- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

generating electrostatic potential map
by bala 27 Oct '06

27 Oct '06

Hello all, I want to generate the electrostatic potential map using Chimera. I tried through Delphi controler, however i am repeatedly getting an error as follows. I have successfully installed Delphi. Can someone suggest me what is wrong. __________DelPhi V. 4 Release 1.1 ______________ | | | A program to solve the PB equation | | in 3D, using non-linear form, incorporating | | many dielectric regions, multisalt ionic | | strength, different probe radii, periodic | | and focussing boundary conditions, utilizing | | stripped optimum successive over-relaxation | | and an improved algorithm for mapping the | | Mol. Surface to the finite-Difference grid | | Recompiled on Linux and PC | | January 2002 -------- Walter Rocchia | |__________________ ___________________| DelPhi V. 4 program started on Fri Oct 27 2006 at 14:55:00 opening parameter file /tmp/tmpvpgS8V At least 30 nonlinear iterations atom radii read from file /usr/people/ojha/BALA/chim_amber.siz unknown header format in radius file: O5' A 1 1.7210 First it showed the same for H5 atom [which was the first atom in the siz/charge file], then i just tried by deleting the first line in the radius and charge file. Then the same error is coming for the second atom O5' in the file. Thanks in advance, Bala

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viewing grid density
by bala 26 Oct '06

26 Oct '06

Hello all, 1) I hve generated a solvent density map using Amber8 in XPLOR format. I am able to open the map in chimera. I hv also generated a refernce pdb file. Now i have to fix the reference structure of my molecule in the density map. I tried many options but i couldnt do that. Someone pls suggest me how i should do the same. 2) Also i am not clear with the meaning of the threshold levels given in the histogram. Although i could see the difference in the density map by sliding the vertical bar to various postions, i am getting what it can tell us exactly. Which is the most suitable threhold level etc. 3) Someone pls give me the link for the chimera mail list archive...i am unable to locate it. Bala

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To except box information in MD movie
by Atsutoshi Okabe 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

Hello, I viewed Amber format trajectory files ( topology/parameter file and trajectory file ) by MD movie. But I got the figure( attached file) I didn't intend. I think the reason is to read box information in the Amber trajectory file . How can I except the box information in MD movie window ?

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To color atoms
by Atsutoshi Okabe 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

Hi, I visualized one ligand molecule (a kind of sugar) written by PDB format within chimera. But all atoms have non color(attached file ) I want to color these atoms (i.e. the oxygen has red .) Could you please teach me how to color atoms?

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1.2304 production
by Eric Pettersen 23 Oct '06

23 Oct '06

We haven't received any major bug reports for the release candidate, so we have promoted it to a production release (1.2304) which includes a few quite minor bug fixes and some documentation improvements relative to the release candidate. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Movie - Display Spheres
by Jared Godar 20 Oct '06

20 Oct '06

Hello, I am trying to use the 'represent spheres' command to draw attention to specific residues in a model that is displayed as a ribbon. I would like to first show the ATP binding site of the molecule with magenta spheres, then show the three residuse which get phosphorolated. Currently, I am able to display one of these elements or the other as spheres, but not both at the same time. I've tried to use a single represent sphere command to specify all of the desired atoms, but can't seem to get the context right, represent sphere #0:426,431,432,ATP and represent sphere #0:426,431,432 & #0::ATP weren't working. Help on the syntax to simultaneously display the two commands listed below which are currently mutually exclusive would be appreciated. #SHOW ATP: color magenta #0::ATP; color magenta #0::mg; represent sphere #0::ATP #SHOW PO4 Residues show #0:426,431,432; color yellow #0:426; color orange red #0:431; color red #0:432; represent sphere #0:426,431,432 Thanks, Jared -- Jared A. Godar Graduate Student: Stewart Lab Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics 708 Light Hall 2215 Garland Ave. Nashville, TN 37232-0615 Work: 615.322.7898 Fax: 615.322.7236 jared.godar(a)vanderbilt.edu

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Dock?
by S Joshua Swamidass 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Hello, Are there any plans to develop a gui frontend for DOCK using chimera? Josh

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force fitting a protein into select volume in a EM reconstruction
by jayant_jacques 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

hi! Is it possible in chimera to choose a particular part of a EM envelope and a protein and fit them? AS the protein that I am trying to fit into the map finds a better fit else where in the EM envelope, after I painstakingly align it to the place where its supposed to be!!! Thanks Jayant Jayasundar Jayant James Postdoc, Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman 99164-6520, USA. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790

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release candidate
by Eric Pettersen 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

We've made a release candidate (version 1.2303) available for download. It has many new features relative to the previous production release (1.2199). The features/improvements are listed here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/relnotes/1.2303.html Please let us know if you encounter any problems with the release candidate. If no major problems surface in the next few days, we will promote the candidate to production release status. Enjoy! Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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viewing
by jayant_jacques 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

Hi! I thank chimera users for answering and helping me in fitting my protein into EM Map. I have a small problem. When I rotate the protein, portions of the map and protein come into view and dissappear. I am not able to figure out how to turn off this feature in chimera! I would be grateful if told how to turn off this feature. Thanks Jayant Jayasundar Jayant James Postdoc, Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman 99164-6520, USA. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790

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Re: [Chimera-users] About Chimera under Linux64
by Thomas Goddard 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

Hi Quentin, I suggest you use the 32-bit Linux Chimera version 1.2255. Or if you wait a few days a new 32-bit Linux Chimera version 1.2303 will be coming out. We do not regularly build a 64-bit Linux Chimera because we do not have a 64-bit Linux system in our lab. (I'll have to check on this -- maybe we have one now.) The only 64-bit version we routinely distribute is for the very obscure Tru64 operating system running on computers with Alpha processors. The current 64-bit Linux build (May 2005) is so old that it lacks many useful features for looking at EM maps. The reason we have not moved more quickly to support 64-bit distributions is because Chimera is strongly oriented towards interactive calculations -- that is calculations taking at most a few seconds. On gigabyte size data there is almost nothing that can be done in a few seconds. Still we understand that you may look at the data subsampled (using the volume dialog step size) and then want to create an image at full resolution (for example for a publication or talk) that may take many minutes to render and will need alot of memory -- not easily accomodated in a 32-bit address space. It is our plan to regularly distribute 64-bit Linux and Windows version in the future -- probably within a year. The main hold-up is that we do not have 64-bit machines setup in our lab yet. The usual method of working with large EM tomograms in Chimera is to focus on smaller regions of interest so that segmentation can be done interactively. Practical size chunks of data are 256^3. You can select these smaller regions in Chimera. For large pieces the graphics hardware is not able to render fast enough to allow smooth interactive rotation used in segmenting interactively. It is possible to display larger volumes and just display every other data plane along each axis. Tom > Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:11:12 +0200 > From: Quentin <derobill(a)mpi-cbg.de> > User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (X11/20060922) > To: goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Subject: About Chimera under Linux64 > > Dear Mr. Goddard, > > I have been setting up the EM tomography in the Max-Planck Institute for > Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Dresden (www.mpi-cbg.de Germany ) > since one year. We have a tecnai F30 dedicated for tomogram acquisition > and it runs after some efforts, with SerialEM/IMOD. I would like to > improve now the segmentation part of our work which is the bottleneck in > our fields. So I strive now to get a good set of software to segment and > visual our huge(600Mb to 6Gb) 3d electron density map (.mrc file format). > > Manfred Auer and Sergio Marco oriented me on your work, i.e. the volume > data display tools in Chimera. The first tests I did the last days, look > really promising. Your work is really helpful for the 3D Electron > Microscopy community. Thanks. > > I am just wondering why the compiled version for Linux64 of Chimera is > so old(May 17,2005). Is there some reason? Should I use a newer 32bit > version ? typically our dataset are 600Mb to 5Gb and we are running a > dual core Athlon 64 machine with soon 8Gb memory under Ubuntu64bit. > > Thanks for your attention, > > Best regards, > > Quentin de Robillard > > Pfottenhauerstr. 108 > 01307 Dresden > +49 351 210 20 61 >

