- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

MolMol file format for electrostatic potentials
by Esther Bullitt 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

Hi, Is there a way to import into Chimera the results of MolMol's calculation for electrostatic potentials? I like MolMol because it shows the charge without the surface hydrogens (so the results show the same thing as with, the hydrogens, but 'more strongly'), and equally important, the program is very easy to use. Is there a format conversion script, or would it be possible to make one? I can send sample files, if this would be helpful. thanks, Esther --- Esther Bullitt, Ph.D. Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics, Room W302 Boston University School of Medicine 715 Albany Street (mail only; couriers use 700 Albany Street) Boston, MA 02118-2526 Email: bullitt(a)bu.edu Telephone: 617-638-5037 Facsimile: 617-638-4041

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coloring by property
by Elaine Meng 15 Jan '08

15 Jan '08

Hi everybody, There is another set of possibilities I neglected to mention. These simply categorize residues into discrete sets which could be colored differently, as opposed to coloring continuously over a numerical range. There are amino acid categories that can be specified with "Select... Residue... amino acid category... [category-name]" where category- name is hydrophobic, positive, negative, etc. These names could also be used in the command line, e.g.: color blue positive color red negative We took the default categorizations from a paper, http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/aacat.html but you can change which residues are in which category as well as create entirely new categories with the ResProp tool. The new categories will show up in the menu and can be used in the command line too. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/resprop/ resprop.html A similar approach is to use the "alias" command, for example: alias myres :phe,tyr,leu col hot pink myres alias thezone ligand z<4 rep stick thezone Aliasing can use any type of specification and is not limited to amino acids like ResProp. To color by some continuous numerical property, however, attributes would definitely be the way to go. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Re: [Chimera-users] Questions about homology modelling
by Elaine Meng 15 Jan '08

15 Jan '08

Hi Jim, You can color by any attribute, once it is assigned. New attributes will be listed in the Render by Attribute (coloring) tool. You can create attributes arbitrarily with Define Attribute, as mentioned, and various different tools in Chimera create tool-specific attributes: (1) A "charge" attribute could be created by reading in a Mol2 file with charges or by running the Add Charge tool (an example of use is included in the Attributes tutorial). This uses Cornell et al. AMBER charges for standard residues and calculates charges for nonstandard residues with Antechamber. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/addcharge/ addcharge.html You could use Attribute Calculator to create a residue attribute from those atom attributes, or if you used the Define Attribute approach, you could define the residue charge directly. That would be quite simple to do for the standard amino acids, for example. (2) Electrostatic potential: Currently Chimera does not calculate the potential for you, but reads several formats of maps. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/filetypes.html#esp If you have opened an electrostatic potential map and a structure, you can use the "Values at Atom Positions" tool to create an atom attribute of the potential value at its position. This can be used with other kinds of maps as well, such as electron density. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/density/ density.html Alternatively, you could color a surface directly by potential or density without going through atomic attributes. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/surfcolor/ surfcolor.html (3) Docking scores: the ViewDock tool automatically assigns whatever DOCK scores are in the ligand file as attributes. (4) Residue conservation: if you have a sequence alignment and associated structure(s) open in Chimera, the structure residues get various conservation attributes according to the columns in the alignment. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ multalignviewer/framemav.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ multalignviewer/multalignviewer.html#mavAttributes There are probably additional examples, but that may already be more than you wanted to know. I would be happy to provide more specific assistance with whatever you would like to do - let me know, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Jan 15, 2008, at 12:01 PM, Nicholson, Jim wrote: > Elaine: > > Thanks for the reply. My comment about coloring refers to using a > table > of residue hydrophobic index to color atoms or surfaces. I used it > all > the time for docking. I also want to color things by residue > charge or > electrostatic field. Most modelling packages offer something like > that, > and, I couldn't find it in Chimera, so, I thought would ask. > > -Jim Nicholson >

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Questions about homology modelling
by Nicholson, Jim 15 Jan '08

15 Jan '08

Hi: I still love Chimera (if you remember my last message), but, I need to do some homology modelling. I was using Insight/Homology, but, access to that software has been taken away. I'm wondering if anyone on the Chimera project is using an interface to Modeller or has any recommendations commands that might be usefull, like adding amino acids from a sequence, extending the protein, etc. Also, the coloring schemes I can see look a little limited. I regularly color by charge or hydrophobicity. I was wondering if there might be something I'm missing in Chimera? -Jim Nicholson Program in Neuroscience University of Maryland 685 W. Baltimore, St., MSTF 5-11 Baltimore, MD 21201 410-706-3418 410-804-5872 (cell)

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Bug (?) with EnsembleCluster
by Francesco Pietra 15 Jan '08

15 Jan '08

I was trying to carry out a cluster analysis from three mdcrd trajectories from Amber 9. I reported here yesterday that I was unable to input more that one mdcrd (in gz form) to Chimera. Therefore, I combined the mdcrd files with ptraj in Amber 9, while stripping all water molecules, all lipid, and box information, leaving only the protein with ligand. That combined mdcrd loaded perfectly into Chimera MD Movie saving a pdb file (there was no option "save all frames" suggested by Elaine's email; I did not select anything else than "untranformed coordinates") Opened successfully this pdb into Chimera, Tools, MD/EnsembleAnalysis, EnsembleCluster, select the new file, finally click on OK: that resulted in Chimera Error. This was a first trial, though I have right taken the opportunity to submit an alleged bug from the window inviting to do so. From a perusal of Reply Log, I was unable to grasp the nature of the failure. In particular, lacking documentation for ksdssp, I was unable to run it (to assign the lacking secondary structure of the protein) with different parameters from used energy cutoff -0.5 minimum helix length 3 minimum strand length 3 and commands as from Log. Perhaps I should also mention that lack of secondary structure is typical of the long procedure through different programs to carry our (1) model building, (2) docking, (3) MD. Thanks francesco ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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A features-related question
by Dmitri Pavlov 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

Dear friends and colleagues, I have not really tried the product yet, but was wondering whether it is possible to "edit" a protein's structure by introducing one or two single mutations with the follow-up minimization using Chimera. If so, could you please hint to the algorithm of actions. Thanks a lot in advance! The project is burning :-( Dmitri

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transparent background
by Krepkiy, Dmitriy (NIH/NINDS) [F] 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

Hi, Is it possible to make background transparent? Thanks, Dmitriy ************************************** Dmitriy Krepkiy, Ph.D. Room 3B213 Building 35 - Porter Bldg, 35 Convent Dr Bethesda, MD 20892

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Fit model in map algorithm
by Tom Goddard 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

Christopher Akey wrote: > Tom- > > I was wondering how the fit model into map works? Is it calculating a > ccf and if so how since a pdb and a map file are quite different > entities. > > > cheers C Akey Hi Christopher, The Chimera fit model in map capability does a rigid rotation and translation to maximize the sum of the map values at the atom positions. It reports the average map value at the atom positions. It doesn't report a correlation coefficient. That would require calculating a simulated map from the PDB at the desired resolution and Chimera currently cannot do that. I would like to add that capability since correlation values are the standard measure of goodness of fit that is reported in the literature. The fit model in map code uses a gradient ascent iterative method to maximize the sum of map values. The Chimera fit map in map capability will report a correlation value. So you could run some external program to compute a simulated map (I've used pdb2mrc from the EMAN package) then fit that simulated map into your experimental map with the fit map in map dialog and get a correlation value. Or you could use the Chimera fit model in map to fit the PDB, then open the simulated map, register it with the fit PDB (using Model Panel / Transform As button), and then have the fit map in map dialog report the correlation without optimizing the simulated map placement. I'd expect very similar results from fitting the PDB versus fitting the simulated map. The fit map in map algorithm maximizes the "overlap" between maps. That is not the same as the correlation. It is a sum of the pointwise products between the two maps at grid points within the contour surface of one of the maps. That differs from the correlation in that it is not normalized by the sum of the squares of each maps' values within the surface. This has important consequences. The Chimera "overlap" optimization will move the map into a nearby high density region even if the pattern of highs and lows in the density does not match. The correlation normalization eliminates the tendency to move to higher density -- instead just optimizing the match of the highs and lows in the density. Both are useful and I will in the future add an option to optimize the correlation. The Tools section of the Chimera User's Guide describes the map and model fitting methods: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/fitmodels/fitmodel… http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/fitmaps/fitmaps.ht… Tom

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Re: [Chimera-users] suppressing warning messages
by Eric Pettersen 08 Jan '08

08 Jan '08

Hi Ryan, Perhaps other Chimera developers can chime in, but I don't know of any good way to selectively suppress the non-status messages that Chimera generates, particularly the "duplicate atom serial number" messages which are being put on standard error by code in the C++ layer. What I can suggest in your situation is that you have your print statements go to standard error (so that they flush through pipes immediately) and that you prefix them with some unique string that you can grep for. Something like: from sys import __stderr__ as stderr print>>stderr, "OUTPUT", "my result:", r and run Chimera with: chimera --nogui myscript.py |& grep OUTPUT --Eric On Jan 8, 2008, at 12:19 PM, Ryan Pavlovicz wrote: > Are there ways just to suppress the chimera output? I'd still like > to see some of my print commands that are part of my python script, > so i can easily debug, follow a process, etc.? > > On Jan 8, 2008 1:24 PM, Eric Pettersen < pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > Well to suppress all output you would use normal shell redirection > to /dev/null. For csh-style shells, something like this: > > chimera --nogui >& /dev/null > > --Eric > > Eric Pettersen > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu > > > On Jan 8, 2008, at 9:28 AM, Ryan wrote: > >> The --nostatus option will suppress messages like: >> >> "Executing xxx.py... Opening xxx.pdb..." >> >> but still, messages like: >> >> "Model 0 (xxx.pdb) appears to be a protein with noe secondary >> structure assignements. Computing assignments..." & "warning: >> duplicate atom serial number found..." >> >> are still printed to the screen. Are there ways to suppress these >> messages as well? Thanks again, >> >> ryan >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Chimera-users mailing list >> Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users > >

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Re: [Chimera-users] suppressing warning messages
by Ryan 08 Jan '08

08 Jan '08

The --nostatus option will suppress messages like: "Executing xxx.py... Opening xxx.pdb..." but still, messages like: "Model 0 (xxx.pdb) appears to be a protein with noe secondary structure assignements. Computing assignments..." & "warning: duplicate atom serial number found..." are still printed to the screen. Are there ways to suppress these messages as well? Thanks again, ryan

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suppressing warning messages
by Ryan 08 Jan '08

08 Jan '08

Is there a way to suppress warning messages when using Chimera in a python script (--nogui option)? Additionally, is there a way to suppress the additional non-warning Chimera output that prints to screen when running via python script? Thanks, ryan

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How to input more than one mdcrd file
by Francesco Pietra 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

I was unable to input more that one mdcrd file to MD Movie (to get a single pdb file for EnsembleCluster). I tried by either giving the files one to one, or with the following prod.meta: amber my.prmtop prod1.mdcrd.gz prod2.mdcrd.gz prod3.mdcrd.gz Always, I got prod1 trajectories alone. I used compressed coordinate files also when fed one to one. I did not try with non compressed files. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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chimera crashes my linux 64 bits PC
by jean-francois menetret 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

After I rebooted my linux 64 bits PC this morning, chimera crashes the machine. I tried older versions of chimera ... same result :-( How can I fix that situation ? Jean-Fran�ois M�n�tret, PhD Boston University School of Medicine Physiology and Biophysics Department 700 Albany Street W315 Boston, MA 02118 Email: menetret(a)bu.edu Mailing address: 715 Albany Street

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mean structure
by sette＠uniroma2.it 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

