May 2006 - Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

-S option in ksdssp command
by kovzany＠go.com 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

Dear All, I'm trying to get an output with protein secondary structure assignment into a text file, using ksdssp command, unfortunately everytime I get error like this: Computing secondary structure assignments for model #0 using ksdssp (Kabsch and Sander Define Secondary Structure of Proteins) with the parameters: energy cutoff <default> minimum helix length <default> minimum strand length <default> -S option not yet available My question is: am I doing something wrong, or -S option is not yet implemented, despite it is described in ksdssp.html help file? thanks, PK

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Question regarding an inorganic compound to display with Chimera
by Allen Stock 26 May '06

26 May '06

HI, I'm interested in viewing the 3D structure for the following inorganic component: Tantalum Pentaethoxide ... also known as TAETO The following company gives a 3D representation of the compound. Any idea where I can find a 3D description that can be displayed with Chimera. Thanks for your attention and feedback. Regards, --Allen

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editing Python saved sessions
by Jonathan Hilmer 22 May '06

22 May '06

Notepad++ will do a great job of editing the .py files. I've found that this is an extremely convenient way to accomplish certain tasks, such as precise alignment of multiple clipping planes. However, you definitely have to know what you're looking for when digging through the files. On a related issue, I have a question regarding the saved sessions. In some of the viral capsid models I've created a saved session is enormous (about 60 megabytes) and fails to compile either automatically when loading the .py session or manually using the python.exe included with Chimera. It seems to be a result of excessive explicit attribute assignments that I don't really care about (color etc) since they are easy enough to set once the model has loaded. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this issue? Jonathan PS: Check out the most recent issue of Science. Although the editors chose the least visually impressive submission, non of the variations would have been possible without Chimera: great program. > Hello. My name is Anne Szklarski and I am a student at The College of New > Jersey. I was wondering if there was a way that the python files could be > modified in notepad. Does it require the Python software? The reason I ask > is because I have been renaming certain atoms in the .ent files using > notepad so that I may specifically select them in chimera. The only > problem with my current method is that I have to start the rendering > process from the beginning which is quite time consuming. So I was > wondering if there was a way that I could alter the chimera file directly > and not lose any of the colors, etc. that I have chosen. I appreciate any > information on this matter. > > Thank you, > Anne Szklarski

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Question
by szklars2＠tcnj.edu 21 May '06

21 May '06

Hello. My name is Anne Szklarski and I am a student at The College of New Jersey. I was wondering if there was a way that the python files could be modified in notepad. Does it require the Python software? The reason I ask is because I have been renaming certain atoms in the .ent files using notepad so that I may specifically select them in chimera. The only problem with my current method is that I have to start the rendering process from the beginning which is quite time consuming. So I was wondering if there was a way that I could alter the chimera file directly and not lose any of the colors, etc. that I have chosen. I appreciate any information on this matter. Thank you, Anne Szklarski

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Problems installing/running chimera
by Christian Schafmeister 21 May '06

21 May '06

Hi there, I tried installing the latest snapshot of chimera for windows: chimera-1.2224-win32.exe as well as the production release 1.2199 and I get an error when it tries to start up. Dialog box: pythonw.exe - Entry Point Not Found The procedure entry point ?pathSeparator@PathFactory@otf@@SADXZ could not be located in the dynamic link library libotf.dcl When I try chimera --debug I get File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\__init__.py", line 15 in ? from _chimera import * ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified procedure could not be found. Return code: 1 I have python 2.4.2 already installed on my machine, is that causing a problem? Cheers, .Chris. -- Christian E. Schafmeister, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Chemistry Department University of Pittsburgh

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Chimera crash on SGI
by Thomas Goddard 19 May '06

19 May '06

Hi Jean-Fracois, If Chimera is crashing your SGI when using solid volume display this is almost surely a problem with your graphics driver. Are you using the IRIX operating system? Which version? Our documentation claims that IRIX 6.5.10 is needed but it may be that a more recent version is actually necessary to avoid the system crash you observe. If you are using an SGI Octane or similar vintage machine I would recommend you find a Windows, Mac, or Linux alternative since the graphics speed will be much better with a consumer graphics card. Tom > Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 14:25:57 -0400 (EDT) > From: jean-francois menetret <menetret(a)bu.edu> > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: Volumes shown in Model Panel > > Hi Tom, > > I tried the version 1.2224 on a PC, it works very nicely > Would it be much trouble to have the snapshot compiled for SGI ? > It has been more convenient for me to work on an SGI except for a small > problem: if I click on solid (in the volume viewer), the whole machine=20 > crashes :-( > > best wishes > > Jean-Fran=E7ois

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Volumes shown in Model Panel
by Thomas Goddard 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hi Jean-Francois, I made a change after Chimera version 1.2199 that keeps the volume data sets in the Model Panel even when you press the Unshow button in the volume dialog. So the Model Panel and volume dialog menu should always list the same data sets. You need Chimera snapshot version 1.2224 which is on the download page below the production releases 1.2199 to get this improvement. In 1.2199 pressing the volume dialog unshow removes the volume from the Model Panel list. Tom > Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 11:03:30 -0400 (EDT) > From: jean-francois menetret <menetret(a)bu.edu> > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: question > > Hi Thomas, > > is there a way to keep the model panel list and the data sets list=20 > (from volume viewer) in sync ? > > Best wishes > > Jean-Franncois