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Re: [Chimera-users] fitting a protein inside an EM reconstruction
by Elaine Meng 12 Oct '06

12 Oct '06

Hi Jayant, Selecting something is not the same as making it movable. Selecting something makes Actions menu items apply to it. If you want to make different models movable/unmovable, use the "Active" checkboxes in the Model Panel (Favorites... Model Panel), or various "activate" functions in the right side of the Model Panel, or the small checkboxes under the Command Line (Favorites... Command Line). These activation methods determine which models can be moved with the mouse or with movement commands like "move" and "turn." As Tom said, however, the fitting tool requires atoms to be selected. Even if only a few atoms are selected, the fitting will move the entire model containing the atoms, but maximize the density values at the selected atoms. I hope this helps, Elaine On Oct 12, 2006, at 10:14 AM, jayant_jacques wrote: > > Hi! > I have been trying to fit a protein into an EM reconstruction. > > methodology > I display my protein of interest and EM map on the same window. > I select the protein and if I click fit. > > Problem > 1. Nothing happens!! If I move the protein the whole frame moves as a > whole. > 2. Also is it possible to click drag the protein into the envelope > and then give the fit command such that the program will take over the > fitting. As I have 3 proteins to fit into this EM Map. > > Thanks > Jayant > Jayasundar Jayant James > Postdoc, > Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology > and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman > 99164-6520, USA. > http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp > Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790 > > <1963059423(a)Middle5.gif> ----- 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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fitting a protein inside an EM reconstruction
by jayant_jacques 12 Oct '06

12 Oct '06

Hi! I have been trying to fit a protein into an EM reconstruction. methodology I display my protein of interest and EM map on the same window. I select the protein and if I click fit. Problem 1. Nothing happens!! If I move the protein the whole frame moves as a whole. 2. Also is it possible to click drag the protein into the envelope and then give the fit command such that the program will take over the fitting. As I have 3 proteins to fit into this EM Map. Thanks Jayant Jayasundar Jayant James Postdoc, Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman 99164-6520, USA. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790

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Fwd: single-sequence FASTA file does not open
by Lucas J. Thode 12 Oct '06

12 Oct '06

Oops, sorry about double-posting this, but I forgot to mention that I am not on the list, so remember to CC me. ----- Original Message ----- In Chimera beta 1 build 2199 on Windows XP Professional SP2, I cannot open a FASTA file that contains a single sequence. (The file in question is attached and looks to be a valid FASTA file according to the documentation I have read on the FASTA format.) What should I do about this issue? Error log: Opening F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta Error reading F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta: IOError: Only one sequence found in Aligned FASTA file 'F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta'; check your alignment file for errors (see reply log for Python traceback info) Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\__main__.py", line 59, in ? value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimeraInit.py", line 308, in init tkgui.eventLoop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 2757, in eventLoop app.mainloop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\Lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 965, in mainloop self.tk.mainloop(n) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\Lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1747, in __call__ return apply(self.func, args) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\baseDialog.py", line 229, in <lambda> self.__buttonFuncName(txt))() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\baseDialog.py", line 470, in OK self.Apply() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 160, in Apply openPath(path, ftype) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 258, in openPath mols = chimera.openModels.open(path, type=ftype) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\__init__.py", line 1086, in open models = func(filename, *args, **kw) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\ChimeraExtension.py", line 33, in <lambda> lambda fn, e=emo, ft=fileType: e.open(fn, ft), File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\ChimeraExtension.py", line 25, in open self.module('MAViewer').MAViewer(fileName, fileType) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\MAViewer.py", line 59, in __init__ seqs, fileAttrs, fileMarkups = self.readFile( File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\MAViewer.py", line 761, in readFile seqs, fileAttrs, fileMarkups = parseFile(fileName, fileType) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\parse.py", line 100, in parseFile raise IOError("Only one sequence found in %s file" IOError: Only one sequence found in Aligned FASTA file 'F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta'; check your alignment file for errors Done opening F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta

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single-sequence FASTA file does not open
by Lucas J. Thode 12 Oct '06

12 Oct '06

In Chimera beta 1 build 2199 on Windows XP Professional SP2, I cannot open a FASTA file that contains a single sequence. (The file in question is attached and looks to be a valid FASTA file according to the documentation I have read on the FASTA format.) What should I do about this issue? Error log: Opening F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta Error reading F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta: IOError: Only one sequence found in Aligned FASTA file 'F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta'; check your alignment file for errors (see reply log for Python traceback info) Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\__main__.py", line 59, in ? value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimeraInit.py", line 308, in init tkgui.eventLoop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 2757, in eventLoop app.mainloop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\Lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 965, in mainloop self.tk.mainloop(n) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\Lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1747, in __call__ return apply(self.func, args) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\baseDialog.py", line 229, in <lambda> self.__buttonFuncName(txt))() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\baseDialog.py", line 470, in OK self.Apply() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 160, in Apply openPath(path, ftype) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 258, in openPath mols = chimera.openModels.open(path, type=ftype) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\__init__.py", line 1086, in open models = func(filename, *args, **kw) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\ChimeraExtension.py", line 33, in <lambda> lambda fn, e=emo, ft=fileType: e.open(fn, ft), File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\ChimeraExtension.py", line 25, in open self.module('MAViewer').MAViewer(fileName, fileType) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\MAViewer.py", line 59, in __init__ seqs, fileAttrs, fileMarkups = self.readFile( File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\MAViewer.py", line 761, in readFile seqs, fileAttrs, fileMarkups = parseFile(fileName, fileType) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MultAlignViewer\parse.py", line 100, in parseFile raise IOError("Only one sequence found in %s file" IOError: Only one sequence found in Aligned FASTA file 'F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta'; check your alignment file for errors Done opening F:\H Biotech Engineering\cftr.fasta

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Vilualizing solvent distribution
by Atsutoshi Okabe 11 Oct '06

11 Oct '06

Dear all, I want to visualize solvent(water) distributions around one solute molecule. I do molecular dynamics calculation with Amber8 program. So I got the following ouput file using grid command of Ptraj module to analyze trajectories. This line is ignored 1 rdparm generated grid density 100 -49 50 100 -49 50 100 -49 50 30.000 30.000 30.000 90.000 90.000 90.000 ZYX -49 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 I think the output is in the format of a XPLOR formatted contour file and can visualize this output data within chimera soft ware. But I don't know how to treat this out put file in chimera . Can I use this file directory in chimera or have to do anything else before I use chimera? Thanks Atsutoshi

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Request: can model selection be added to the pull down selection menu?
by Boaz Shaanan 10 Oct '06

10 Oct '06

Hi, I wonder if you could consider adding the option of selecting models to the pull-down selection menu. Right now, only chains (and other things) can be selected but quite often, when reading different models with the same chain names, the only way to select specific chains from a model would be by using the command line where models can be specified. This works of course, but having the model-selection option in the pull-down menu might add flexibility. What do you think ? Regards, Boaz Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D. Associate Professor Dept. of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel‎

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Re: [Chimera-users] window size
by Viktor Hornak 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