Hi, I don't know if someone already ask for this... It is possible to calculate an average structure having a bundle of structures? I loaded from the pdb a file containing 30 NMR structures but I would like to use only the mean structure... Thanks for your help, Marco Dr.Marco Sette, Ph.D. Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology University of Rome, "Tor Vergata" via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy e-mail: sette(a)uniroma2.it Tel.: +39-0672594424 Fax: +39-0672594328

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Slow dealing with pdb files
by Francesco Pietra 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

I am dealing with the average structure (a protein complex embedded in a POCP membrane and water solvated) derived with Amber's ptraj from a 1.5 ns MD. Opening this pdb file in 1.2470 Chimera has become extremely slow. The file is 6.4MB. First, below the screen it is warned "Ignored bad PDB record found on line #", for lines from 1 to 114154. This may take some 10 minutes. The pdb records read as in the following examples: For the lipid: ATOM 20 2C21 POP 1 25.569 20.201 48.492 0.00 0.00 For the protein: ATOM 10915 HB2 ALA 117 44.211 74.567 28.832 0.00 0.00 For water: ATOM 22264 O WAT 1771 25.558 39.417 16.580 0.00 0.00 ATOM 22265 H1 WAT 1771 25.582 39.432 16.549 0.00 0.00 ATOM 22266 H2 WAT 1771 25.569 39.482 16.611 0.00 0.00 After that, the warning message changes to "Computed secondary structure assignments (see reply log)" which lasts for longer than 1 hour and 20 minutes. During this time, "top" command shows that python is using 12% MEM and 99% CPU. Then, the graphics appears, with the membrane-protein-complex not centered in the water box. During all that time, I had to avoid doing anything else with the GNOME interface. A second terminal for "top" had to be opened before launching Chimera on another terminal window. Otherwise, spurious graphics become superimposed to the Chimera window. I could then carry out rapid mapping of the protein residues around the single-residue ligand (select protein & :ligandname z<#), which was what I wanted to do. The same events occurred with shorter trajectories. At ca 0.7ns the time taken by Chimera to work out the average-structure pdb was about 15 minutes. Clearly, there is an exponential trend. I can in part compare these events on VMD: the pdb file from 1.5ns MD is opened in VMD in less than 1 minute and the resulting membrane-protein-complex is centered in the water box. Is all that caused by the not-updated atom naming by Amber? Or could the execution be accelerated by calling some C routines by python? Chimera was run on a modest desktop: Athlon 1GHz, RAM 1GB, a poor main board (product: K7S5A, vendor: ECS, version: 1.0), Debian Linux i386. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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Fwd: Re: Slow dealing with pdb files
by Francesco Pietra 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Must add that alternatively to "average structure" I tried a cluster analysis with MMTSB. The program refused to work on my trajectories for unclear reasons: the program is installed correctly and the input is correct (as verified by the program author). Therefore, I am eagerly waiting for Chimera being able to carry out cluster analysis (if I understood correctly your message to this regards) francesco --- Francesco Pietra <chiendarret(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 23:04:40 -0800 (PST) > From: Francesco Pietra <chiendarret(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Slow dealing with pdb files > To: Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > CC: chimera <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > > Eric: > Thanks a lot for this lesson, surely useful to many other guys, too. > > Whether looking at an "average structure" or some other output structure was > a > problem I got no clarification from the Amber mailing list. Unfortunately, Pr > Brozell is not active in this period on Dockfans to ask him. My question was, > is the "average structure" representative of the interactions occurring > between > the protein and the ligand as resulting from the MD carried out? Although > DOCK6.1 does that with amber score, it is only for implicit medium > surrounding > the complex. Ideally, I would have liked to estimate the free energy of > interaction in the presence of explicit surrounding medium but Amber does not > appear to have a way to that for a complex in a membrane (or anyway for a > non-standard ligand). Therefore, what I am relying on, is the distance > between > the protein residues and the ligand. The closest the protein residues are to > the ligand, the more they are considered to be relevant. > > At any event, given the problem Chimera has encountered with an average > structure, do you believe that mapping the protein environment around the > ligand with Chimera's "zone" is correct? From your "lesson" I understand YES. > > I would appreciate any comment or suggestion about that. > > francesco > > --- Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > > > On Jan 1, 2008, at 1:44 PM, Francesco Pietra wrote: > > > > > I am dealing with the average structure (a protein complex embedded > > > in a POCP > > > membrane and water solvated) derived with Amber's ptraj from a 1.5 > > > ns MD. > > > > > > Opening this pdb file in 1.2470 Chimera has become extremely slow. > > > The file is > > > 6.4MB. First, below the screen it is warned "Ignored bad PDB record > > > found on > > > line #", for lines from 1 to 114154. This may take some 10 minutes. > > > > These are for the water ATOM records where the atom serial number and/ > > or residue number were "****" (what FORTRAN inserts when a number > > won't fit inside a field width). > > > > > After that, the warning message changes to "Computed secondary > > > structure > > > assignments (see reply log)" which lasts for longer than 1 hour and > > > 20 minutes. > > > During this time, "top" command shows that python is using 12% MEM > > > and 99% CPU. > > > > Due to the fact that this is an "average" structure, Chimera's > > estimation of the connectivity is bad for many parts of the structure > > -- particularly the POP residues in the membrane. This creates a > > rat's nest of intra-residue connectivity which the ring-finding > > algorithm (designed for "reasonable" structures) takes a long time to > > operate on. Normally Chimera wouldn't run ring-finding as a > > structure opens, but due some interesting naming of hydrogens in the > > POP residues (e.g. RH16) it assigns some of the hydrogens to be other > > elements (e.g. rhodium, as per PDB atom naming rules). Since rhodium > > is a metal, it wants to depict it as a sphere, which means it needs > > to know the radius, which in turn depends on the atom type, which > > needs to find rings... > > > > > Then, the graphics appears, with the membrane-protein-complex not > > > centered in > > > the water box. > > > > This is due to the "****" waters being ignored. > > > > > I could then carry out rapid mapping of the protein residues around > > > the > > > single-residue ligand (select protein & :ligandname z<#), which was > > > what I > > > wanted to do. > > > > If you only care about the protein and ligand in your analysis, you > > should just edit your file to strip the waters and lipids. When I > > did this with the file you sent it only took moments to open. > > > > --Eric > > > > Eric Pettersen > > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu > > > > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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selection
by Sara Bowen 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi, I've been going through the chimera tutorial, but I'm having some trouble selecting anything. I can select atoms, and the bottom corner of the window lists what I've selected, but there is no green highlighting in the image. Then if I try to move anything, the image will move in the side view but not in the main window. It seems frozen. If I select everything or select nothing, I can still only get the image to move in the side view...not the main window. Then if I make the main window full screen, the image is just fuzzy colors like snow on a out of tune t.v. Does anybody know what's going on and how I can fix it? Thanks, Sara B. at ASU

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coloring protein structure according to Order parameters
by rama krishna 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Dear Friends, I need to Paint a protein structure according to generalized parameter values. Is there any way to do that in UCSF-Chimera. Kindly suggest me. Regards Ramakrishna, Dr Ashish Arora Lab, Molecular and Structural Biology lab, Central Drug Reseach Institute, India

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Opening compressed trajectories
by Francesco Pietra 02 Jan '08

02 Jan '08

I found comfortable to deal with mdcrd compressed (gz) files directly in Amber's ptraj. This saves much disk space. I wonder whether this could be made available for Chimera. The scope would be twofold: other that saving disk space, shorted times of ssh transfer from the computing machine to the desktop with Chimera. Happy 2008! francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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saving complex structure
by bala 02 Jan '08

02 Jan '08

Dear chimera friends, I have a protein-RNA complex pdb structure. I want to remove the RNA in the crystal structure and put my RNA molecule in to the binding site. Since my RNA is very big around 20bp long, i prefer to manually dock my RNA followed by a big simulation than a automated docking. I tried in chimera and i saved the complex structure with the option "save the displayed atoms". But when i see the pdb structure, it has the coordinates of RNA molecule but not the protein. Also when i open the pdb in chimera, it shows me the protein structure. Kindly write me your comments on using chimera i) for such a manual docking and also ii) how to save the complex structure. Wish you all a happy new year, Bala

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Command for volume and area calculation
by shengzhiya＠nibs.ac.cn 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

Dear all, May I know if there is some command in chimera for measuring volume and area like in the menus: “Tools…Surface/Binding Analysis…Measure Volume and Area”? Thanks in advance! Happy new year and have a nice holiday! Zhiya

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formal charge or net charge
by snoze pa 25 Dec '07

25 Dec '07

Dear Chimera Users, Is it possible to calculate the net charge or formal charge of unknown residues using chimera. I have a large set of molecules for which i am trying to calculate the net charge on each molecule. Thanks in advance s

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rmsd cluster analysis
by Elaine Meng 24 Dec '07

24 Dec '07

Hi Francesco and others, People with MD trajectories can also use this new EnsembleCluster tool (available in the most recent daily builds) by: - viewing the whole trajectory with the "MD Movie" tool, or at least all the frames you want to cluster - from the MD Movie dialog menu, choosing File... Save PDB and saving "all frames" to a file - quitting from MD Movie and opening the new file with File... Open - choosing Tools... MD/Ensemble Analysis... EnsembleCluster, clicking the line that shows that new file, then OK I just tried this to make sure it works. The clustering calculation may take a while, but eventually another dialog with results should appear. This tool is still under development and may change, but this will at least allow users to try it on trajectory ensembles as well as NMR ensembles. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Transparent background
by Abbas 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Hi, One feature I really appreciated about chimera was the ability to make pictures without a background, however recently i realized this is not possible anymore I checked out under the effects dialog under tools>viewing controls and it give me an error saying this wasn't supported. I haven't changed my computer since i first started using chimera I have updated to the latest version of chimera available for OSX 10.4, I wonder if this is the cause of the problem. I would really like to have pictures without backgrounds like I used to, I know PyMol lets you do it, but I dislike this program. In any case I would greatly appreciate any help/pointers on this issue. Thanks in advance. abbas.

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Re: [Chimera-users] fitting models into maps
by Tom Goddard 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Hi Dan, The Chimera fit model in map tool doesn't give a correlation value. To get a correlation requires you have two maps to compare, so first a map needs to be calculated from the PDB model that matches the resolution of the experimental map. Although I'd like to have that in Chimera, it is not currently there. I have used the EMAN pdb2mrc program to compute the map. Then you can use the Chimera fit map in map tool to get a correlation value, or you could use fit model in map, then open the map calculated for the PDB and find the correlation for the orientation obtained for the PDB model. You're right that reported correlation values depend on some often unreported parameters. First there is the method used for producing a map from the PDB model. Then the correlation depends on the part of the volume used. I would guess this is typically the portion within a certain contour level of the PDB map. What contour level? Something like 1 standard deviation is not sensible since it depends on the size of the map (the extent of padding). Probably a contour level that encloses a given volume -- maybe the volume enclosed by the solvent excluded surface of the PDB model with a reasonable probe radius. Would be nice if Chimera automated this calculation starting from the fit model in map position -- some day, hopefully in 2008. Reporting average density value at the atom positions would only make sense if the map is normalized. Maybe reporting that value in standard deviations. But the standard deviation depends on how much empty volume surrounds the structure, so that is not very satisfactory. Chimera reports that number so you can compare different fits in the same map -- only relative values are meaningful. Another value I have seen reported is the number of atoms outside a certain contour level of the experimental map. The fit model in map tool reports that in the reply log (Favorites / Reply Log). Of course it depends on how you set the contour level. Again if you set that as some number of standard deviations that depends on the map size. Alternatively you could set the contour level so the experimental map encloses the expected volume. Menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Measure Volume and Area can help set such a contour level. Seems correlation is the most meaningful number. You can calculate the standard deviation of a map from its mean in newer versions of Chimera with menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Volume Mean, SD, RMS. Tom Daniel Southworth wrote: > Tom: > > Hi. I'm a post-doc in David Agard's lab and I have a question about > the "fit model in map" function in chimera. I'm having some good > success fitting crystal structures into my low-resolution em maps > using this function once I get a global fit either by hand or using > situs. I'm wondering if there is any way to get a correlation value > out of the fits or how people typically report on their confidence of > the chimera fitting in publications? I know correlation values are > often different from program to program so perhaps the best measure is > to state the average map value? Any help would be great - thanks. > > Dan