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Chimera movie commands
by Thomas Goddard 16 May '06

16 May '06

Hi Frank, There are currently no Chimera commands for volume surfaces, and there are not commands to control per-model clipping. We wish to add these commands and others so that movie making is more powerful. Currently we are writing a renewal of our major 5-year grant due June 1 so it will probably not be possible for me to add these commands before then. Here is what is available now. There is a command for changing isosurface threshold level. It is part of "Animation commands" on the Chimera experimental features page. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/experimental.html It is not part of any Chimera distribution but can be downloaded separately and use with your current Chimera. The most practical way to gradually change from a surface to mesh would be to open the model twice, then gradually change the mesh color from completely transparent to opaque, then gradually change the surface from completely opaque to completely transparent. You can't do those two steps simultaneously because Chimera unfortunately does not correctly display two transparent models -- only one at a time. There are no commands to do volume surface color fades. You can do the color fades though using the Chimera animation editor called EMANimator distributed with EMAN. http://ncmi.bcm.tmc.edu/~stevel/EMAN/doc/ Get the latest EMAN distribution (nightly build) because it also is able to move per-model clip planes. To use EMANimator you install EMANimator the use Chimera menu Favorites / Preferences, category tools and add the EMAN chimeraext directory /usr/local/EMAN/chimeraext to the list of locations Chimera looks for extensions in. Here is some documentation I wrote for an older EMANimator version. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/related/emanimator/emanimator.html This is not an entirely trivial tool to use. It lets you create a timeline of transitions and preview them, and record a movie. The drawback is that it only supports a limited set of smooth transitions, mostly related to volume data display. It does not for instance handle 2D labels. Maybe you could add those in an external movie editor. Using EMANimator is a totally separate option from using Movie Recorder and commands. If you want to know all the current Chimera commands with "frame" options that can do transitions it is a short list: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/recorder/moviecomm… Unfortunately our animation tools are quite primitive now and you will need to make compromises if you want to use them. We are proposing to significantly improve animation capabilities in our new grant and will work on it even before then. So feedback about what is important to you is welcome. Tom ------------- > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > From: Frank Alber <frank(a)salilab.org> > Subject: chimera movie question > Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 17:39:15 -0700 > > Hi Tom, > I have a question about chimera. I need to make some movies with > chimera in which I like to switch on and off different models (using > the volume viewers volume densities) maybe introduce per-model clipping > and add and remove 2d labels during the movie. I figured out how to > rotate scale and move the model around based on command lines commands > that I read in as a file. Also, how to switch the model in the model > panel on and off. > But is it possible to use volume viewer commands on the command line? > So I could use them in a command file? For example switch the > representation of model 1 from surface to mesh. If so, is it possible > to change representations over a number of frames, so that they blur > into each other? Like the 'visibility show frames 100' option in the > 2dlabels command? I couldn't find such options in the manuel but I am > not sure if I looked careful enough. > In case, do you know anybody who I could ask for some cmd files (used > for moviemaking) that actually do similar stuff and which I could look > at as template examples? That would be great starting point to see what > commands could be useful for making movies. > I found an example on the web page, but it didn't have volume viewing > options there. > Thanks a lot! > Frank > > --- > Frank Alber > Andrej Sali Lab > California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research > University of California at San Francisco > QB3, Box2552 > 1700 4th Street, Room 501 > San Francisco, CA 94143-2552 (CA 94158 for courier delivery), USA > Phone: +1 (415) 514 4258 > Fax: +1 (415) 514 4231

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proposed "backbone" change
by Eric Pettersen 15 May '06

15 May '06

Hi all, RIght now, if you do "Actions->Atom/Bonds->backbone only" Chimera shows the minimum number of atoms to produce a connected peptide/ nucleic acid backbone, which therefore does not include peptide carbonyl oxygens nor nucleic sugar rings/charged phosphate oxygens. We are thinking of changing the behavior so that "backbone only" includes everything that isn't in the side chain/base. The question is: does anyone need/want the current behavior? If not, I'd not only change "backbone only" but would also change Select->Structure- >backbone from a menu (has "full" and "minimal" in it) to just a menu item that selects the full backbone. If there are some people who do use the current behavior, then instead I'd change "backbone only" to be a menu too. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Non-gui chimera in a shell?
by James Vincent 09 May '06

09 May '06

Hello, I've read several threads about nongui use of chimera and that some work was started. This work seemed mainly aimed at getting a web server script to run chimera and return some result back to a browser. I'm interested in running chimera in a stand alone python script. I'd like to do molecular calculations using the various tools but all on a command line, no graphics. It seems the --nogui option would get this, but the OS X version does not seem to implement that. Perhaps I'm missing something. Can anyone help? ideally I'd like to just have a plain python script that imports the chimera package but does not choke on all the graphics stuff, and then lets me use the chimera object model and other programming objects. Thanks for any assistance, Jim ---- James J. Vincent, Ph.D. National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health Molecular Modeling and Bioinformatics Section Laboratory of Molecular Biology Building 37, Room 5120 37 Convent Drive, MSC 4264 Bethesda, MD 20892 USA 301-451-8755 jjv5(a)nih.gov

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Chimera-users May 2006