Hi Elaine, this is exactly what I needed. Also, thanks for a pointer to experimental features page (it's nice!). One other vaguely related question I had was whether it's possible to find out what chimera commands correspond to actions picked from menus or panels (e.g. Actions->Atoms/Bonds->Hide; Camera -> orthographic from Viewing/Side View panel, etc.). My objective is to capture everything I do in a specific session in chimera command scripts, which have an advantage over saving the session in that 1) I see what I did directly in the script, 2) these scripts are much smaller than session files. Thanks for your help! -Viktor Elaine Meng wrote: > Hi Viktor, > From our experimental features page > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/experimental.html > > you can download a "set magnification and window size" feature that > includes a "windowsize" command. > > A related feature (unfortunately broken in past releases, but will be > available in the next release) is the --geometry startup option. We > plan to make a release this month. The --geometry option is not quite > as straightforward as the windowsize command, because depending on the > system, the specified size might include some of the bars around the > graphics window. However, that just means you need to try it once, > use the "get pixels" button on the image-saving panel (File... Save > Image) to determine the actual graphics window dimensions, and at the > next startup use --geometry with the necessary additions or > subtractions to achieve the target size. That's what I've been doing. > > Startup options are described here: > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/options.html > > However, if you are on a Windows system, it is not very convenient to > use startup options (one way is to make a separate Chimera shortcut > and modify its properties). If you are on Windows, getting the > "windowsize" command from the experimental features page may be the > way to go. > > I hope this helps, > Elaine > > On Oct 6, 2006, at 5:43 AM, Viktor Hornak wrote: > >> Dear All, >> >> I was wondering if there's chimera command that sets the size of chimera >> window. Basically I just want to have a well defined window size when I >> save pictures (or movies)... >> >> Thanks, >> -Viktor >> >> -- >> Viktor Hornak >> SUNY at Stony Brook >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Chimera-users mailing list >> Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users >> > ----- > 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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fitting a protein inside an EM reconstruction
by jayant_jacques 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

hi! I am having a small problem in fitting crystal structures into the EM reconstruction. Problem definition When I open the protein that I am trying to fit into the EM map along side the EM map, the Em Map shrinks. The EM map which is the super set, which holds 3 proteins appears shrunk with respect to the protein that I am trying to fit inside the EM Map and the crystal structure How am I to overcome this hurdle? thanks Jayant Jayasundar Jayant James Postdoc, Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman 99164-6520, USA. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790

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window size
by Viktor Hornak 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

Dear All, I was wondering if there's chimera command that sets the size of chimera window. Basically I just want to have a well defined window size when I save pictures (or movies)... Thanks, -Viktor -- Viktor Hornak SUNY at Stony Brook

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OpenGL error in GfxInfo::initialize 'out of memory'
by Dmitry Osolodkin 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

Hello all, I have a very small but annoying problem. I had two versions of libGL.so.1, so I have renamed the version in /usr/X11R6/lib/. Now I can run Chimera, but it works rather slow and says OpenGL error in GfxInfo::initialize 'out of memory'. I use Mandriva Linux 2006 and FireGL drivers by ATI. Could anone help me? Thanks. Dmitry Osolodkin

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera-users Digest, Vol 42, Issue 2
by Jonathan Hilmer 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

Pu Qian, Although resources-intensive, I find it useful to have multiple, identical, overlapping copies of the same density set. It allows complex 'removal' of sections in the final image by the combination of multiple clipping planes. For example, the three planes with definitions of [1,0,0], [0,1,0], and [0,0,1] all with an origin at the center of your data will cut away 1/8 of a spherical region, if you have three copies of the density loaded. This also makes it easy to animate the cutout. The alternative is to use the volume eraser (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/voleraser/volerase…) which works, but I've found it less useful for movies. When working with large data sets and this method, use cropped density sets to minimize unnecessary resource usage. Jonathan > > To whom it may concern, > > > > I'm a new user of Chimera. It is a very good software! > > > > Here, I would like to ask you a few questions? To show inside of > > protein > > (3d model),I need to cut it into half (sometime, maybe only part, > > for example, > > 1/4 etc.). Just like an apple, if I want to show its core, I need > > to cut the > > apple into two parts from its middle. Does Chimera has such > > function? (I think > > it has.) My 3d data comes from electron microscopy single particle > > analysis > > using IMAGIC5. Dose Chimera accept 3d data from IMAGIC5? If so, > > which type of > > 3d data I should produce for Chimera? It would be a great > > appreciated if you > > could reply me in your convenience. Hope it will not bother you too > > much. > > > > Sincerely yours, > > > > > > Pu Qian > > > > Dr. Pu Qian > > Department of Molecular Biology > > The University of Sheffield > > Firth Court, Western Bank > > Sheffield, S10 2TN > > UK

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Spider to Brix
by Batsal Devkota 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

Hi, When I convert spider file to brix and load both of them in Chimera, they do not superimpose on top of each other. I adjusted the origin to be 0,0,0 for both the maps and still the maps seem to be rotated with respect to one another. any insight?? Thank you, Batsal. -------------------------------------------------- Batsal Devkota Graduate Student, School of Biology GeorgiaInstitute ofTechnology Atlanta, GA 30332-0400

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volumetric filling
by jayant_jacques 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

hi! I am striving to perform voluertric filling of a crystal structure into an EM reconstruction. I have down loaded and complited the Linux_64 bit version. I first load my crystal structure and then the EM reconstruction on the same screen and set the EM reconstruction as DATa. I am not able to figure out where the FIT buttons is located in the pop up menus!!! I would be very grateful if you could help me sort out this issue! Thanks Jayant NB I am using the online manual to help me in this endeavour http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/fitmodels/fitmodel… Jayasundar Jayant James Postdoc, Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology(VCAPP), Washington state university, Pullman 99164-6520, USA. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp Phone office:335-5937, Cell:1-509-432-5790

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Slicing a 3d model
by Thomas Goddard 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

Hi Pu Qian, Use clip planes to cut a model in half in Chimera. There are two types of clip planes. The front and back clip planes are always parallel to the screen. The per-model clip planes can be oriented at any angle. Both can clip away the back as well as the front. The following web page describes how to use both for EM density maps. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#slab Clipping works on all types of data in Chimera including atomic models of proteins. For EM data it helps to have Chimera cover the holes left when a contour surface is clipped. This is described here. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#capping Also you can color according to density on the sliced surface. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#colorc… All of these URLs come from the Chimera guide to volume display http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html and you may find other useful features for viewing your EM map there. The following page shows examples of clipping, capping and coloring including a movie of a slab moving through an EM map of a virus particle. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/viper_em/viper_em.html Chimera reads many density map file formats (CCP4, MRC, SPIDER, O, XPLOR, Purdue image format, ...) http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/filetypes.html#volume I do not know if IMAGIC5 uses any of these formats or has its own. Chimera does not read any specific IMAGIC5 format. Tom > From: P Qian <P.Qian(a)sheffield.ac.uk> > Date: October 4, 2006 1:43:50 PM PDT > Subject: Sheffield Qian, how to make cut 3d model > > > > To whom it may concern, > > I'm a new user of Chimera. It is a very good software! > > Here, I would like to ask you a few questions? To show inside of > protein > (3d model),I need to cut it into half (sometime, maybe only part, > for example, > 1/4 etc.). Just like an apple, if I want to show its core, I need > to cut the > apple into two parts from its middle. Does Chimera has such > function? (I think > it has.) My 3d data comes from electron microscopy single particle > analysis > using IMAGIC5. Dose Chimera accept 3d data from IMAGIC5? If so, > which type of > 3d data I should produce for Chimera? It would be a great > appreciated if you > could reply me in your convenience. Hope it will not bother you too > much. > > Sincerely yours, > > > Pu Qian > > Dr. Pu Qian > Department of Molecular Biology > The University of Sheffield > Firth Court, Western Bank > Sheffield, S10 2TN > UK >

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Re: [Chimera-users] Merge PDB Question
by Jonathan Hilmer 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