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superimpose --matchmaker.
by Vinay Kumar 19 Dec '07

19 Dec '07

Hi all, There have been a few posts previously regarding superimposing of molecules. using matchmaker would work for a pdb file. I was curious if small molecules (ligands) could be matched. I did check out the documentation and the command match. But what i am not sure abt is, in wht format should the input file for a small molecule be?? could someone suggest!! regards, Vinay

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Question regarding multiple mutant in the same chimera session
by Jean-Didier Maréchal 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hi, Is there a way to copy, in the same instance of chimera, a model X time? I'd like to generate different mutant of the same prot and have them stocked in the same session of chimera. Cheers, JD -- Dr. Jean-Didier Maréchal Assistant Professor Computational Bioorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry @Transmet Unitat de Química Física Departament de Química Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra, Spain Tel: +34.(0)1935814936 Fax: +34.(0)1935812920 e-mail:jeandidier.marechal@uab.es

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rmsd cluster analysis
by Francesco Pietra 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Is it feasible to command a cluster analysis from rmsd? I would like to group for likeliness snapshots from MD with respect to, say, the structure from which MD was started. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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Problem with Chimera under Windows XP
by Peter Girard 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

I am running release 2304 of Chimera under Windows XP with service pack 2 on a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop. The image disappears from the screen for no apparent reason. With the structures I am currently working on, this has become frequent and often occurs after just a few seconds when I click anywhere in the Chimera window. I have found that if I use Model Panel, I can get the picture back by clicking the 'Shown' box to remove the tick mark, then clicking it again to re-insert the tick. But the picture soon disappears again. Occasionally, it doesn't disappear completely, but part of it collapses, or spurious long lines appear. I had the same problem with a previous release, 2184, and was disappointed that upgrading didn't fix it. I can find no mention of anything similar in the documentation or email archive. Can anyone suggest a possible cause? Peter Girard (University of Nottingham, UK)

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Regarding getSequence
by Jean-Didier Maréchal 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hi again, I'd like to return the sequence of the protein I opened in chimera in the python shell. >From what I read through, I thought that chimera.getSequence could be used to do so. I was thinking in a simple script beginning with : import chimera s=chimera.getSequence(0,0) .. However the chimera.getSequence(0,0) comes back with: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#50>", line 1, in ? chimera.getSequence(0, 0) File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/Sequence.py", line 614, in getSequence File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/Sequence.py", line 656, in getSequences AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'residues' and chimera.getSequence(0,A) with Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#48>", line 1, in ? chimera.getSequence(0,A) NameError: name 'A' is not defined Did I understand correctly the role of getSequence? if yes, what would be the correct syntax please? Thanks a lot! All the best, JD -- Dr. Jean-Didier Maréchal Assistant Professor Computational Bioorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry @Transmet Unitat de Química Física Departament de Química Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra, Spain Tel: +34.(0)1935814936 Fax: +34.(0)1935812920 e-mail:jeandidier.marechal@uab.es

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera-users Digest, Vol 56, Issue 14
by Jonathan Hilmer 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Ryan, Try this as a way to figure out what you can do with an object: dir(chimera.selection.currentResidues()[0]) In the above command I've indexed the list of selections to return just one object, and the dir() function will return a list of names defined by the currentResidues module. It should contain something like the following: ... 'addAtom', 'atomNames', 'atoms', 'atomsMap', 'bondedTo', 'count', 'findAtom', 'findRangeAtoms', 'getDefaultRibbonStyle', 'hasRibbon', 'id', 'isHelix', 'isHet', 'isSheet', 'isStrand', 'isTurn', 'kdHydrophobicity', 'label', 'labelColor', 'labelOffset', 'molecule', 'numAtoms', 'oslChildren', 'oslIdent', 'oslLevel', 'oslParents', 'oslTestAbbr', 'removeAtom', 'ribbonBinormals', 'ribbonCenters', 'ribbonColor', 'ribbonData', 'ribbonDisplay', 'ribbonDrawMode', 'ribbonFindStyle', 'ribbonFindStyleType', 'ribbonFindXSection', 'ribbonNormals', 'ribbonResidueClass', 'ribbonStyle', 'ribbonXSection', 'selLevel', 'type' If you try: chimera.selection.currentResidues()[0].type it will return a string with the 3-letter aa code, and the other options displayed by dir() will output useful things such as more strings, lists, or other objects that can be likewise explored. Try this combination: mySel = chimera.selection.currentResidues()[0] print "%s, %s" % (mySel.oslIdent(), mySel.type) On my test structure it returns '#0:127.A, ARG'. The second line is equivalent to 'print str(mySel.oslIdent() + ", " + mySel.type)', but the formatting I used in the above example helps to keep things clean if you have a complicated output that needs to have a specific format. There are some more advanced features of that approach detailed here: http://www.python.org/doc/1.5/tut/node45.html Jonathan > Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:55:39 -0500 > From: Ryan <pavlovicz.7(a)osu.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] printing "zone" search > To: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Message-ID: <17bf4817f850.17f85017bf48(a)osu.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Hi Eric, thanks for your help. I'm getting closer to achieving the results i'd like. > > So i've been able to properly select the residues within a specified radius of my ligand, but am a little confused as to how Chimera handles the selection list. If i try: > > print chimera.selection.currentResidues() > > i get a list like this: > > > [<_chimera.Residue object at 0x578d2020>, <_chimera.Residue object at 0x578cbfb0>, ... ] > > but if i try: > > for x in chimera.selection.currentResidues(): > print x > > i get output that is much closer to what i'm looking for: > > > #0:499 > > #0:496 > > ... > > What is the reason for the difference between these two forms of output that seem to be accessing the same list? Also, is there a way i can get more detailed output with residue names and numbers, such as ['#0:TYR499','#0:TRP496',...]? > > Sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere, but i could not find the answers online. Is there a document out there that can teach me how to better master the Chimera Python modules for scripting? I'm no Python expert -- i've so far only been learning things as i need them. Thanks again, > > ryan

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Re: [Chimera-users] other/5067 (error adding hydrogens)
by Eric Pettersen 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Hi Jean-Francois, I have seen this error reported, but only very rarely (maybe once a year at most). Is there any chance you can tell me how to reproduce it? --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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setting pdb path for local mirror
by Moo Cow 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Sorry for an easy question. Chimera has a hook to use a local mirror of the PDB (preferences-PDB) I am too thick to see what path to give it. If you have the PDB, you have the top level /blah/blah/pdb the structure directory /blah/blah/pdb/data/structures/all and the divided directory /blah/blah/pdb/data/structures/divided/pdb When a non-python reader looks at the code (__init__.py), it seems to be trying out the divided directory IDcode = IDcode.lower() subpath = IDcode[1:3] + os.sep + "pdb" + IDcode + ".ent" pdbDir = systemPDBdir() if pdbDir is not None: ..... but this does not look correct. The PDB divided path would want subpath IDcode[1:2] to get the subdirectory "pt" from a file like "5pti" Many thanks and sorry for a seemingly daft question. -- Got No Time? Shop Online for Great Gift Ideas! http://mail.shopping.com/?linkin_id=8033174

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Loading .dx maps to chimera
by maya shcushan 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Dear sir, I am trying to load a .dx file (electrostatic potential) onto a molecule in chimera. I successfully loaded the map onto a the molecule's surface. The problem is the potentials I get look differently than the original map. That is, the potentials appear different in the visualization tool of PMV, the program which generated the .dx file I tried to e-load on chimera. Thanks, Maya Schushan, Tel-Aviv university, Israel.

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crystallographic symmops and lattice translations in Chimera
by Boaz Shaanan 16 Dec '07

16 Dec '07

Hi, Since the question was raised before, I think I know the answer to my first question about lattice translations but let me verify: 1) Chimera can apply crystallographic symmetry operations to the model as they're listed in the pdb file but it won't apply lattice translations, or in other words, won't display molecules in neighbouring unit cells. Am I correct ? maybe you can surprize me me on this and prove me wrong ? 2) Is it possible to draw the unit cell boundaries after reading in the pdb or should I read in a dummy pdb with coordinates of the unit cell vertices ? Cheers, Boaz Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D. Dept. of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel Phone: 972-8-647-2220 ; Fax: 646-1710 Skype: boaz.shaanan‎

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Re: [Chimera-users] printing "zone" search
by Ryan 14 Dec '07

14 Dec '07

Hi Eric, thanks for your help. I'm getting closer to achieving the results i'd like. So i've been able to properly select the residues within a specified radius of my ligand, but am a little confused as to how Chimera handles the selection list. If i try: print chimera.selection.currentResidues() i get a list like this: > [<_chimera.Residue object at 0x578d2020>, <_chimera.Residue object at 0x578cbfb0>, ... ] but if i try: for x in chimera.selection.currentResidues(): print x i get output that is much closer to what i'm looking for: > #0:499 > #0:496 > ... What is the reason for the difference between these two forms of output that seem to be accessing the same list? Also, is there a way i can get more detailed output with residue names and numbers, such as ['#0:TYR499','#0:TRP496',...]? Sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere, but i could not find the answers online. Is there a document out there that can teach me how to better master the Chimera Python modules for scripting? I'm no Python expert -- i've so far only been learning things as i need them. Thanks again, ryan

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Multi-scale models and BIOMT
by Ken Jang 14 Dec '07

14 Dec '07

Hello, I work at Boston University working mostly with pili and helical reconstructions. Recently we have been trying to fit our subunit structures into maps generated from EM data. Because what we work with are helical in nature, we use BIOMT symmetry since it is the easiest to generate using readily available data. We wanted to see just how close our subunits get and wanted to use the MSC or Color Zone commands, but we have run into a problem with the Multi-Scale Models command. Since we are using the same BIOMT data, we assumed that Multi-Scale Models would use the same origin and orientation. This appears to be the case if we don't move the subunit structure after opening it, but after we move the subunit, the generated models don't seem to be in any relavent orientation. I have attached two pictures, both from the same view, and one showing the placement of the subunits using the 'sym' command and the other showing the surface models using Multi-Scale models. Both cases were generated off the same selected subunit. Any advice or clarification on how to use Mult-Scale Models and BIOMT information would be greatly appreciated. Be seeing you- Ken Jang -and all places are alike to me

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Re: [Chimera-users] printing "zone" search
by Ryan 14 Dec '07

14 Dec '07

I am actually currently interested in doing something similar to Francesco's previous question about writing out a list of residue names within a certain zone of a ligand -- however i would like to do this from a Python script. I tried to find the zone selection command to use in a script, but could not. Would it be easiest to just use the runCommand('z<') function to select a zone? Also, when the zone is selected, are the selected residue names stored in a list? If so, how can i access this list to print out the residue names into an output file of my own? Thanks a lot, ryan

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edges
by Vincent Racaniello 14 Dec '07

14 Dec '07

When I display a protein as an edged ribbon, sometimes they have a black line on the edges, other times none. There seems to be no consistency in this behavior. The same also happens with surfaces. Is there a way to regulate this appearance?

