March 2007 - Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Re: [Chimera-users] surface display
by Tom Goddard 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hi Markus, This is a problem with the surface calculation library MSMS used by Chimera. It crashes on specific PDB files. It is described more in this post: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2006-February/000685.html which suggest you use Chimera command vdwdefine * * +0.01 to make the atom radii 1/100 Angstrom bigger which may circumvent the crash. Trying to surfce fewer residues generally does not fix the problem because Chimera still computes the whole surface and then just limits the display to the few residues you selected. Here is the Chimera bug report about this problem. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?cmd=view&pr=1295&database=chime… Tom Markus Voehler wrote: > Tom > > I have installed the new version and the same thing happens. Here is > what I do: > 1) open pdb (3003 atoms) > 2) display round ribbon, hide atoms/bonds > 3) action --> surface --> show also tried it on a smaller selection of > a few residues. > > I have submitted the chimera error report and have attached the crash > report. Any ideas would be appreciated. > > Markus > > > On Mar 9, 2007, at 1:43 PM, Tom Goddard wrote: > >> Hi Markus, >> >> Is your problem with molecular surfaces (menu Actions / Surface / >> show) or contour surfaces of volume data? >> >> In either case you should first try a newer version of Chimera. I >> recommend trying the snapshot 1.2352 released this week (scroll down >> the Chimera download page a little). >> >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html >> >> Tom >> >

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viewing VRML files in chimera
by preethi＠bu.edu 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hi, I used an SGI compiled "ivtovrml" program to convert a .iv file to .wrl file in order to view it in Chimera. I got an error, not in VRML97 formatError near line 1: and this was repeated a few times. Is there any other program that is available to convert it to the right VRML format readable by Chimera? I did a little searching on the web and coudnt find one. Thanks in advance, Preethi.

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surface display
by Markus Voehler 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

I have a PowerBook G4 and am not able to display surfaces on that laptop (it works fine on the SGI). I am running OSX 10.4.8 and chimera 1.2303 (1006/10/23). Does anybody have similar issues or know what to do about it. Other functionalities of chimera work just fine. Markus

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independent movement
by michel dedeo 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

I would like to use Chimera to make a movie in which multiple models or chains move in different directions simultaneously. The movie illustrating myosin thick filament analysis (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/animations/movies/myomovie.mov) is a good example. I am not sure if this post (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2006-June/000843.html) on interpolated model motion is relevant, or if the 'movemodel' command imagined there actually exists in some patch that I do not have. If that proves too difficult (I have little programming experience) I would like to be able to hold one model or chain stationary while moving another. I can do this by using the model panel to make one model inactive while entering a movement command to move the active models, but I have not found a way to do this through the command line. Is there a command to activate/inactivate models, or another way to move some models/chains and not others? Thank you for your help. Michel Dedeo Francis Lab Department of Chemistry UC Berkeley

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Stereo using X11 versions
by Eduardo Sanz Garcia 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

I have had problems using the stereo capabilites of chimera using stereo glasses. I have two computers: * Mac G5 Quadro PPC + Nvidia FX 4000 with the latest drivers + Chimera X11 version 1.2304 * Fedora Enterprise 2 x Intel Xeon + Nvidia FX 3500 with the latest drivers + Chimera Linux 32-bit version 1.2349 The stereo hardware is correctly installed. I have other applications (X11 pymol) that display stereo nicely in both systems. On the mac, I have been able to display things in stereo but it crashes or displays weird stuff on the screen. On linux, I haven't been able to display things in stereo. Any suggestions? Thank you very much.

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savepos/reset problem with sessions and volumes
by Thomas Goddard 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

Hi Christopher, The problem is that Chimera does not preserve the model numbers of volume data sets when it restores a session. Restoring a saved position then moves the wrong models because it remembers the position associated with each model number. There are two Chimera bugs here. First the volume data restored from a session file should use the original model numbers. And secondly, even if the model numbers were to change, the savepos information should be updated to use the new model numbers. These problems exist in all versions of Chimera on all platforms. I'll work on fixing them and send you email if I get it working. I think I can fix the code so that your existing session files will restore correctly using the original model numbers. Tom Christopher Akey wrote: > Tom- > > I am using a build of Chimera from 11/08/2006 for windows. This version > is useful for us because the map to map correlation (fit map) and the > transform as both work nicely. > > However, I tried the savepos/reset within a session today. Set up a new > session that I would not be changing or if so, only by adding additional > files to the end of the listed files. The problem is that when I close > the session and recall it, then the reset commands invariably leave one > or two volumes out of alignment. The problem is that every time I open > the same session, the model list changes order, ie it does not seem to > be completely set in stone. If only one of your aligned images changes > order (actually 2 then), then all your previous commands are for naught, > unless you go ahead and realign them in the current session. Problem is > you don't realize they are misaligned until after you use reset and must > immediately undo move, or you are screwed. Also, you might have a > mixture of brix and mrc files, such that you might not always be able to > recover the right alignment for a file. > > Is this a windows version feature? I have noticed my files not behaving > properly before, but now have pinned it down. > > Do the models and their assoc numbers absolutely remain the same for ALL > MODELS in the linux version or in a newer windows version? > > The savepos/reset is great, you can theoretically recall you previous > figure positions and reshoot them after tweaking a color for a model or > whatever. > > cheers C Akey >