On the issue of using Chimera to write PDB files, would it be possible to change the format of the PDB output Chimera generates? I'm not too well-versed in the details of the pdb file format, but I ran into issues using Chimera-generated structures with a Blender plugin that used BioPython to handle parsing the files. Although I can't remember the details off the top of my head, it involved the use of multiple 'END' statements to separate models (in Chimera-generated files). It was easy enough to write a script to substitute 'MODEL', 'ENDMDL' pairs, but I'm sure it would be better implemented in whatever library handles the file IO in Chimera. Jonathan > Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:38:00 -0700 > From: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Merge PDB Question > To: "Jared Godar" <jared.godar(a)vanderbilt.edu> > Cc: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Message-ID: <4F99156D-A681-4EFB-AC6C-5A0C57D029E0(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi Jared, > Currently you cannot bond different models, and the only way to > "merge" is to put the atoms in the same file before opening it. > There are actually other reasons your command wouldn't work: > > - seems to me that there is no model 1, only 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, > so the first part would specify zero atoms > - the ampersand & stands for intersection (logical AND, not english > and) and should be omitted, e.g. > command: bond #1.1:504.b@c #1.1:505.b@n > > What I've done in the past to handle similar cases (splicing stuff > from an NMR structure onto a Xray structure) is to first put the tail > (with a few extra residues to overlap with residues that are already > present) into a file by itself. Then I open that new file, so it > will be a new, separate model. I then match that model onto the > original model using atoms in the overlapping part. Then, write out > another PDB file of the tail relative to the untransformed original > model. Using text-editing, remove the part that overlaps since it > was just there for positioning purposes. FINALLY (text-editing > again) make another PDB file that combines the new tail with the > original protein. They may need to have the same chain ID as well. > Sorry this is such a long process. If you think you can hand- > position the tail sufficiently well you could skip the parts about > having the extra atoms, using them for matching, and deleting them. > > If you remove any intervening TER, the bond will already be there > when you open the new file. > > I hope this helps, > Elaine

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Re: [Chimera-users] [chimera-dev] chimera help
by Eric Pettersen 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

If you have a large number of PDBs then you might want to use Python, where you have access to loops and variables. Say you had the PDBs listed in a file, one per line, named "mypdbs". Then you might use a Python script like this: -------------------------------------- import chimera from chimera import runCommand f = open("mypdbs", "r") for line in f: pdbID = line.strip() runCommand("open " + pdbID) runCommand("scale 1.5; ~disp; ribbon; ribrepr smooth; rainbow") runCommand("copy file %s.png png supersample 5" % pdbID) runCommand("close all") -------------------------------------- Note that the "runCommand" function allows you to do things that you know the Chimera command for without knowing what the Python equivalent is. Assuming you name the script file with a ".py" ending so that Chimera can recognize it as Python, then you can run the script with any of the ways that Chimera opens files (File...Open dialog, "open" command, startup shell command argument). Also, Chimera needs the graphics window to be showing and not obscured by other windows in order to render the images. If you are doing a lot of images you may have to turn off your screen saver so that it doesn't hide the Chimera window. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu On Sep 28, 2006, at 9:14 AM, Elaine Meng wrote: > Hi Vishal, > Actually you can do this with a Chimera command script, as opposed > to programming in Python. A command script just contains the same > commands you would enter in the Command Line. I'm not sure of what > type of saving you had in mind, " but the "copy" command can be > used to save an image file, "save" to save a session, and "write" > to save a PDB file. > > This page links to all the command man pages, plus it discusses > command scripts (at the bottom): > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2199/docs/UsersGuide/ > framecommand.html > > Just opening the command file will execute the commands. > Here are links to a couple of example command files: > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2199/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/ > setup.com > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/recorder/ > 1gfl.com > > And here is another, between the dashed lines: > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > open 1hxx > open 1pho > modelcolor coral #0 > modelcolor cornflower blue #1 > ~disp; rep bs; ribbon; ribrepr smooth > matchmaker #0 #1 > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > I guess the main difficulty if you are saving images is how to get > a good view of the structures. Usually some rotation, scaling, etc. > is done interactively to make a better picture. > I hope this helps, > Elaine > > > On Sep 27, 2006, at 7:29 PM, Vishal Pua wrote: > >> Hi, I was wondering if there was a way to create a script, that >> would open pdb files, render them to look a certain way ex. wire >> or ribbon, then save, automatically? this would have to work for a >> number of pdb files? I have little programming experience, and >> wonder if there was an easy way to do this, thanks >> >> Vishal Pua >> _______________________________________________ >> Chimera-dev mailing list >> Chimera-dev(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev > > ----- > 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 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-dev mailing list > Chimera-dev(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev _______________________________________________ Chimera-dev mailing list Chimera-dev(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev

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Merge PDB Question
by Jared Godar 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

I have an incomplete pdb crystal structure of a homohexameric protein containing six ~25AA tails. In the incomplete model, two of these six tails are complete (A and F) and the other four are truncated at various positions (B,C,D, and E). I have used the either the A or F complete tails as templates and generated appropriate length segments to compleate each of the truncated B-E tails by selecting the appropriate residues and saving the selected atoms as a new PDB. Currently, I have all six tails completed and saved as a single PDB. I would like to use the Bond command to covalently link the extended chains, but my single PDB is segregated into models 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5. When I use the Bond command as follows "bond #1: 504.b@c & #1.3:505.a@n", I get an error that only one atom is selected. Does Chimera consider #1 and #1.1 to be different models? If so, how can I merge these 5 models into one to allow me to create the bond? Thanks, Jared -- Jared A. Godar Graduate Student: Stewart Lab Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics 708 Light Hall 2215 Garland Ave. Nashville, TN 37232-0615 Work: 615.322.7898 Fax: 615.322.7236 jared.godar(a)vanderbilt.edu

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Re: [Chimera-users] [chimera-dev] chimera help
by Elaine Meng 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Hi Vishal, Actually you can do this with a Chimera command script, as opposed to programming in Python. A command script just contains the same commands you would enter in the Command Line. I'm not sure of what type of saving you had in mind, " but the "copy" command can be used to save an image file, "save" to save a session, and "write" to save a PDB file. This page links to all the command man pages, plus it discusses command scripts (at the bottom): http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2199/docs/UsersGuide/framecommand.html Just opening the command file will execute the commands. Here are links to a couple of example command files: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2199/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/ setup.com http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/recorder/ 1gfl.com And here is another, between the dashed lines: ----------------------------------------------------------------- open 1hxx open 1pho modelcolor coral #0 modelcolor cornflower blue #1 ~disp; rep bs; ribbon; ribrepr smooth matchmaker #0 #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- I guess the main difficulty if you are saving images is how to get a good view of the structures. Usually some rotation, scaling, etc. is done interactively to make a better picture. I hope this helps, Elaine On Sep 27, 2006, at 7:29 PM, Vishal Pua wrote: > Hi, I was wondering if there was a way to create a script, that > would open pdb files, render them to look a certain way ex. wire or > ribbon, then save, automatically? this would have to work for a > number of pdb files? I have little programming experience, and > wonder if there was an easy way to do this, thanks > > Vishal Pua > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-dev mailing list > Chimera-dev(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev ----- 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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how to get nonbonded distance and torsion angle list
by Prem Prakash Pathak 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Hi! I am using the chimera for the visualizing protien form *.pdb file. I wanted to get the nonbonded distance , *.upl file and angle constraint files. Would you please help me in solving the problem. PremPrakash

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"longbond" in scripts
by Eric Pettersen 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

We've made some improvements to the "longbond" command (breaks non- physical bonds that show missing structure segments) which are not backward compatible with the previous version. We are wondering if anyone makes any significant use of the longbond command in scripts. If you do, we would consider making a new command with the improved behavior and leaving the longbond command unchanged for backwards compatibility. So speak up if this affects you. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Connolly surface and Triangulation
by Nihshanka Debroy 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