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Morphing on small ligand
by Jean Didier Pie Marechal 13 Dec '07

13 Dec '07

Hi everyone, I have a " small" ligand with two substantially different conformations. Just for interest: could we use the morphing module to generate intermediate conformations between those two structures? Cheers, JD Dr. Jean-Didier Maréchal Professor Lector Unitat de Química Física Departament de Química Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici C.n. 08193 Cerdanyola (Barcelona) Tel: +34.935814936 e-mail: JeanDidier.Marechal(a)uab.es

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printing "zone" search
by Francesco Pietra 13 Dec '07

13 Dec '07

I am looking at the protein residues "responsible" for docking a single-residue ligand. select protein & :ligandname z<# works for various values of #. I would like to print the list of residues instead of having to detect them from the screen, which may lead to errors. Also, which section of the manual concerns RMSD? (I would like to calculate RMSD at various stages of DOCK6.1 and Amber9 MD for the above, i..e. how the ligand adapts and the protein follows it, or vice-versa). Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Writing alignment and RMSD out
by shengzhiya＠nibs.ac.cn 10 Dec '07

10 Dec '07

Dear all, I would like to write both the sequence alignment and RMSD out after run “mmaker”, but I do NOT want to do this interactively because I have a batch of structures to deal with. I found Eric’s python script: structAlign.py, which is gui-only, but I do not know how to extract RMSD from the Reply Log in gui mode. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot! Btw, may I know how to run structAlign.py? Is there any command like “chimera structAlign.py” and where should I put the input file structList? I can not run this script right now and here is the error message I got after run “chimera structAlign.py”: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/sheng/local/bin/chimera/share/__main__.py", line 59, in ? value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) File "CHIMERA/share/chimeraInit.py", line 298, in init chimera.openModels.open(a, prefixableType=1) File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/__init__.py", line 1253, in open File "CHIMERA/share/chimera/__init__.py", line 746, in _openPython File "/home/sheng/local/bin/chimera/from_mailinglist/structAlign.py", line 18, in ? pdb1, pdb2, output = line.strip().split() ValueError: need more than 2 values to unpack Error while processing structAlign.py: ValueError: need more than 2 values to unpack (see reply log for Python traceback info) Best wishes, Zhiya

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how to export the volume data which is stored in the memory?
by Zhiheng Yu 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

Hi, I loaded some volume data (mrc files) into Chimera remotely from a network hard drive. Unfortunately, the network hard drive crashed so I can not access those mrc files anymore. But in Chimera which was started before the drive crash, I still have the volume data and am still able to manipulate them. Apparently, these are stored in the memory. Does anyone know how can I export these data onto a hard drive. I tried "save as" but there is an I/O error since the computer was simply trying to duplicate data from the crashed drive. Any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks, Zhiheng

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Re: [Chimera-users] how to export the volume data which is stored in the memory?
by Tom Goddard 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

Hi Zhiheng, Here is a script to write out the maps in memory using Chimera 1.2199. You open this script with menu entry File / Open... from the main Chimera window. It will write the files to /tmp. Of course be sure to check those files before closing Chimera. Tom Zhiheng Yu wrote: > Hi Tom, > > I got the following information: > > Beta Version 1 build 2199 2006/01/24 > Platform: linux 2. Windowing system:x11. > > Apparently, it is an older version. > > Thank you very much for your generous help. I really appreciate it. > > Zhiheng > > Tom Goddard wrote: >> Hi Zhiheng, >> >> You must be using an older version of Chimera. Old versions read >> the original file even if the map was in memory when writing out the >> data. Maybe I can give you a script that will write the maps out >> from memory if you tell me what version of Chimera you are running >> (menu entry Help / About UCSF Chimera). >> >> Tom >> # # Write maps to files. For Chimera 1.2199. Only use in-memory copy. # Written for Zhiheng Yu to recover maps lost to failed disk. # from VolumeData import Array_Grid_Data from VolumeData.mrc.writemrc import write_mrc2000_grid_data from VolumeViewer import volume_dialog from os.path import join dir = '/tmp' # Location to write maps. d = volume_dialog() for v in d.data_regions: m = v.full_matrix(read_matrix = False) if not m is None: a = Array_Grid_Data(m, v.data.origin, v.data.step) path = join(dir, v.data.name) write_mrc2000_grid_data(a, path)

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(no subject)
by Julien Orts 04 Dec '07

04 Dec '07

Dear Chimera people, I would like to save a lot of pdb. I have for example 500 pdb. Each saved pdb file should contains 2 pdbs of these 500 pdbs. I can write a script for this but the command write does not work for more than two pdb. Is there any other way? thank you Julien

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question about the model panel
by jean-francois menetret 04 Dec '07

04 Dec '07

Is there is way to reorder the position of the models in the model panel ? (For example putting the mrc files on top and the pdb files at the bottom) Jean-Fran�ois M�n�tret, PhD Boston University School of Medicine Physiology and Biophysics Department 700 Albany Street W315 Boston, MA 02118 Email: menetret(a)bu.edu Mailing address: 715 Albany Street

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Re: [Chimera-users] Question regarding Chimera usage
by Tom Goddard 03 Dec '07

03 Dec '07

Hi Navya, If you have a 3-button mouse you move the atomic model with the middle button. If that is not working then you probably have the mouse modes assigned differently. You can look at and change what the mouse buttons do with menu entry Features / Preferences category Mouse. Usually button 2 is assigned to translate in x and y (second column of table). It may not be assigned to that operation if you have used other tools like volume path tracer or volume subregion selection that reassign mouse button 2. Tom swetha davuluri wrote: > Hi, > > Thanks for your reply. I am trying to move the atomic model using the > mouse. But I can only rotate the model but not transitionally shift it > i.e. I am not able to move the model either up/down and sideways. Not > sure how to do this. Please let me know. > > Thank you, > Navya. > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Tom Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > To: swethadn(a)yahoo.com > Cc: Chimera BB <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 9:27:37 AM > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Question regarding Chimera usage > > Hi Navya, > > The first step is to move the atomic model using the mouse close to > the correct location in the EM map. The Fit Model in Map tool will not > move the atomic model if its initial position lies outside the map. > Here are instructions on how to do the fitting. > > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#fitmod… > > Tom > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See > how. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51732/*http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/>

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Remove steric clashes
by Francesco Pietra 02 Dec '07

02 Dec '07

I would like to delete all water residues that are in steric clash with lipid residues. What I have is a single pdb file that includes both types of residues. Can't have the two as different models. Therefore I can't apply the zone tool that I know how to manage for two different models. The only alternative I can figure out is through the "Find Clashes,Contacts", writing a file for all WAT at a specified distance from the lipid residues and then manually deleting, or inventing a script for that (at <=0.6A there are 386 clashes). Hope to have missed an automatic tool from Chimera. If not, I suggest that as a most useful additional tool for cleaning systems. I dropped into the problem when at the first minimization, in view of MD, the system met segmentation fault after a few steps, with gradient decreasing by eight orders of magnitude along those few steps. Then I recognized not to have been careful enough before making the coordinate files for the MD suite. I should have not relied too much in the membrane builder and I had better spent time in checking for steric clashes. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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distance measurement
by sette＠uniroma2.it 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Dear all, I would like to measure the distances between all atoms in a molecule, in particular between all hydrogens. I added the H but it seems to me that is possible to measure only the distance between two selected atoms and not between all atoms in a single command. How is possible to do? Thanks for your help, Marco Dr.Marco Sette, Ph.D. Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology University of Rome, "Tor Vergata" via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy e-mail: sette(a)uniroma2.it Tel.: +39-0672594424 Fax: +39-0672594328

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morphing structures
by Elaine Meng 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

> Thank you for your help. I did superimpose the structure with pdv > viewer. I did save as a pdb file but when I open the morph > conformations tool and I add the pdb I am not able to create the > interpolation between the structure. > > Do you know why? > Hi Djemel, I would recommend just using Chimera to superimpose the structures. Starting with the two structures in two separate files, open them with File... Open in the Chimera menu, then superimpose them. There are lots of ways to superimpose them but probably this simple command (show command line with Favorites... Command Line) will work fine: matchmaker #0 #1 In Morph Conformations you have to specify more than one structure. There should be more than one line in the Conformations list. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that the way the other program wrote the file it was considered all one structure, not 2 separate structures. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Detecting residue from command line
by Francesco Pietra 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Sorry for a question that was surely answered many times. How to detect on the screen (from command line) residues from their resSeq number?. I have two different sets of WAT: 522-9999 and 0-4759 and want to check where 0-521 are located in a protein-ligand-POPC membrane. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ

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morphing movie
by Elaine Meng 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

> Actually I would like to do some movie with chimera but I never used > before. I have two crystal structure of two different conformation of > the protein that I work with. I would like to see the trajectory from > conformation 1 to 2. I just downloaded the chimera but I don't know > how to start. > > Could you tell me how to make the movie? I would appreciate you help. > Is that possible to load molecule 1 and 2 and see how the trajectory > is ? Begin forwarded message: From: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Date: November 30, 2007 10:29:41 AM PST It sounds like you want to use the Morph Conformations tool (under Tools... Structure Comparison). If you have two structures, it will "make up" a series of in-between structures to create a trajectory. You have to match (superimpose) the two structures yourself first. There are different options of how to make the in-between structures and how many to make. The trajectory-viewing tool, MD Movie, is automatically started to show the trajectory. From MD Movie you can record the trajectory as a movie file (Quicktime or other formats) or just save it as a PDB file for later viewing in Chimera. Probably you will need to learn a little bit about using Chimera so that you can set the display (ribbons, background color, displaying important sidechains) how you want for the movie. Chimera comes with a User's Guide. You can open it directly or search it from the Chimera Help menu. Also clicking the Help buttons on dialogs will automatically open the corresponding man pages. I will give some links to our Web site, but most of the same pages are included with your download. Tutorial on matching structures and making nice images: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/ frameimages.html Manual page for Morph Conformations: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/morph/ morph.html for MD Movie: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/movie/ framemovie.html (see the "Recording a Movie" section) For basic Chimera use, there is "Getting Started" tutorial: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/menutut.html and a more detailed version of that at our web site (not in the User's Guide): http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Tutorials/GettingStarted.html but if you get stuck or have trouble finding something, you can ask me about it. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Re: [Chimera-users] Question regarding Chimera usage
by Tom Ferrin 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

------- Forwarded Message Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:06:54 -0800 From: swetha davuluri <swethadn(a)yahoo.com> To: tef(a)cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: Question regarding Chimera usage Dear Dr. Ferrin, I have a question Chimera usage. I am trying to fit a model to an EM map. I cou ld lock the map from moving but I am not able to transitionally shift the model . The translational shift box in "Fit Model in Map" is checked. Please let me k now how to transitionally move the model. Regards, Navya. _________________________________________________________________________ ___________ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.ya hoo.com/ ------- End of Forwarded Message

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2D for 3D display
by Gang 'Gary' Ren 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Hi, Chimera, I wonder how to create the 3D display by using the 2D image as below? http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ImageGallery/entries/afm/stmv-afm-large.png best regards Gary ---------------- Gang Ren, Ph.D. Phone: (415) 476-8284; Fax: (415) 514-2550 Email: gren(a)msg.ucsf.edu; Web: 3dem.ucsf.edu Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics 1700, 4th Street, Byers Hall (QB3), room 301C San Francisco, CA 94143-2532

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera-users Digest, Vol 55, Issue 29 (heightmaps)
by Jonathan Hilmer 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

