functions that you can perform with Vector NTI. Details on how to use the program can be found in the Vector NTI Tutorials or User’s Guide. You can use the Index at the end of the Manual to find specific topics quickly. However, we strongly recommend that you read this chapter first to get an overall appreciation of the program.
The Program Structure
Vector NTI is a software package to aid molecular biologists, genetic engineers, students, and others in the study, manipulation and creation of biological molecules.
The logical structure of Vector NTI is shown below:
Database
Vector NTI database contains DNA/RNA molecules, protein molecules, enzymes (restriction endonucleases), oligonucleotides (including PCR primers, sequencing primers and hybridization probes), and gel markers. Vector NTI has a special functional module called “Database Explorer” to deal with all the types of database objects. The DB Explorer allows you to create new objects, edit and delete old objects, perform database searches for interesting objects, organize objects into convenient groups (subbases), import/export objects, and create Vector NTI “archives” of objects to share with other users.
Vector NTI also has two additional data Managers – Contact Manager, allowing you to create, modify, and organize the address data of persons or organizations you are frequently communicating with, and User Field Manager dealing with your own data fields which you can define and use to describe your database objects.
There are three general functions dealing with the entire database: Database Backup, Database Restore, and Database Cleanup. The Database Backup function makes a copy of your database in the specified subfolder of your hard or floppy disk. The Database Restore function restores all database files from the desired backup. The Database Cleanup function allows you to compress the database by removing all unnecessary data from the datafiles and database tables. These data may accumulate as a result of extensive creating and deleting of database objects. Although these data do not affect how Vector NTI functions, we recommend that you cleanup your database once a week. The Database Cleanup can also be used as a recovery function when database files and/or tables are lost or damaged. All three general database functions are available from the Vector NTI Database menu.