Hi, Not sure if this went the first time, so sending it again: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been using Chimera to generate the Connolly surface for several different proteins and saving the surface information in X3D format. I was wondering what algorithms are used in the Connolly surface generation. Is it the same approach that Michael Connolly had come up with in his 1983 paper on Analytical Molecular Surface Calculation, or is it a variation of that algorithm? Also, when the surface information is saved by Chimera in X3D, it breaks the surface into triangular faces. I noticed that the coordinates of the points comprising the triangles are completely different from the atomic coordinates. I am interested in learning more about how the triangulation is created. If you could direct me to a link or paper that would help me better understand the algorithms involved in these two processes, that would be great! Thanks. Sincerely, Nihshanka

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chimera ubuntu/debian package?
by Javier Díez 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

Hy: Is there a chimera version for ubuntu or debian? I would like to add the url to my sources.list if it exits. Thank you any way. Javi

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Re: [Chimera-users] Map Oddities
by Thomas Goddard 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Hi Albion, When you are running Chimera and it opens a Python code file with suffix .py and there is an older byte compiled version of the same file with suffix .pyc then Python automatically recompiles the .py file and you should see that the date on the .pyc file is updated. You never need to compile Python files by hand. Here are 3 ideas about how to make some programs that read MRC maps establish equivalent map positions. As I mentioned in my previous email some programs may fail with certain maps to associate the x,y,z axes with the correct data axes. And some may ignore all header info about positioning. So there are alot of different cases. I'm only going to make suggestions for the simple problems. One idea is to have Chimera print out the difference between the origin that a crystallography program would use versus the MRC 2000 origin. You could insert a little code in the Chimera mrc_format.py file to print this difference for MRC 2000 files. Specifically after the line self.data_origin = (v['xorigin'], v['yorigin'], v['zorigin']) add lines # Print difference between crystal and mrc 2000 origins ncs_nrs_nss = v['ncstart'], v['nrstart'], v['nsstart'] nxs, nys, nzs = ncs_nrs_nss[xa], ncs_nrs_nss[ya], ncs_nrs_nss[za] from VolumeData.griddata import scale_and_skew x0,y0,z0 = scale_and_skew((nxs,nys,nzs), self.data_step, self.cell_angles) print 'Origin difference ', self.name, '=', print x0 - v['xorigin'], y0 - v['yorigin'], z0 - v['zorigin'] The origin difference will be printed to the Chimera reply log and you can somehow apply it in other programs. A second idea is to try to modify the MRC 2000 map header so that the crystal origin is the same as the xorigin, yorigin, zorigin header values. This is generally not possible since the former uses integers while the latter uses float values. But if you don't care where the origin is as long as all programs agree, you might adjust xorigin, yorigin and zorigin to match the crystal origin. You would need some simple program to modify the map header. A third approach is to modify Chimera mrc_format.py so it never uses the MRC 2000 xorigin, yorigin, zorigin. If Chimera always uses the crystal origin that would probably more often agree with other software packages. I would recommend against this approach. You will later install a new version of Chimera without the modification and your fit PDB models will no longer align with their maps and you will probably forget why and scream. Tom > From: Albion Baucom <baucom(a)msg.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Map Oddities > Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 17:12:51 -0700 > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > > Hi Tom, > Im going to take this off list since my inquiries get more specific > now, but you are welcome to post this back to list if you think it is > within the scope of the Chimera Users list. > > So, you were right. There is indeed a X, Y and Z origin field in the > map header. Thanks for pointing that out and giving me the code to > print those values to the reply log. > > A quick question regarding my modification to the mrc_format.py. I > don't know Python very well yet, and am wondering what happens when I > modified the source code. The modifications worked of course, but > Chimera did not recompile the code into a .pyc file. When are > the .pyc files accessed? > > OK, back to the original question :) > > So, offhand, could you suggest a fix for me so that other programs > that use the "other" origin can interpret the data the same as > Chimera? Naturally what is going to have to happen is I will have to > translate the PDB file a set distance based on the discrepancy > between the origin conventions. I would like to do this translation > as accurately as possible. > > What I noticed from an empirical re-docking of the PDB file into the > density in another program was it had to be moved approximately ~116A > in all 3 axes. This appears to be close to the following calculation > (for the x axis in this case) > > ( | xorg | - xlen) + (xlen/2) > > where xorg (-224) is the MRC2000 origin, and xlen (213.423) is the > xtal origin. In this case this comes out to be > > (224.000 - 213.423) + (xlen/2) = 117.289 > > Applying this to the model as a translation in all 3 axes looks > almost exactly like what I see in Chimera. > > Does this make any sense? This is all I could come up with that gave > an answer close to my empirical docking translation numbers. > > Thanks Tom. I really appreciate your help. > > Albion

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Map Oddities
by Albion Baucom 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Hi, I am trying to work out how maps are handled in various graphics programs so I can easily move between programs and expect to see the same thing in each session. Unfortunately at the moment that isn't working so well, and I would like to resolve this issue. Basically I have a situation where I have a PDB model and a CCP4 format EM density map in Chimera that are docked. When I open the exact same map and model in other programs such as O or Pymol, the map and the model are no longer in agreement. What I have noticed is that if I draw the unit cell for the map (P1 symmetry since this is an EM reconstruction), in Chimera, the model and map live in the center of the unit cell and are docked. If I draw the unit cell for O or Pymol, the map lives at the origin of the unit cell, at (0,0,0), which is in the corner, and model is outside of the unit cell offset by what appears to be some arbitrary translation (I have tried using half the unit cell dimensions as a translation, but that unfortunately gets me _very_ close to being correctly docked in the map, but off by some 10A). It appears Chimera is handling the map and model differently than the other packages and I am trying to get an idea of what happens when this map is loaded. I am including a listing of the map header from MAPMAN below. Thanks! Albion Grid = 96 96 96 Origin = -48 -48 -48 Extent = 96 96 96 Cell = 213.423 213.423 213.423 90.000 90.000 90.000 UVW = 1 2 3 Spcgrp = 1 Nr of points = 884736 Density min = -6.915E-01 Max = 2.397E+00 Average = 7.247E-11 Sigma = 2.290E-01 Variance = 5.243E-02 Mappage Prod= 8.257E+01 Plus = 57 Dyn. range = -6.903E-01 To = 2.398E+00 Cell vol. = 9.721E+06 Voxel vol. = 1.099E+01 Grid vol. = 9.721E+06 %Cell vol. = 100.00 Origin frac = -0.50000 -0.50000 -0.50000 Origin Cart = -106.712 -106.712 -106.712 Top frac = 0.48958 0.48958 0.48958 Top Cart = 104.488 104.488 104.488 Spacing = 2.223 2.223 2.223 Top = 47 47 47 Changes = F

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Movement Mouse Mode Extension
by Jared Godar 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

I have installed the Movement Mouse Mode Extension, but I get the following error whenever I try to select anything other than the 'Normal' movement mode on the drop-down menu. ImportError: cannot import name functionCallables (see reply log for Python traceback info) Any insight on how I can get this feature to work for me? Thanks, Jared (Log info below) Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\__main__.py", line 59, in ? value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimeraInit.py", line 308, in init tkgui.eventLoop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\chimera\tkgui.py", line 2757, in eventLoop app.mainloop() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 965, in mainloop self.tk.mainloop(n) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1747, in __call__ return apply(self.func, args) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\CGLtk\Hybrid.py", line 170, in <lambda> set_variable_cb = lambda v=self.variable, n=name: v.set(n) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\CGLtk\Hybrid.py", line 780, in set self.tk_variable.set(value) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 191, in set return self._tk.globalsetvar(self._name, value) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1751, in __call__ _reporterror(self.func, args) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1814, in _reporterror displayerror(msg) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1377, in displayerror _errorReportFile.write(text + '\n') File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\bin\lib\site-packages\Pmw\Pmw_1_2\lib\PmwBase.py", line 1747, in __call__ return apply(self.func, args) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\CGLtk\Hybrid.py", line 832, in cb callback() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\CGLtk\Hybrid.py", line 800, in tk_variable_changed_cb cb() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MoveSelection\gui.py", line 64, in mode_changed_cb move.set_mouse_mode(mmap[self.mode.get()]) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MoveSelection\move.py", line 569, in set_mouse_mode m = mover(create = True) File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MoveSelection\move.py", line 598, in mover the_mover = Selection_Mover() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MoveSelection\move.py", line 36, in __init__ self.original_move_callbacks = self.wrap_mouse_modes() File "C:\Program Files\Chimera\share\MoveSelection\move.py", line 42, in wrap_mouse_modes from chimera.mousemodes import addFunction, functionCallables ImportError: cannot import name functionCallables -- Jared A. Godar Graduate Student: Stewart Lab Vanderbilt University Medical Center Molecular Physiology & Biophysics Dept. Light Hall 708 Work: 615.322.7898 Fax: 615.322.7236