I would also be interested to learn how to do heightmaps in Chimera, or if it would be possible to add such a feature. Right now we use ImageJ (which doesn't have enough functionality) and Blender (which has too much), while Chimera would be perfect. In response to Gabe's question, it's not terribly convenient but you could use the Zone tool to generate just the 'positive' region and save that as a unique file. The 'combine.py' could then be used to subtract out the positive from the original, leaving the zeroed parent density file. Jonathan > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:12:40 -0800 > From: "Gang 'Gary' Ren" <gren(a)msg.ucsf.edu> > Subject: [Chimera-users] 2D for 3D display > To: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Message-ID: <web-5552878(a)msg.ucsf.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format="flowed" > > Hi, Chimera, > > I wonder how to create the 3D display by using the 2D > image as below? > > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ImageGallery/entries/afm/stmv-afm-large.png > > best regards > > Gary > > ---------------- > Gang Ren, Ph.D. > Phone: (415) 476-8284; Fax: (415) 514-2550 > Email: gren(a)msg.ucsf.edu; Web: 3dem.ucsf.edu > > Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics > 1700, 4th Street, Byers Hall (QB3), room 301C > San Francisco, CA 94143-2532 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:23:49 -0800 > From: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] reverse "zone" tool? > To: Gabriel Lander <glander(a)scripps.edu> > Cc: 'Chimera BB' <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Message-ID: <474F03B5.5060609(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Gabriel Lander wrote: > > Hi Tom, > > is it possible to somehow make the "zone" tool in the volume viewer do > > the reverse of what it does? I have a PDB docked into a density file > > and I want to remove the density surrounding it so that it's easier to > > focus on the rest of the structure. > > By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed your demo of the new Chimera features > > here at the cryo course, I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to chat very > > much afterwards, > > Cheers, > > -gabe > > > > > Hi Gabe, > > One trick would be to use the "Color Zone" tool to color the surface > near the fit model completely transparent (hence invisible). Use menu > entry Actions / Color / From Editor, click the Opacity button and set > opacity to zero. Your molecule will be invisible. Then use Tools / > Volume Data / Color Zone, select all atoms (Select / Select All) and > press the color zone dialog Color button. Then go back and change the > color of the molecule to something visible. > > Three drawbacks of this approach. First, it doesn't allow you to > save the map with the region near the molecule zeroed out -- it is only > coloring the surface. Second, having a partially transparent surface > makes the rendering slower. Third, Chimera only handles one transparent > model correctly. If you try to add a second transparent surface you > will see odd effects, like the invisible patch blocks the second > transparent surface. If these limitations are severe, I can give you a > bit of Python code that actually makes a copy of the map with the part > near the molecule erased. > > Tom > > > ------------------------------

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Re: [Chimera-users] reverse "zone" tool?
by Thomas Goddard 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Gabriel Lander wrote: > Hi Tom, > is it possible to somehow make the "zone" tool in the volume viewer do > the reverse of what it does? I have a PDB docked into a density file > and I want to remove the density surrounding it so that it's easier to > focus on the rest of the structure. > By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed your demo of the new Chimera features > here at the cryo course, I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to chat very > much afterwards, > Cheers, > -gabe > Hi Gabe, One trick would be to use the "Color Zone" tool to color the surface near the fit model completely transparent (hence invisible). Use menu entry Actions / Color / From Editor, click the Opacity button and set opacity to zero. Your molecule will be invisible. Then use Tools / Volume Data / Color Zone, select all atoms (Select / Select All) and press the color zone dialog Color button. Then go back and change the color of the molecule to something visible. Three drawbacks of this approach. First, it doesn't allow you to save the map with the region near the molecule zeroed out -- it is only coloring the surface. Second, having a partially transparent surface makes the rendering slower. Third, Chimera only handles one transparent model correctly. If you try to add a second transparent surface you will see odd effects, like the invisible patch blocks the second transparent surface. If these limitations are severe, I can give you a bit of Python code that actually makes a copy of the map with the part near the molecule erased. Tom

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Server and Client machines with different OS
by Isabelle Vergely 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Hello, I know that it is possible to open one or several pdb files on a linux machine using a system command line like "> chimera [options] [input1 input2 ...]". My question is: Is it possible to use this command on a linux server to display chimera on a Windows client machine? Thank you very much in advance for your help. Best Regards. Isabelle

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ppt and movies
by Markus Voehler 27 Nov '07

27 Nov '07

I have recorded a movie of a pdb in chimera with the following command: movie record supersample 3 . . movie stop movie encode bitrate 6000 mformat avi output ./pol_b_movie.avi I can import it into ppt (2004, V 11.3.5) on my Mac (OS X 10.4.11) and it plays fine in the editing mode, but when I go to the slideshow and start the movie, there is a blank screen for the duration of the movie. When it is done, it shows the standing slide again. Any idea what might be going on? Also, is there a better way to improve the resolution then setting the bitrate to 6000, 30 f/s? I have tried the supersample 3 option, but this does not seem to make much of a difference in the final movie. Any input is appreciated. Markus

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Re: [Chimera-users] [Fwd: Re: Chimera hide all models button]
by Eric Pettersen 27 Nov '07

27 Nov '07

I guess I do have some tips to offer here. You can use the "Configure..." button of the Model Panel to change what happens when you double click on a model. By default, double clicking shows the attributes of a model. You can have double click do any combination of button actions, so you could instead have double click both "show only" the model and "activate only" the model. With that configuration, if you wanted to show and activate two specific models you would click on one model and then control-double- click on the other one. If you want to show and activate all models you would click on the first model listed in the Model Panel and then shift-double-click the last model. --Eric On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:57 AM, Tom Goddard wrote: > Eduardo thinks we need better controls for showing just one or two > models and activating just one model when many are present. > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: Chimera hide all models button > Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:34:07 -0700 > From: Eduardo Sanz-Garcia > To: Tom Goddard > > > Tom Goddard wrote: >> Hi Eduardo, >> >> Perhaps clicking on the "Shown" heading in the Model Panel could >> hide all models if all are shown, or show all if all are hidden. >> If some are hidden and some are shown maybe it would show all, >> then a second click would permit you to hide all. I don't really >> like this idea because very few people would know to try it. >> Usually clicking on list headings sorts using that column. > That is true. I didn't realize about this. >> Although sorting may seem not too useful for the "Shown" column I >> can imagine if you have 50 models open with just a few shown you >> might want to sort to bring those to the top. >> >> A slightly harder way to show just one model is to select its >> line in the Model Panel and press the "Show only" button in the >> right column of buttons. Unfortunately that button is way down on >> that scrolled list of buttons. You can hide many of those buttons >> using the "Configure..." button on the Model Panel and it will >> remember the hidden ones in your preferences file. But there is >> no way to reorder the buttons as far as I know. >> >> The oval next to the step size above volume histograms allows you >> to show/hide that map. Maybe I could enhance that so if you use >> the right mouse button instead of the left then it shows that map >> and hides all others. Cryptic but not unexpected behavior. > Yes, this is a little cryptic but a fast method. >> Still there are only 3 histograms shown by default. Perhaps if I >> added the scrollbar for the histograms as you suggest that would >> further improve switching display between individual maps. > I believe that the scrollbar is a very good idea! > > I believe that Chimera should improve the way to show or activate > all the models faster from the GUI. I spend a lot of time > activating two models, deactivating the rest, and showing only > these two models. The command line is fast but there are some, like > me, that always forget the commands. >> >> Let me know what ideas you think are best. It is quite difficult >> to make the user interface simple to use and powerful. Thanks for >> your ideas. >> >> Tom >> >> Eduardo Sanz Garcia wrote: >>> Do you mind if I share a very personal suggestion? >>> I always open 5 or more maps at the same time (chimera >>> directories*/*100.map) . I normally want to examine each >>> individually, and then compare them. I would like to undisplay >>> all of them at the same time. I know that this is possible from >>> the command line (~modeldisplay), but I always forget it. It >>> would be nice to have the same function from the GUI. I am >>> suggestion to be able to click in the black circle (bottom image) >>> and un/display all the models at once. >>> >>> Anyway, thanks for the volume viewer capabilities of chimera. >> >> >

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How do I
by Eduardo Sanz Garcia 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

I am using Chimera alpha version 1 build 2467 2007/10/31 I liked how each volume map opened has a different color. That's a great idea!! But I have a problem, I am displaying 4 volume maps at the same time. The volume viewer window only shows 3 histograms, therefore to modify the threshold of the fourth I have to close one of the volumes. Is there a way to modify the fourth histogram in the volume viewer window without close another? I also found a different behavior if you close the upper, middle and bottom histogram. Thanks.

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saving color palette
by William Jeffrey Triffo 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

is there a way I can save the color palette to a file? I realize it seems to be saved as a user setting somewhere because it always pops up again in the same configuration as the previous session, but I would like to be able to back it up intentionally if possible. Also, is it possible to save/load various palettes? thanks, -Jeff --

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Chimera vs Amber, which one digresses from the average pdb rules?
by Francesco Pietra 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

A lipid/water pdb file that was good for Leap (Amber9) to get top/crd, once passed through Chimera 2470 to remove residues is no more good for Leap. All TER were removed by Chimera, ATOM renamed HETATM, while CONECT records were added. As such, Leap said: In file [chirality.c], line 142 Atom named C217 from POP did not match Aborting I knew such type of message. There is no C217 atom. On previous (different) occasions, insertion of TER records put the house in order. I inserted all TERs between POPC residues and between WAT residues (thanks to Python!). Now Leap said: In file [atom.c], line 444 bond AtomProblem found Aborting As I did not know this type of message, I tried to investigate that line 444. Following vim's command :n,444 that line, indicated at bottom of terminal as "444,1", reads HETATM 441 O31 POPC 5 -44.082 -12.831 14.685 1.00 0.00 O A carbon atom (if "[atom.c]" means carbon, is at line 447,1, which reads HETATM 444 C32 POPC 5 -46.343 -12.925 15.140 1.00 0.00 C In the original (good for Leap) pdb those lines read: ATOM 441 O31 POPC 4 -37.722 -19.453 18.019 1.00 0.00 L11 O ATOM 444 C32 POPC 4 -39.844 -19.273 18.941 1.00 0.00 L11 C Chimera also changed atom names, such as in the final part of the POPC residue (Sybyl naming?, if so, there is an alternative in Chimera not to follow Sybyl rules?) HETATM 528 XH14 POPC 5 -47.646 -9.424 -0.112 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 529 YH14 POPC 5 -46.217 -10.553 -0.172 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 530 5C31 POPC 5 -47.890 -11.168 -1.419 1.00 0.00 C HETATM 531 XH15 POPC 5 -47.763 -12.309 -1.296 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 532 YH15 POPC 5 -48.986 -11.063 -1.417 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 533 6C31 POPC 5 -47.242 -10.566 -2.756 1.00 0.00 C HETATM 534 XH16 POPC 5 -46.135 -10.759 -2.831 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 535 YH16 POPC 5 -47.802 -11.112 -3.597 1.00 0.00 H HETATM 536 ZH16 POPC 5 -47.451 -9.454 -2.737 1.00 0.00 H TER which, in the original (good) pdb was: ATOM 528 H14X POPC 4 -38.665 -14.879 4.398 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 529 H14Y POPC 4 -39.080 -16.603 3.952 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 530 C315 POPC 4 -40.370 -15.221 2.996 1.00 0.00 L11 C ATOM 531 H15X POPC 4 -41.330 -15.752 3.099 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 532 H15Y POPC 4 -40.694 -14.148 3.019 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 533 C316 POPC 4 -39.787 -15.573 1.664 1.00 0.00 L11 C ATOM 534 H16X POPC 4 -39.553 -16.661 1.544 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 535 H16Y POPC 4 -40.534 -15.211 0.948 1.00 0.00 L11 H ATOM 536 H16Z POPC 4 -38.782 -15.094 1.533 1.00 0.00 L11 H TER Although it is not clear to me yet where really Leap crashed (nor am I placing Leap as the standard; simply I have to get top/crd from it, if I want to carry out MD with Amber). Elaine already kindly clarified the ATOM/HETATM issue. I hope now to get help about the atom names , ie a table of conversion to get Leap working or a not-Sybyl choice in Chimera. Once again, I regret very much to pose so many problems of language. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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<< Rendering proteins with Chimera >>
by Hatuey Hack 23 Nov '07

23 Nov '07

Hi all, As a Chimera new users, I notice that the proteins are rendering different depending on the program they where prepared. I used the preset to render them. I have a protein with all residues in different color and the other protein is rendered in a single color. My question is: this is a problem of Chimera or it is a problem with the protein file? Regards, Hatuey