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Re: [Chimera-users] Red-cyan stereo
by Greg Couch 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

On March 7, Tom Goddard wrote: > I do not think Chimera produces red-green stereo, only red-cyan. Greg > Couch in our lab would know. I've sent your question to the Chimera > users groups so he can give a more definitive answer. Yes, for red-cyan stereo, chimera puts the left eye in the red channel and the right eye in the blue and green channels. This allows for stereo viewing of color images with red-cyan glasses, but there are many problems, such as red objects not having any stereo cues because they are in only one eye. You will get the best stereo effect with gray-scale images (shades of gray) and if you do use color, avoid saturated colors. You can see the red, green, and blue components of a color with chimera's Color Editor tool. The color name field can be set to any of the color names in the Actions Color menu. Other glasses, red-blue and red-green, will work well with gray-scale images, but will have greater problems with ghosting (ie., part of one eye's image appearing in the other's) in color images. Ghosting will always be present to some degree unless the glasses are perfectly matched to the frequencies of light emitted by the display. So the best advice is to color your data various shades of gray. Hope this helps, Greg Couch UCSF Computer Graphics Lab

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Re: [Chimera-users] copy cmd in nogui script
by Eric Pettersen 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

On Mar 8, 2007, at 8:21 AM, Randy Heiland wrote: > Eric, > I just got around to trying this and am told: > “You need to accept the POV-Ray end-user license in GUI mode first” > > (using the 1.2352 snapshot). > Suggestions? > -Randy Hi Randy, You are required to accept the POV-Ray license. However, once you have accepted it, Chimera will remember that and won't keep asking you. So if you start up Chimera normally and save any kind of POV-Ray image and accept the license, you will then be able to run your script in nogui mode on the same machine without the licensing request halting the script. If this is still a problem for the way you want to use the script, let me know. We still intend to make it possible to save non-ray traced images in nogui mode, but prioritizing that would depend on whether POV-Ray images are going to work as a stopgap measure or not. --Eric > From: Eric Pettersen [mailto:pett@cgl.ucsf.edu] > Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 8:35 PM > To: Chimera BB > Cc: Randy Heiland > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] copy cmd in nogui script > > With POVray in the latest snapshot, you can now use the "raytrace" > keyword of the copy command to get a ray-traced image in nogui mode. > > --Eric > > > On Feb 9, 2007, at 8:03 AM, Elaine Meng wrote: > > > Hi Randy, > It is my understanding that the GUI is used to render the image, thus > it is not possible to save images when in nogui mode. (Others, please > correct me if I've gotten this wrong!) > Best, > Elaine > > On Feb 9, 2007, at 7:46 AM, Randy Heiland wrote: > >> What cmd should I invoke in a --nogui script to copy the rendered >> image >> to a file? >> >>> From the interactive viewer cmd line, I can successfully execute >>> 'copy >> file foo.png png'; however, when trying to execute the following: >> >> % chimera --nogui cmd:dostuff >> where 'dostuff' is: >> open 1yc4 >> color byelement #0 >> copy file foo.png png >> >> I get: >> Fetching 1yc4 from web site www.rcsb.org >> Done fetching 1yc4; verifying... >> Opening 1yc4... >> 1 model opened >> Opened 1yc4 containing 1 model, 1890 atoms, and 427 residues >> Rendering high resolution image...Error while processing cmd:dostuff: >> AttributeError: '_chimera.NoGuiViewer' object has no attribute >> 'pilImages' >> (see reply log for Python traceback info) >> Traceback (most recent call last): >> File "/home/heiland/chimera/build/share/__main__.py", line 59, in ? >> value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) >> File "CHIMERA/share/chimeraInit.py", line 298, in init >> prefixableType=1) >> File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/__init__.py", line 1217, in open >> File "CHIMERA/share/Midas/ChimeraExtension.py", line 28, in func >> # lswdir = os.path.split(thisdir)[0] >> File "CHIMERA/share/Midas/midas_text.py", line 91, in >> processCommandFile >> File "CHIMERA/share/Midas/midas_text.py", line 60, in makeCommand >> File "CHIMERA/share/Midas/midas_text.py", line 542, in doCopy >> File "<string>", line 1, in ? >> File "CHIMERA/share/Midas/__init__.py", line 795, in copy >> File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/printer.py", line 705, in saveImage >> AttributeError: '_chimera.NoGuiViewer' object has no attribute >> 'pilImages' >> >> >> thanks, Randy >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Chimera-users mailing list >> Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users > > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-users mailing list > Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users >