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Connolly surface and Triangulation
by Nihshanka Debroy 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Hi, I have been using Chimera to generate the Connolly surface for several different proteins and saving the surface information in X3D format. I was wondering what algorithms are used in the Connolly surface generation. Is it the same approach that Michael Connolly had come up with in his 1983 paper on Analytical Molecular Surface Calculation, or is it a variation of his algorithm? Also, when the surface information is saved by Chimera, it breaks the surface into triangular faces. I noticed that the coordinates of the points comprising the triangles are completely different from the atomic coordinates. I am interested in learning more about how Chimera creates the triangulation. If you could direct me to a link or paper that would help me better understand the algorithms involved in these two processes, that would be great! Thanks, Nihshanka

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AMBER netCDF trajectory
by Mingfeng Yang 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

Dear Chimera developers, The latest release of AMBER supports netCDF format trajectory. Is there any plan for Chimera to support AMBER's new format? Best, Mingfeng

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Chimera secondary-school use
by Thomas Goddard 19 Sep '06

19 Sep '06

Follow up on "[Chimera-users] first time use of chimera". ------------------ From: "Rich Kaufman" <richkaufmanpv(a)hotmail.com> To: goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: Chimera, afterthought Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:38:26 -0500 Dear Tom, Just to mention a few more details, I am trying to use electron density maps we generated in the lab using a Spider processing of cryo-EM photos .I will be downloading PDB's from the RCSB to dock with these. After properly hand docking the PDB, I will then load the density map and the hand-aligned PDB into a Normal Mode Flexible Fitting package ( NMFF ) for fine-tuning of the fit, to give a higher resolution picture of the electron density map. I've been working on this project for about three months. I had never heard of any of these things prior to that. It's been an amazing learning curve for me....quite interesting. Sincerely, Rich Kaufman, ( background....mainly physics; teacher of high school chemistry and physics ) P.S. One goal of this project is to enable me to use these techniques at the secondary education level. I don't know if that's doable....suggestions welcomed. --------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:00:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> To: richkaufmanpv(a)hotmail.com Subject: Re: Chimera, afterthought Hi Rich, Oh! I sent my previous email before I read this one about what you are actually doing. You're doing some fancy stuff. If you hand-align a PDB model in the SPIDER map you can then do a local position optimization within Chimera using menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Fit Models in Maps This moves the model using a rigid rotation and translation to maximize the map values at selected atom positions. Here's a page describing how to use it: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#fitmod… The bottom of the following tutorial also gives step by step instructions for placing a PDB model in a map: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Workshops/UCSF-Fall-2005/07-VolumeData/tut… In fact, most of the tutorials on the following page do this kind of fitting: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/tutorials.html The normal mode fitting you will do is fancier, allowing the model to deform to fit into the map. The following page explains alot of the Chimera features for working with density maps. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html The myosin animation on the following web page shows fitting a model into a map: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/animations/animations.html Finally, here are some databases that show some cryo-EM maps of viruses and other systems. http://viperdb.scripps.edu/tnumlist.php?N=all http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd-srv/emsearch/AccEMServ?criterion=Retrieve+All&valu… I'm sure this is more than you wanted to know! Tom

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visualizing a confocal image stack
by William Beaver 19 Sep '06

19 Sep '06

Hello. I have a stack of intensity images (8bit) taken from confocal microscopy of dapi expression in Drosophila that I'd like to visualize. I cannot figure out the format that the volume viewer requires to view the data; more specifically, none of the formats in 'registered file types' are familiar to me and I've been unable to find anything about them to sort out which format I should convert to. I have read the image sequences into matlab (3d matrix) and can write output to just about anything from there if I know the format. Does anyone have an idea for what the best/easiest/only format I should use? A pointer to a spec on the format if it's not something trivial (like matlab 'save stack.txt varname -ascii') would be appreciated. If it makes a difference, at some point soon I'd like to visualize more channels that just dapi (dll, for example) simultaneously. Thanks in advance. I really do appreciate it! -William ------------ William Beaver wbeaver(a)cs.ucsd.edu

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Re: [Chimera-users] Movie Question: EM Densities about robbon structures
by Thomas Goddard 18 Sep '06

18 Sep '06

Hi Jared, If you use Chimera commands that specify how many frames to rotate, shift, scale, fade over, ... then it does not matter how fast or slow your machine is. Each frame is recorded only after it is drawn, and none will be skipped. Only when you move a model by hand with the mouse will it matter how fast the machine is. Here are some problems with smooth transitions I have observed. Fading out a PDB model in stick mode produced all kinds of weird flickering of the bonds. This I believe is a bug in Chimera transparency of bonds and I plan on submitting a bug report for that. Smoothly changing the contour level does not produce a very smooth change in surface appearance. Little spots pop up or disappear at discrete contour levels. This is because the contouring algorithm (marching cubes) changes the surface triangulation in discrete ways when the contour level passes through a grid point data value. I don't know of any remedy although using surface smoothing (volume dialog under surface and mesh options) may help. Let me know what problems you encounter. I am interested in improving the Chimera movie capabilities. Tom > Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:11:39 -0500 > From: "Jared Godar" <jared.godar(a)vanderbilt.edu> > Sender: jared.godar(a)gmail.com > To: "Thomas Goddard" <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Movie Question: EM Densities about robbon structures > > I did, thank you much... I have successfully installed the additional > extensions and am attempting to incorporate them into a .CMD script for my > movie. So far that is going fairly smoothly, with the exception of frames > involving fading in/out of structures are taking significantly longer than > others resulting in a jumpy movie. I'm going to attempt to try it on a > fastest machine and see if that helps. > > The independent rotation is working, the fade in/out of specific models is > good, and I'm going to try the contour transition next. > > Thanks again, > > Jared

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first time use of chimera
by Rich Kaufman 18 Sep '06

18 Sep '06

9/18 To whom it may concern: I would like an abbreviated guide to loading a pdb and an electron density map into chimera for comparison and hand docking. I have only worked with visualization software for a few months and still, frequently, can't do what I want with it. Chimera was suggested as the easiest or perhaps only software to do what I need to do. Currently, I only have only got VMD downloaded, but can install chimera if its worthwhile. Sincerely, Rich Kaufman, U.KS. biochem. dept, Kansas City, Ks.