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Aligning a protein into a membrane
by Francesco Pietra 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

Elaine: Relating to your instructions of last 19 Nov (I printed your mail, then unfortunately I deleted it) how to align a protein into a membrane (for both I have valid pdb and valid Amber parameters) I am probably made elusive mistakes at the stage of saving new pdbs. I aligned the protein into the membrane, then (with protein selected and membrane not active) I saved the new pdb, getting two files, "0" for the membrane and "1" for the protein. In Amber LEaP both these pdb file could be loaded and combined, however save top/crd failed because something was wrong with the membrane file. In fact, if the original pdb for the membrane is used, top/crd can be saved, though the protein is not accurately aligned. Clearly, my plan is to remove superimpositions among molecules for the "whole" obtained from Amber. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Chimera-users] ppt and movies
by Elaine Meng 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

Hi Markus, I can answer this one: > Why does the command movie record supersample 3 give virtually the > same file size then just movie record? Supersampling in Chimera initially saves a larger image for each frame but then samples it down to the requested size. This reduces "stairstepping" along edges without changing the pixel dimensions of the image that is ultimately saved for each frame. It increases calculation time rather than file size. Supersampling is also an option for saving individual images (File... Save Image) when you are not raytracing. You can see the difference provided by this feature independent of the movie-encoding process by comparing images saved with and without (1x1) supersampling. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Re: [Chimera-users] chimera help - surface exposed sides
by Elaine Meng 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

On Nov 22, 2007, at 1:07 AM, Thomas C. Marlovits wrote: > Hi Elaine, > I am trying to find an easy way to determine solvent > accessible/surface exposed side chains but also buried side chains > from atomic structures. > The idea would be to: > - display the surface > - have a command that would highlight (color) surface exposed side > chains/amino acids > Optional: color the identified aa by physical property, etc > - show all the identified amino acids on a primary sequence > - write out the amino acids into a text file. > > Would be great if you can let me know, how to do this most efficiently. > Thanks, > -Thomas > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > -------- > Thomas C. Marlovits, PhD, M.A.S. > IMP-IMBA Research Center > - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) > - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austrian Academy of > Sciences (IMBA) > Hi Thomas, - First assign atoms (or residues) an attribute with values equal to their solvent-accessible surface areas (more details below). - Then you can use Select... By Attribute Value to select any subset of those based on some cutoff, for example all atoms with surface area > 0. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/render/ render.html#select The selection can be written as a list of atoms (or residues) with Actions... Write List, and the Sequence tool will show the current selection on the protein sequence (it would also be shown on a multiple sequence alignment associated with the structure, if you have such an alignment). http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/seqpanel.html - Of course you could also color the selection, but now that numerical attributes are assigned, you can map values to colors that will gradually shade from one to another with "Render by Attribute" or the command "rangecolor" http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/render/ render.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/rangecolor.html Now, back to how to get the attribute values assigned. Currently it is necessary to use the "Area/Volume from Web" tool (under Tools... Surface/Binding Analysis). It sends coordinates to the NIH StrucTools server. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/surfvol/ surfvol.html We are in the process of generating our own surface-calculation code that will provide these values within Chimera, but it is not done yet. The main inconvenience of this server approach is that you should first delete things like water and ligands if you don't want them lumped with the protein during the calculation. "Area/Volume from Web" has a few different options of what is calculated. You can use its MSMS method to calculate both molecular surface and solvent-accessible surface (this will generate two attributes) or the Gerstein method to calculate solvent-accessible surface. Atom attribute values will automatically be assigned by this tool. If you want them summed to residue attribute values, you must also use "Attribute Calculator". http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/calculator/ calculator.html There are examples of using Area/Volume from Web, Attribute Calculator, and Render by Attribute in the Attributes tutorial, part 2: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/ attributes.html#part2 I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Coloring a surface according to distance from a selection
by Paul.Pillot＠ac-nice.fr 21 Nov '07

21 Nov '07

Hello, I can color a surface according to the distance from a single point or a plane, but is it possible to do it according to the distance from a selection (eg an other chain or molecule) ? My aim is to show the contacts between an antibody and an antigen. I tried the tool intersurf for doing it, but the result is pretty crude (low definition of the surface compared to the usual surfaces available). Thanks in advance, Paul

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spaceball 5000
by Jean-Paul Armache 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

hello, i have a question regarding usage of a 3d manipulation device. i have a spaceball 5000 device, which i would like to use under linux (or windows). is there a way of using this device in chimera? best regards, Jean-Paul Armache AG Beckmann LMU Gene Center

3 2

move a structure into another one
by Francesco Pietra 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

I have installed chimera-1.2470 on Debian Linux i386. Thank you. I want to insert a protein into a lipid membrane in a precise opientation, then save the protein pdb in this configuration. I used VMD in the last few days to this redard. I wonder whether I can stick to Chimera for this purpose too. I tried by selecting "protein", though it was difficult to proceed. Thanks francesco pietra ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/

2 3

Puzzle with WAT
by Francesco Pietra 17 Nov '07

17 Nov '07

I am faced by a recurring puzzle with WAT (standard TIP3). In Amber9 xleap I loaded a pore protein_noH.pdb model getting top and crd files In both Chimera and VMD these showed that the WAT oxygen atom (natural, inside the pore) had been added of two hydrogens with intramolecular bonding between the two hydrogens. Otherwise, the geometry was correct for water. Correspondingly. in Chimera dockprep complained that one hydrogen of that WAT had incorrect valency, and refused to proceed. The protein.pdb created with ambpdb from such top and crd files showed the WAT correctly, without intramolecular H-H bonding. The geometry was exactly the same as for the above "wrong" WAT. With this protein.pdb, Chimera's dockprep was happy. That allowed docking with various (big) ligands, including amber re-score. I posted to dock-fans that the issue was solved, and how. Now I wanted to carry out Amber9 MD of that protein-ligand complex, inserting it into a lipid bilayer. I first tried the above protein.pdb alone into a membrane. A new venture for me. I posted separately a question how to create a hole around the protein. However, even when that is solved, I am faced again by the problem of viewing WAT into the pore as a triangle. Also, the many WAT mixed to the POPC of the membrane are also viewed as triangles. Actually, when that protein.pdb is loaded to xleap (as before leaprc.ff99SB and leaprc.gaff), the WAT into the pore is seen as a triangle. Thus, the protein.pdb, created with amdpdb is good for viewers and dockprep and docking, not back for LEaP. Although, it may seem as a loop, these are the facts (that so far I am unable to understand). I did not try yet if that allows MD, just because going on with such triangulated water seems unsafe. The protein.pdb ends as follows: TER ATOM 6885 O WAT 445 -0.036 0.094 -2.262 ATOM 6886 H1 WAT 445 0.921 0.094 -2.262 ATOM 6887 H2 WAT 445 -0.276 1.021 -2.262 TER END The membrane.pdb ends as follows: ATOM 50316 O WAT 3357 47.120 46.103 -26.069 1.00 0.00 W45 O ATOM 50317 H1 WAT 3357 46.727 45.819 -26.895 1.00 0.00 W45 H ATOM 50318 H2 WAT 3357 47.214 47.052 -26.153 1.00 0.00 W45 H END as a representative of the many WAT present. Thanks francesco pietra (the membrane was created with VMD and the file rearranged to be understood by Amber9) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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1.2470 production release available
by Eric Pettersen 16 Nov '07

16 Nov '07

Hi all, The production release, version 1.2470, is out now. A list of changes from the previous production release (1.2422) can be found here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/relnotes/1.2470.html I think that page is pretty easy to scan through, but for those of us who are really time-challenged, the important changes, I think, are: 1) Incorporation of what were previously "experimental features", such as morphing between volume data sets 2) Volume Viewer improvements: a) Multi-data set interface b) Distinct initial map colors c) Resampling of rotated maps d) Improved large-file handling e) Single-plane display f) Scriptability 3) Display of dendrograms in Multalign Viewer 4) Use of rotamer libraries in swapping residue side chains with the ability to evaluate possible swaps based on clashing, fit into density maps, or hydrogen-bond formation Mac users with the new Leopard OS should note that it seems that 3- button mouse emulation is off by default in Leopard's X11. So, if you have a one-button mouse and want to be able to scale/translate using the mouse + alt/command, do the following: 1) click on the X11 icon (it should show up in the dock when you start Chimera) 2) open the X11 menu from the menubar at the top of the screen 3) choose the Preferences... entry 4) in the resulting dialog choose the Input tab 5) enable the Emulate three button mouse option --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Ramachandran Plots
by Quinton Dowling 16 Nov '07

16 Nov '07

Hi, I am interested in creating a ramachandran plot from an md trajectory. Particularly I would like to track the change in phi/psi angles over time for specific amino acids throughout the md in a fashion that is easily presentable. Is there a way to do this with Chimera? Or any way at all? Thanks a bunch. Quinton Dowling Research Computing Center The College of Idaho Caldwell ID 83605

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Re: [Chimera-users] Z-slice transparency
by Tom Goddard 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

I met Lu in San Diego and found out he was showing a volume slice and a second model which was also a volume using solid rendering style. The trouble is that Chimera cannot correctly display two transparent models -- at most one can be transparent. If two are transparent, the last one drawn (higher model id number) always appears on top of the other transparent models. This is a (serious) limitation of the Chimera graphics architecture. Technically Lu has the single plane set to be completely opaque, but all solid rendered volumes are rendered as if they have transparency even if the coloring is set for complete opacity. (The OpenGL z-buffer which records the depth of visible objects and prevents obscured surfaces from being shown is not used with "transparent" rendering). We tried using the TomoPlane Chimera extension from Karin Gross and Christoph Best and that draws truly opaque volume planes, but it is much slower. Tom Lu wrote: > Hi Tom, > > I tried everything that you mentioned, including adding multiple > points to the histogram, but I can still see stuff through the > Z-slice. Anyway, I noticed that you're going to be at the Scripps EM > workshop next week. If you have time at the workshop, I'd be happy to > show you the type of Amira movie that we'd ultimately like to make > using Chimera. > > Cheers, > -Lu

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mutation of residue
by hjoseph＠brandeis.edu 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

Hi everyone, I want to model my mutated residue into crystal structure and see its interactions. If anyone knows and easy way of doing it in Chimera please let me know. Thanks everyone, Helen Josephine

2 2

how to make a bond
by dominique matt 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

I want to draw a bond between two atoms which appear linked by a dotted line. This is often the case when one atom is a metal. How can I draw the bond ? Thank you for your help Kind regards Dominique MATT Strasbourg

3 2

Ribbackbone spec?
by Jean Didier Pie Marechal 14 Nov '07

14 Nov '07

2 2

Z-slice transparency
by Lu 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Dear Chimera Crew, Is there a way to adjust the transparency of a Z-slice using the Volume Viewer's "planes" feature? Right now, it looks like the Z-slice has transparency and lets you see the isosurfaces/segmentations below it. We would like to turn off the Z-slice transparency so that it blocks everything that is behind it. Such a feature would allow us to use Chimera to make a movie that we've been using Amira for, i.e., a movie in which the isosurface (or segmentation) is "revealed" as the map's Z-slice drops down. If the effect that I'm describing isn't clear, I'd be happy to forward a link to such a movie. Thanks! -Lu -- Lu Gan Postdoc, Jensen Lab Caltech Broad Center, MC 114-96 1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125 Tel: 626-395-8848 Fax: 626-395-5730

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Computer requirements
by Sandra Eriksson 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Hi! I'm planning to buy a computer, and am checking on the requirements of my favourite programs. But, searching the Chimera home page, I found little information on the hardware neccessary to make the program run really smoothly. If you have suggestions for RAM, processor and graphics etc, I would be very grateful. Best, /Sandra

