Understanding Kinds

The kinds system is a key feature that groups atoms with identical properties:

# Check if structure has kinds
if structure.properties.kinds:
    print(f"Number of kinds: {len(structure.properties.kinds)}")
    for kind in structure.properties.kinds:
        print(f"Kind {kind.kind_name}: {kind.symbol}")
        print(f"  Site indices: {kind.site_indices}")
        print(f"  Number of positions: {len(kind.positions)}")

Benefits of kinds:

• Storage efficiency: Repeated atoms stored once

• Performance: Faster operations on large structures

• Organization: Clear grouping of identical atoms