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Movie Question
by Jared Godar 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Hello there, I have a few technical questions about a movie I am trying to make with chimera. I have PDB files for three predicted structural elements of a larger protein whose structure my lab is resolving through cryo EM. I've converted these PDB files to MRC's of the desired resolution we are trying to obtain with the reconstruction. In an effort to produce animation which highlights structural elements of these three subdomains, I have encountered a couple difficulties translation the movie I envision through Chimera. I would like to start with the three subunits spaced across the X axis and rotating about the central y axis of each subunit. Then, one at a time, have a single unit grow and translate to the center, then while the other two subunits fade away, then return to it's original position. I've been able to script this type of motion for each of the individual subunits, but I hit a problem when I try to incorporate all three. - Is there a way to have multiple proteins roll about their own respective y axis instead of orbiting about the central y axis of the scene? - Is there a way to selectively show / hide (fade over specified number of frames) PDB's or MRC's like you can show / hide / fade text? Thank you in advance for your help. -Jared -- Jared A. Godar Graduate Student: Stewart Lab Vanderbilt University Medical Center Molecular Physiology & Biophysics Dept. Light Hall 708 Work: 615.322.7898 Fax: 615.322.7236

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Movie Question: EM Densities about robbon structures
by Jared Godar 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Hello there, I have a few technical questions about a movie I am trying to make with chimera. I have PDB files for three predicted structural elements of a larger protein whose structure my lab is resolving through cryo EM. I've converted these PDB files to MRC's of the desired resolution we are trying to obtain with the reconstruction. In an effort to produce animation which highlights structural elements of these three subdomains, I have encountered a couple difficulties translation the movie I envision through Chimera. I would like to start with the three subunits spaced across the X axis and rotating about the central y axis of each subunit. Then, one at a time, have a single unit grow and translate to the center, then while the other two subunits fade away, then return to it's original position. I've been able to script this type of motion for each of the individual subunits, but I hit a problem when I try to incorporate all three. - Is there a way to have multiple proteins roll about their own respective y axis instead of orbiting about the central y axis of the scene? - Is there a way to selectively show / hide (fade over specified number of frames) PDB's or MRC's like you can show / hide / fade text? Thank you in advance for your help. -Jared -- Jared A. Godar Graduate Student: Stewart Lab Vanderbilt University Medical Center Molecular Physiology & Biophysics Dept. Light Hall 708 Work: 615.322.7898 Fax: 615.322.7236

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Dual monitor display
by John Hatten Jr. 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Hi all. I'm a bit of a chimera newbie. I've been using DOCK for a while, and chimera has turned into a natural choice for combing through the results. I've noticed that chimera quits when I try to run it in dual display with XP. I get an error message that there is a driver conflict. Is there a way to fix this? I would love to have my display window on one screen and the tool windows on the other. Thanks for the wonderful software, its a great tool. Sincerely, John Hatten jahatten(a)duke.edu

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16,000 molecules slow
by Thomas Goddard 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Email exchange with Brittany Morgan about slow ball and stick display when displaying 16000 molecules. ---- From: "Brittany Morgan" <brmorgan(a)clarku.edu> To: "'Thomas Goddard'" <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Subject: RE: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:52:39 -0400 I am working with molecules, and it has problems redrawing them in ball-and-stick representation, although I expect that at larger system sizes other functions will start slowing down as well. If I look at the memory usage while it is redrawing them, Chimera seems to be using only about 1/4 of the available memory, but creating a paging file nonetheless. It will work, it just takes about 15 minutes to redraw about 64,000 atoms, and I need to go to system sizes much larger. If I need more memory, that is possible, I just wasn't sure if that was the issue because it didn't appear that Chimera was using all of the available memory. I am using Chimera in a non-standard way (I'm not displaying proteins, but rather many small (unrealistic) molecule-type objects). Thank you for your help! Brittany ----- From: Thomas Goddard [mailto:goddard@cgl.ucsf.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:22 PM To: brmorgan(a)clarku.edu Cc: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation Hi Brittany, Thanks for the detailed information. I do not think memory is the problem. Display of 58,000 atoms (pdb 1uf2) in ball and stick took 10 seconds on my 4 year old laptop. That is the time to make the intial drawing. Then it update at about 2 frames per second when rotating the model on this rather old machine. Your problem is likely caused by one of two issues. First, if your "molecule-type objects" contain many (tens or hundreds) small rings within a residue then Chimera will bog down trying to compute the chemical atom types (aromaticity...). This is a problem we have recently analyzed when using Chimera with molecules that do not have reasonable chemical structure. We plan on fixing this problem by being able to tag molecules in Chimera as "non-chemical". But we do not have a version of Chimera available with that feature yet. So currently the only solution is to modify your non-molecule model using multiple residues to avoid having many rings in a single residue. The ring computation is not done in wire display style but is invoked when switching to ball and stick style because atom radii are needed and are based on the chemical types. The second possible problem is that you are not using hardware accelerated 3D graphics. On Linux systems you usually need to install a graphics driver to get hardware acceleration. Windows and Mac systems usually already have the appropriate driver. Rendering computations can be 100 times slower if it is done in software instead of by the graphics chip. Ball and stick display style is much more time consuming to render than wire frame. If you are able to rotate the 64,000 atom ball and stick model after it is first displayed (15 minutes) and it updates reasonably fast (> 1 frame per second) then you have hardware acceleration and this is not the problem. Tom ----- From: "Brittany Morgan" <brmorgan(a)clarku.edu> To: "'Thomas Goddard'" <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Subject: RE: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:34:09 -0400 Hi Tom, I can rotate it after it is first displayed with no difficulty, so I would think that the problem is likely the first. My toy model molecules consist of 4 "atoms" in a linear configuration, so these are very small molecules, and I wouldn't have any rings within a residue, if I understand this correctly. However, would the fact that I have so many molecules be an issue (if I have 64,000 atoms, I have 16,000 molecules)? I can tell you more explicitly what I am attempting to display (and how) if that would be of use. Since I guessed, more or less, on how to output the data to get it to display what I want, it is likely that I am doing this in a less than optimal way. Brittany -------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:51:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> To: brmorgan(a)clarku.edu Hi Brittany, Ok it's not rings. Very likely something is slow when dealing with your large number of molecules. The typical Chimera use involves only a handful of molecules, twenty or thirty is considered alot, and 16,000 may be a record! Another Chimera developer Eric Pettersen will know more about efficiency with large numbers of molecules. (I work primarily on volume data.) So I've sent this email to him and he may have advice. If it is possible I think you would be better off making your 4 atom chains be a single residue with all chains in a single molecule. Chimera is likely to handle that much better. An immediate problem is that if you are using the PDB file format its residue number field is only 4 digits (max 9999 residues). It is awkward but you could use multiple PDB chain identifiers (single letter a-z, A-Z, 0-9) to handle up to ~600,000 chains. Another approach is to put all the chains in a single residue. But a residue with 64,000 atoms may also cause poor Chimera performance. I'll also warn you that Chimera is not at good as other molecular graphics programs (PyMol, and VMD) at handling systems larger than 100,000 atoms. Chimera uses much more memory (about 3 Kbytes per atom). PyMol and VMD I am told are 5-10 times more memory efficient on a per-atom basis. Chimera may be better for doing custom types of analysis though. Tom Is it OK if I forward your last email to the chimera-users mailing list? That may help others with similar problems. ----- From: "Brittany Morgan" <brmorgan(a)clarku.edu> To: "'Thomas Goddard'" <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Subject: RE: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:57:36 -0400 Hi Tom, Feel free to forward anything that you think would be of use to others. Unfortunately, 16,000 is only a moderately large system for me. I'm looking to be able to get up to around 112,500 atoms and a little under 30,000 molecules. I only need the visualization aspects of Chimera, all analysis I do on my own. Do you think PyMol would be able to handle something like that? I can try making them all a single molecule, but I also suspect that having a chain with 112,500 atoms would cause problems. Thanks again, Brittany ---- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:07:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> To: brmorgan(a)clarku.edu Hi Brittany, There are two difficulties you are likely to run into: PDB file format limits on number of atoms (100,000) and number of residues (10,000), and poor software performance for such large systems. If you are primarily concerned with visualization rather than analysis than PyMOL I believe will give better performance. But you may have a hard time with the file format issues. I think you will get better support solving the file format problems with Chimera since we have 5 developers while PyMOL has just one. Having 100,000 atoms in a single PDB chain is not a problem. I believe also that Chimera can handle a modification of PDB file format where the atom number starts in column 6 instead of column 7 allowing up to 1,000,000 atoms. Eric would know. Tom ---- From: Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> To: brmorgan(a)clarku.edu Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:26:30 -0700 Hi Brittany, I confess I find your problem somewhat mysterious. I wrote a Chimera Python script (attached) that can either generate a single molecule with 16000 4-atom residues or 16000 4-atom molecules (depending on whether the 'singleMol' variable is True or False). While Chimera is better with the single-molecule system (on my mac, taking about 5 seconds each to run the script and to change to ball- and-stick), it isn't that much worse using the 16000-molecule system (about 20 seconds each -- not nearly 15 minutes!). It also took about twice as much memory (~1GB vs ~480 MB; this was using the 1.2255 snapshot). You can try it out yourself by using File..Open to open the script and changing the "singleMol = False" line in the script beforehand to choose modes. You should check that Chimera is using your graphics card rather than software rendering. One way to do that is to use Help->Report A Bug.. and click the Next button in the resulting dialog. The ensuing panel will have a "Bug Description" field that reports your OpenGL vendor and renderer. What does it say? If it says something involving "Mesa" then you are using software rendering and should try to update the driver for you card by visiting your card manufacturer's web site. You can click "Cancel" in the bug dialog to dismiss it. As Tom mentioned, we allow a modified PDB format where the sixth column of an ATOM record can be a digit, effectively allowing 1 million atoms. There are several gotchas in your situation. Whereas most such large systems are composed of standard residues with known connectivity, you may well need to specify your connectivity -- and CONECT records are strictly limited to 5-digit atom serial numbers. If your molecules do have typical bonding distances, you can let Chimera figure out the connectivity, but you would need to put each molecule in its own residue to prevent the N-squared intra-residue connectivity search from getting out of hand (so you would likely need to use chain IDs once you're past 9999 residues), and you would need to insert TER cards between residues to prevent the implied connectivity between residues (may not actually be necessary in the 1.2255 snapshot). --Eric File manyMols.py follows import chimera singleMol = False if singleMol: m = chimera.Molecule() m.name = "test" mols = [m] for ri in range(16000): r = m.newResidue("UNK", " ", ri+1, " ") prev = None for ai in range(4): a = m.newAtom("C%d" % (ai+1), chimera.Element("C")) r.addAtom(a) if prev: m.newBond(a, prev) crd = chimera.Coord(ri, ai, 0.0) a.setCoord(crd) prev = a else: mols = [] for mi in range(16000): m = chimera.Molecule() m.name = "test%d" % mi mols.append(m) r = m.newResidue("UNK", " ", 1, " ") prev = None for ai in range(4): a = m.newAtom("C%d" % (ai+1), chimera.Element("C")) r.addAtom(a) if prev: m.newBond(a, prev) crd = chimera.Coord(mi, ai, 0.0) a.setCoord(crd) prev = a chimera.openModels.add(mols)