2 1

Question about the dotted bond
by Hyunmi Sun 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Dear Whom it may concern Hello, I am currently using Chimera to access a pdb file. When I fetch the pdb file, one of the bonds between two ligands is illustrated as a dotted line in the wire representation. Why is this so? Thanks for the help! Sincerely, Hyunmi Sun

2 1

Output of volume rotation angles and shifts in Chimera
by Duncan Sousa 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Hi, I use Chimera to manually align 3D electron microscopy structures. I'm hoping someone knows how to output the angles and shifts of rotated and shifted volumes. Since one can restore sessions, the angles and shifts must be saved somewhere right? Thanks, Duncan __________________________________ Duncan Sousa, Ph. D. Department Physiology & Biophysics Boston University School of Medicine 715 Albany Street Boston, MA 02118

2 1

Calculating the center of mass of a ligand
by Jean-Didier Maréchal 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Hi everyone, I have another question: what would be the easiest way to calculate the center of mass of a given set of atoms? In particular, is there a python module that already has this function implemented? I am interested in particular to find the center of mass of a ligand bound to a protein. Thanks a lot, JD

2 1

IDLE for listing selected residues.
by Jean-Didier Maréchal 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Hi everyone, I'd like to use chimera to generate the list of the oxygen atoms of the water molecules located at less than 5.0 A of a ligand. Selecting the water molecules have been the easiest part... select :HOH & :301.a zr < 5.0 with :301.a my ligand. Then in the IDLE, I tried a series of alternative to generate the list. I use the different tips that were posted in the digest recently and arrived to this: for i in range(1,len(chimera.selection.currentResidues()): print chimera.selection.currentResidues()[i] Right, this gives me the list of residues, unfortunately, that would be a LOOOT better for me is to have the Serial number of the oxygen atoms... currentSerialNum and currentSerialNumber do not see to be a correct selection type. If there is any way that can do this? Thanks a lot JD On Sat, 2007-11-10 at 12:00 -0800, chimera-users-request(a)cgl.ucsf.edu wrote: > Send Chimera-users mailing list submissions to > chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > chimera-users-request(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > > You can reach the person managing the list at > chimera-users-owner(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Chimera-users digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Z-slice transparency (Tom Goddard) > 2. production release candidate (Eric Pettersen) > 3. pipes and planks (Dougherty, Matthew T.) > 4. Re: pipes and planks (Eric Pettersen) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:47:12 -0800 > From: Tom Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Z-slice transparency > To: Lu <lugan(a)caltech.edu>, "'Chimera BB'" > <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Message-ID: <4734C750.5020803(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Hi Lu, > > I think I know why the volume planes are slightly transparent for > you. You are using Chimera version 1.2422 and I changed the volume > solid rendering transparency behavior in the later Chimera version > 1.2434 (August 3, 2007). You can either get the most recent Chimera > from the daily builds web page: > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/alpha-downloads.html > > Or in older Chimera versions use volume menu entry Features / Brightness > and Transparency and change transparency to 0. You'll have to type this > in the entry field and press return because the slider does not go all > the way down to zero. This transparency value modulates the > transparencies given by the height of the brightness / transparency > yellow curve on the histogram. Newer Chimera changed the modulation > behavior to keep completely opaque voxels still completely opaque while > older Chimera did not. > > Tom > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 15:52:29 -0800 > From: Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: [Chimera-users] production release candidate > To: chimera BB <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Message-ID: <7B31B33A-569C-4808-AD94-EBCD134DEC26(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi all, > We have put a production release candidate up for download (http:// > www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html) It would help us out if > people would try it out and see if it all works okay. Major changes > from the 1.2422 release include: incorporation of what were > previously "experimental features", such as morphing between volume > data sets; major revamp of the Volume Viewer interface; display of > dendrograms in Multalign Viewer; use of rotamer libraries in swapping > residue side chains and the ability evaluate possible swaps based on > clashing, fit into density maps, or hydrogen-bond formation. A more > exhaustive list of features is here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ > docs/relnotes/snapshot.html > > --Eric > > > Eric Pettersen > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu > >

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RMSD
by Julien Orts 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Dear all, First thanks a lot for the great software you provide us!!! I would like to compare structures after an MD simulation. There is a function called match which can be used to calculate the RMSD between selected atoms. The protocol is the following; I select atoms within 5 Angstrom to a reference atom in the structure 1: 300 atoms selected. I do the same for the structure 2 (reference atom is the same): 311 atoms selected The problem is then I can not use the match function since the atom number is different. I selected then residues (the one which are 5A away from the reference atom) instead of atoms but it is a bit fastidious plus it is not the same as a "zone selection" (some atoms are coming even if they are at 5.6A) I print out (from a pdb) the number of desired proton but the command sel @123 do not work because atom selection is done by name and not by number (if it is really the case then it would be nice to have this possibility as well ;-) The last solution would be really easy and quick to do if the selection on atoms can also be done by number. Is there any way to solve this? I need to use all the atoms, so the matchMaker give me an RMSD but it does not use all of the atoms in the calculation of the RMSD. Basically I need the intersection of the two sets (two structures) of selected atoms. In reality I have much more than 2 structures so the protocol should also be scriptable, but I guess everything is scriptable in Chimera (right?) thank in advance many greetings Julien

2 1

pipes and planks
by Dougherty, Matthew T. 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

I have about 80 pdb datasets, each corresponding to a single helix. I know I can do one at a time using the gui. What is the method for scripting? thanks, Matt Matthew Dougherty 713-433-3849 National Center for Macromolecular Imaging Baylor College of Medicine/Houston Texas USA ========================================================================= =========================================================================

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production release candidate
by Eric Pettersen 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

Hi all, We have put a production release candidate up for download (http:// www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html) It would help us out if people would try it out and see if it all works okay. Major changes from the 1.2422 release include: incorporation of what were previously "experimental features", such as morphing between volume data sets; major revamp of the Volume Viewer interface; display of dendrograms in Multalign Viewer; use of rotamer libraries in swapping residue side chains and the ability evaluate possible swaps based on clashing, fit into density maps, or hydrogen-bond formation. A more exhaustive list of features is here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ docs/relnotes/snapshot.html --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Re: [Chimera-users] Z-slice transparency
by Tom Goddard 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

Hi Lu, I think I know why the volume planes are slightly transparent for you. You are using Chimera version 1.2422 and I changed the volume solid rendering transparency behavior in the later Chimera version 1.2434 (August 3, 2007). You can either get the most recent Chimera from the daily builds web page: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/alpha-downloads.html Or in older Chimera versions use volume menu entry Features / Brightness and Transparency and change transparency to 0. You'll have to type this in the entry field and press return because the slider does not go all the way down to zero. This transparency value modulates the transparencies given by the height of the brightness / transparency yellow curve on the histogram. Newer Chimera changed the modulation behavior to keep completely opaque voxels still completely opaque while older Chimera did not. Tom

1 0

(no subject)
by Ryan 07 Nov '07

07 Nov '07

I am trying to import Chimera in a python script but get the following error message: Traceback (most recent call last): File "./chimera_import.py", line 16, in <module> import chimera File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/__init__.py", line 15, in <module> from _chimera import * ImportError: /usr/local/chimera/lib/_chimera.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32 Does anyone know what the problem is here? I can run Chimera without a problem in the GUI -- so i would assume that means the chimera class is being properly loaded in that instance. I have the 32 bit Linux version installed on my AMD64 system running SUSE. Thanks for your help, ryan

2 1

Fe in chimera antechamber
by snoze pa 07 Nov '07

07 Nov '07

Hi, I am new in this mailing list but found chimera more useful than any other software. I was building a protein that contain HEME. When I was calculating the charge using chimera interface, then it is asking for HEM[FE] and HEM[nonFE] formal charge. I know chimera is using MMTK and AMBER forcefield. If I will give the default value then it is assigning +2 charge to Fe, which is not a match based on AMBER forcefield. Meanwhile I try to change the Formal charge manually, but still it gives the same +2 for Fe. Anybody used chimera to prepare a protein having heme for dock or geometry build. My another question is: Is it possible in chimera to merge nonpolar hydrogen charges on the heavy atoms, the technique used in autodock. I will highly appreciate your help and suggestions in this matter. thanks in advance. s

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Movies
by hsosa＠aecom.yu.edu 06 Nov '07

06 Nov '07

Hi, I've bee using the Movie recorder tool and noticed that the resulting movie seems in high speed motion. I recorded the movie while running the rock command. Settings: Output: AVI-MSPE-4v2 size: 760x482. constant bit rate 6000 (also tried 2000) Frames per second 33 (also tried 25). Any suggestions to get a movie playing at the same speed as when running the commands in chimera. Thanks Hernando

2 1

Angles
by hsosa＠aecom.yu.edu 06 Nov '07

06 Nov '07

Hi, I have a couple of questions: Is there a simple way to determine the angle between any of the three axes, X,Y or Z and the line connecting two selected atoms?. I know you can use the Angles/Torsions tools to determine the angle formed between 3 sets of atoms, but I wonder if you could use that tool, or some other, to report the angle of two atoms with the axes?. Is it possible to draw a box with the axes around a structure as it can be done with a volume ?. Thanks Hernando -- ----------------------------------- Hernando Sosa Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics Albert Einstein College of Medicine 1300 Morris Park Av. Bronx NY 10461 phone (718) 430-3456 FAX (718) 430-8819 email hsosa(a)aecom.yu.edu -----------------------------------

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mac OS / Leopard
by William Jeffrey Triffo 06 Nov '07

06 Nov '07

anyone know if upgrading OS X to Leopard might effect Chimera (or have reason to think it might)? -Jeff

4 5

getting a density map for a protein
by Greg Pintilie 05 Nov '07

05 Nov '07

Some time ago when the 'Fit model into Map' feature was introduced there was a note that a tool to build a density map from a protein might be released at a later date. I haven't seen any evidence of this yet, has it been done? Otherwise, any pointers to other tools that do this? Thanks, Greg Pintilie

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera AddH questions
by Eric Pettersen 31 Oct '07