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View scale and brix output
by Tom Goddard 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

Hi Christopher, If I understand your request you want to be able to easily return to a standard view magnification for making figures. There are 3 parameters that determine the apparent size of models seen in the Chimera window: the distance of the models from the eye position, the angular field of view, and the scale parameter which relates the screen pixels to physical units (Angstroms). With orthographic projection only the scale parameter matters. Chimera can use orthographic projection (activated in Camera tab of Side View dialog) but the default is perspective projection where all 3 parameters matter. Assuming you don't change the distance between the eye (i.e. camera) and the models, and you don't change the field of view then setting the scale alone would be sufficient to return to standard magnification settings. In the Side View dialog (menu entry Favorites / Side View) under the Camera tab there is an entry field for the scale factor. It gives the current absolute scale factor and can be changed to whatever value you like. It starts out as 1.0 in a new Chimera session. But if you open a session file it is set to whatever it was in the original session. If you open a session for a figure, then modify it, changing the scale as you go, then want to return to the original session scale factor you could use the command "reset session-start". This not only resets the scale but also the positions and orientations of all the models. Maybe that is not what you want because the new figure is perhaps showing the models from a different direction (e.g. rotated by 90 degrees). So perhaps you need a command like "resetscale session-start". That resetscale command does not exist but I could probably add it if you think it is what you need. Regarding writing BRIX map files, I agree it would be handy if Chimera could output more map formats. I think BRIX format is well enough documented that it could be done (writing files requires better understanding of the format than reading them). That format only saves unsigned 8-bit data values though. So going from float values in MRC to BRIX will lose information. Maybe Chimera would issue a warning about that. Tom Christopher Akey wrote: > Tom- > > A few more issues that have come up for user friendliness. > > 1. It would be useful to have a box where the user can specify the > absolute scale for the session, the first time it is opened, this > could be set at 1.0 for example after loading a ribosome map and the > atomics and putting them to a good size. > > Then the program should keep track of the changes made during the > session using the scale command (I guess you can't track changes made > with the mouse so one generally would avoid this, or even better one > should be able to turn off the mouse scale feature!). > > This way one could always look at the pull down for the current scale > value when you capture a particular view for a figure. > > One could then return to the original scale of 1.0 at the end of > session or write down the current scale value, which could be kept in > the ssesion. So upon reopening the session at a later date, one can > always get back to the correct scale to recapture a panel for a > figure. This is currently a real problem, as far as I can tell. > > 2. We often want to import a brix file with aligned pdbs, since we > dock and look at them in 'O', which is better in some ways for looking > at these maps, but not so good as Chimera for figure making > obviously....then in Chimera we may continue to trim or segment a map, > and then we want to take it back out, presumably as an MRC file, to be > converted into a brix by a conversion program (for us its SPIDER). > Then one can do another cycle of docking in 'O' using the > refined/cleaned up sub map from Chimera. > > While I can think of one way to do this without losing the relative > origins and thus, the map alignments, it is pretty tedious. If one > could write the zoned or volume erased brix volume back out as a new > brix file, with the correct dimensions and origin, relative to the > brix file brought into Chimera, this would allow you to cycle back and > forth using the best of both programs. > > > cheers C Akey >

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RMSD fit of an object to atom
by Navnit Kumar Mishra 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

Dear folks; Is there any simple way in chimera to do rmsd fitting of the object to the atom. I would like to measure the rmsd of an density peak with the atom. Could someone give the detail, how can I do it. And one another thing, how can I get rid of the problem with " At least four atoms should be selected", I am interested to do 'match' for two atoms. Thanks a lot, Navnit

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Chimera-users March 2007