31 Oct '07

On Oct 31, 2007, at 2:25 PM, Diep Quang Vinh wrote: > Dear Eric, > > Could you please do me an other favor? Could you please tell me how > to do your instructions automatic by command line? Since I will > deal with a hundreds of files like those and I have to add Hydrogen > atom to these file. Hi Vinh, There is no command-line equivalent for Build Structure, so you have to resort to Python here. Here's the Python code to change the currently selected atom the same way you did by hand: from BuildStructure import changeAtom from chimera import selection, Element changeAtom(selection.currentAtoms()[0], Element("C"), 3, 3, name="C") If you put the above into a script named addCH.py, then you can use these commands to add the hydrogen: sel :2.A@C open C:\<wherever you put the script>\addCH.py You might want to use the "alias" command for the above so you don't have to type so much. --Eric > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Pettersen" > <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > To: "Diep Quang Vinh" <vdiep(a)purdue.edu> > Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:01 PM > Subject: Re: Chimera AddH questions > > >> You're welcome. Glad I could help. >> >> --Eric >> >> On Oct 31, 2007, at 12:15 PM, Diep Quang Vinh wrote: >> >>> Dear Eric, >>> >>> Thank you very much for your help. It works right now. I >>> appriciate that so much. >>> >>> Thanks. >>> >>> Vinh >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Pettersen" >>> <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> >>> To: <vdiep(a)purdue.edu> >>> Cc: "chimera BB" <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> >>> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 2:32 PM >>> Subject: Chimera AddH questions >>> >>> >>>> On Oct 31, 2007, at 8:41 AM, chimera-bugs(a)cgl.ucsf.edu wrote: >>>> >>>>> The following bug report has been submitted: >>>>> Submitter Name: Vinh >>>>> Submitter Email: vdiep >>>>> Platform: windows >>>>> Chimera Version: 1 >>>>> Description >>>>> Hello, I would like to ask you some questions concern about >>>>> addh command. >>>>> >>>>> 1. I had an molecule which has 2-residues and one of them has >>>>> an termini -CO. This molecule is in fact was cut from a >>>>> bigger molecule and the original C have an bond with one H >>>>> atom. Now Can I by using addh command, recover the original >>>>> configuration? I mean there is only one Hydrogen added to >>>>> this Carbon. Since when I did it, chimera gave the an extra >>>>> Oxigen and not an Hydrogen. >>>> >>>> When Chimera looks at a peptide chain with an incomplete C >>>> terminus, it tries to deduce (by looking at SEQRES records) >>>> whether that residue is really the C terminus or is instead >>>> simply the last residue in a chain that is partially missing. >>>> I'm guessing that your structure file didn't have any SEQRES >>>> records, so Chimera guessed that the ending amino acid was >>>> really the C terminus and therefore made the C-O moiety into a >>>> carboxylate. >>>> >>>> If all you want to do is add a single hydrogen to that carbon, >>>> you should use the Build Structure tool to do that. Here's how: >>>> >>>> control-double click on the carbon >>>> choose "Modify Atom" from the menu that pops up >>>> In the Build Structure dialog that comes up, change the >>>> "Geometry" to "planar" and the "Name" back to "C" >>>> click on the "Change" button -- your hydrogen will be added >>>> >>>>> I try to add the hydrogen for example: >>>>> first : addh >>>>> then : addh spec :2.A@C >>>>> but both of them give me the same answer and on top of that it >>>>> adds one more H on the other nearby Nitrogen. >>>> >>>> The smallest thing addh can add hydrogens to is an entire >>>> model. If you specify something smaller, the entire model >>>> still gets protonated. This limitation is mentioned in the >>>> addh documentation. >>>> >>>> --Eric >>>> >>>> Eric Pettersen >>>> UCSF Computer Graphics Lab >>>> pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >>>> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu >>>> >>> >> >

1 0

Distances problem
by hsosa＠aecom.yu.edu 31 Oct '07

31 Oct '07

Hi, I came across the following problem: When using the tool Tools -> Structure Analysis -> Distances to measure the distance between two atoms, a bug report window appears and all the chimera windows freeze. The error seems to happen when chimera is trying to draw the line between the atoms. The calculated distance appear in the distances window. I can't get the error message as all the windows are frozen. It says something about tcl ??? Any suggestions?. Thanks Hernando System Vaio PCG K37 laptop (Pentium 4 3.2 GHz, 1Gb RAM) running windows XP Home edition service pack 2 Graphics. ATI Radeon IGP 345M UCSF Chimera 2.4222 2007/06/21

2 1

chimera python shell
by Ondrej Marsalek 31 Oct '07

31 Oct '07

hi, i wanted to ask whether there are any plans to change the idle python shell in chimera for something else. i would be interested in something with completion and editable history, ideally ipython (http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/) i tried to add ipython to the python embedded in chimera but did not succeed. i will be grateful for any information or personal experience with this. regards, ondrej marsalek

2 1

Chimera AddH questions
by Eric Pettersen 31 Oct '07

31 Oct '07

On Oct 31, 2007, at 8:41 AM, chimera-bugs(a)cgl.ucsf.edu wrote: > The following bug report has been submitted: > Submitter Name: Vinh > Submitter Email: vdiep > Platform: windows > Chimera Version: 1 > Description > Hello, I would like to ask you some questions concern about addh > command. > > 1. I had an molecule which has 2-residues and one of them has an > termini -CO. This molecule is in fact was cut from a bigger > molecule and the original C have an bond with one H atom. Now Can I > by using addh command, recover the original configuration? I mean > there is only one Hydrogen added to this Carbon. Since when I did > it, chimera gave the an extra Oxigen and not an Hydrogen. When Chimera looks at a peptide chain with an incomplete C terminus, it tries to deduce (by looking at SEQRES records) whether that residue is really the C terminus or is instead simply the last residue in a chain that is partially missing. I'm guessing that your structure file didn't have any SEQRES records, so Chimera guessed that the ending amino acid was really the C terminus and therefore made the C-O moiety into a carboxylate. If all you want to do is add a single hydrogen to that carbon, you should use the Build Structure tool to do that. Here's how: control-double click on the carbon choose "Modify Atom" from the menu that pops up In the Build Structure dialog that comes up, change the "Geometry" to "planar" and the "Name" back to "C" click on the "Change" button -- your hydrogen will be added > I try to add the hydrogen for example: > first : addh > then : addh spec :2.A@C > but both of them give me the same answer and on top of that it adds > one more H on the other nearby Nitrogen. The smallest thing addh can add hydrogens to is an entire model. If you specify something smaller, the entire model still gets protonated. This limitation is mentioned in the addh documentation. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

1 0

Re: [Chimera-users] Selector Construction Panel
by Eric Pettersen 30 Oct '07

30 Oct '07

Hi Virginia, The Selector Construction panel could probably stand some interface improvements for sure. "Existing Selection" has nothing to do with what's selected in the Chimera window as you construct the selector. "Existing Selection" grabs whatever is selected in the Chimera window when the selector is used (either by choosing the selector from Chimera's Select menu, of invoking it from the Select region of the construction panel) -- so it can be a different selection every time it is used. Anyway, you can ignore that because it doesn't really help you with your problem. There is no easy way to select all lysines within 8 angstroms of another lysine in Chimera, so you were on the right track with trying to construct a selector, but it requires actually putting some custom Python code in your selector since you need to loop over lysine residues individually in order to get what you want. So open the Selector Construction panel, pick "Show workbench selector contents" in the Panels menu, and paste in: from chimera import specifier sel.merge(selection.REPLACE, specifier.evalSpec(":LYS")) nearRes = [] sel2 = selection.ItemizedSelection() for r in sel.residues(): sel2.clear() sel2.add(r) sel2.merge(selection.REPLACE, specifier.zone(sel2, specifier.ATOM, None, 8.0, models)) selRes = [sr for sr in sel2.residues() if sr.type == "LYS"] selRes.remove(r) nearRes.extend(selRes) sel.clear() sel.add(nearRes) Since the remailer for this list may break long lines, I've also attached the above as a file. If you are using the X11 version of Chimera for the Mac, pasting in the text is tricky -- if you're using that let me know and I can send instructions about how to get the pasting to work. --Eric On Oct 30, 2007, at 10:50 AM, Virginia Pett wrote: > Eric, > Yes, my ultimate goal is more complicated than the examples that I > gave. I would like to find all the Lys residues in the structure > that are less than 8 Å apart from each other. After several hours > of frustration with the Selector Construction Panel, I decided to > try a simpler question in order to test whether I was using the > Workbench correctly and to test whether any information was being > saved. > > I may not have understood your reply correctly. Here is what I > tried just now. I selected all atoms NZ (@NZ). THEN I invoked the > Selector Construction Panel. (In my previous experiments, the > Construction Panel had been invoked before I made the selection in > the main window.) Then I proceeded as before, in the Selector > Construction Panel: Workbench, Load from current. The Status panel > shows workbench content: Existing Selection. Then Workbench, > Save, as All NZ atoms, for example. However, as before, when I go > back to the main window, Select, Clear Selection and then Select > All NZ atoms, there is nothing selected. > > Virginia > > > > > On 10/25/07 7:56 PM, "Eric Pettersen" <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > >> Hi Virginia, >> Perhaps you could describe what your ultimate goal here is -- >> there may be an easier way to achieve it than by constructing a >> custom selector. >> But in regards to your problem, for the purposes of selector >> construction the "Existing Selection" isn't what is selected at >> that instant -- it's what's selected at the time the selector is >> invoked from Chimera's Select menu. This allows you to build >> selectors that intersect the peptide backbone with the current >> selection for example. >> If you want to make a selector that simply holds what's currently >> selected, use the Name Selection... entry in Chimera's Select >> menu. That creates a selector under Named Selections in the >> Select menu, and will also be remembered in saved sessions. >> >> --Eric >> >> >> Eric Pettersen >> >> >> UCSF Computer Graphics Lab >> >> >> pett(a)cgl.ucsfedu >> >> >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu >> >> >> >> On Oct 25, 2007, at 2:22 PM, Virginia Pett wrote: >> >>> Hello, >>> There is a difficulty with the Selector Construction Panel. I >>> make a selection in the main window, such as chain A or atom >>> @NZ. The Inspect Selection panel shows that I have made a >>> selection. Then in the Selector Construction Panel: Workbench, >>> Load from current. The Status panel shows workbench content: >>> Existing Selection. Then Workbench, Save, as chain A, for >>> example. However, when I go back to the main window, Select, >>> Clear Selection and then Select, chain A, there is nothing selected. >>> >>> I downloaded the latest version of Chimera for Mac OS X a few >>> days ago (chimera-1.2422-osx_x11.dmg). I’m running it on a >>> PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X (10.4.10). >>> Virginia >>> _____________________________________________________ >>> >>> Virginia B. Pett >>> Professor of Chemistry >>> Department of Chemistry, The College of Wooster >>> 943 College Mall, Wooster, OH 44691 >>> Telephone: 330-263-2114 >>> Fax: 330-263-2386 >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Chimera-users mailing list >>> Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >>> http://wwwcgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users >>> >> >> > > > _____________________________________________________ > > Virginia B. Pett > Professor of Chemistry > Department of Chemistry, The College of Wooster > 943 College Mall, Wooster, OH 44691 > Telephone: 330-263-2114 > Fax: 330-263-2386 >

1 0

request regarding atomspec balloon
by Jean Didier Pie Marechal 26 Oct '07

26 Oct '07

Hi Everyone, long time no...written... I observed that the "show atomspec balloon" does appear when I point an atom with the cursor. I have the preferences well set but I can't have it working. I use the last build (25 october) and I work on windows XP. Cheers, JD Dr. Jean-Didier Maréchal Professor Lector Unitat de Química Física Departament de Química Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici C.n. 08193 Cerdanyola (Barcelona) Tel: +34.935814936 e-mail: JeanDidier.Marechal(a)uab.es

2 1

Cartoon: Helix appearance
by kroneml＠hotmail.de 26 Oct '07

26 Oct '07

Hello, I observed that Chimera (like almost all other protein viewers) aligns the ribbon of a helix in a way that the ribbon is parallel in every twist (the ribbon virtually forms a cylinder). My question is: is this correct, strictly speaking? I thought that the ribbon should lie in the plane defined by two successive C-alpha atoms and the associated O atom? (Mike Carson defines it that way in his "Ribbons", following the instructions of Richardson's "The anatomy and taxonomy of protein structure"). If you draw it that way, the ribbon forming the helix will tilt slightly outwards. Is the alignment of the helix ribbon in Chimera done simply because it looks better this way or is there another reason? I did some research on this topic via google and even asked a certified biologist (scientific assistant), but the internet had not much to say about it and the biologist only told me that cartoon drawings don't have to be very accurate, since they are only a tool to get a general idea of the protein's structure. Best regards, Michael Krone

2 2

Selector Construction Panel
by Virginia Pett 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

Hello, There is a difficulty with the Selector Construction Panel. I make a selection in the main window, such as chain A or atom @NZ. The Inspect Selection panel shows that I have made a selection. Then in the Selector Construction Panel: Workbench, Load from current. The Status panel shows workbench content: Existing Selection. Then Workbench, Save, as chain A, for example. However, when I go back to the main window, Select, Clear Selection and then Select, chain A, there is nothing selected. I downloaded the latest version of Chimera for Mac OS X a few days ago (chimera-1.2422-osx_x11.dmg). I¹m running it on a PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X (10.4.10). Virginia _____________________________________________________ Virginia B. Pett Professor of Chemistry Department of Chemistry, The College of Wooster 943 College Mall, Wooster, OH 44691 Telephone: 330-263-2114 Fax: 330-263-2386

2 1