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Memory allocation
by brmorgan＠clarku.edu 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Does Chimera have a fixed amount of memory allocated to it, and if so, is it possible to increase this amount? I am working with very large system sizes and am trying to reduce the amount of time it takes to perform certain operations.

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Re: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation
by Thomas Goddard 12 Sep '06

12 Sep '06

Hi Brittany, Thanks for the detailed information. I do not think memory is the problem. Display of 58,000 atoms (pdb 1uf2) in ball and stick took 10 seconds on my 4 year old laptop. That is the time to make the intial drawing. Then it update at about 2 frames per second when rotating the model on this rather old machine. Your problem is likely caused by one of two issues. First, if your "molecule-type objects" contain many (tens or hundreds) small rings within a residue then Chimera will bog down trying to compute the chemical atom types (aromaticity...). This is a problem we have recently analyzed when using Chimera with molecules that do not have reasonable chemical structure. We plan on fixing this problem by being able to tag molecules in Chimera as "non-chemical". But we do not have a version of Chimera available with that feature yet. So currently the only solution is to modify your non-molecule model using multiple residues to avoid having many rings in a single residue. The ring computation is not done in wire display style but is invoked when switching to ball and stick style because atom radii are needed and are based on the chemical types. The second possible problem is that you are not using hardware accelerated 3D graphics. On Linux systems you usually need to install a graphics driver to get hardware acceleration. Windows and Mac systems usually already have the appropriate driver. Rendering computations can be 100 times slower if it is done in software instead of by the graphics chip. Ball and stick display style is much more time consuming to render than wire frame. If you are able to rotate the 64,000 atom ball and stick model after it is first displayed (15 minutes) and it updates reasonably fast (> 1 frame per second) then you have hardware acceleration and this is not the problem. Tom > From: "Brittany Morgan" <brmorgan(a)clarku.edu> > To: "'Thomas Goddard'" <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: RE: [Chimera-users] Memory allocation > Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:52:39 -0400 > > I am working with molecules, and it has problems redrawing them in > ball-and-stick representation, although I expect that at larger system sizes > other functions will start slowing down as well. If I look at the memory > usage while it is redrawing them, Chimera seems to be using only about 1/4 > of the available memory, but creating a paging file nonetheless. It will > work, it just takes about 15 minutes to redraw about 64,000 atoms, and I > need to go to system sizes much larger. If I need more memory, that is > possible, I just wasn't sure if that was the issue because it didn't appear > that Chimera was using all of the available memory. I am using Chimera in a > non-standard way (I'm not displaying proteins, but rather many small > (unrealistic) molecule-type objects). > > Thank you for your help! > Brittany

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Re: [Chimera-users] Can I use "Chimera" to measure length of a VRML file?
by Thomas Goddard 12 Sep '06

12 Sep '06

Hi Masako, Chimera does not read IMOD files but perhaps I can add a file reader for you. Have you already defined a path in IMOD along the structure you want to measure? Or have you just segmented out the structures. If you have segmentations but no explicitly defined 1 dimensional path then it is not clear how to define the length. Is the IMOD format you are using the following? http://bio3d.colorado.edu/imod/doc/binspec.html Could you send me an example file? Tom > Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:41:20 -0700 > From: Masako Terada <mterada(a)ncmir.ucsd.edu> > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Can I use "Chimera" to measure length of a VRML > file? > > Hi. Thank you for your e-mail. I have tried using volume path tracer > as you instructed. Even though it looks very promising, it is > time-consuming since we have 90 different objects to measure. So I > would like to try your another suggestion, importing trace file into > Chimera and measure lengths. Are you familiar with IMOD segmentation > file format? I tried to import this IMOD file into Chimera, but > unsuccessful, so I am guessing that I have to convert it to something > else... Any more suggestion? > > Masako >

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Can I use "Chimera" to measure length of a VRML file?
by Masako Terada 11 Sep '06

11 Sep '06

Hi. I have a VRML file, which was created with different softwares. Is there anyway I can use Chimera to measure length of this tube-like structure? Thanks, in advance! ---------------------------------------------------- Masako Terada National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research Center for Research in Biological Systems University of California, San Diego (858)534-7968 mterada(a)ncmir.ucsd.edu ----------------------------------------------------

3 3

display multiple bonds
by Dave Roe 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

Is there a way to display multiple bonds so bond types (single, double, triple) can be distinguished? -- Dave Roe roex0050(a)umn.edu

2 1

color a residue
by Xuehong Liu 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

Hi, I chose the target as "selected residues", then selected the residue I want to put certain color on, but only a bond color was changed when I did that. However, if I did not select a residue, then the color option will change the color for the whole helix selected. thank Xuehong Xuehong Liu, Ph.D Research Assistant Professor Department of Physiology/Pharmacology Oregon Health & Science University 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd. L334 Portland, OR 97239 phone: (503) 494-3230 fax: (503) 494-4352

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PDB Coordinates
by Albion Baucom 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

I have docked several models into density manually using Chimera. I saved the session, reopened it, and when I write out the docked PDB files, and read them back in, they are not oriented the same way as the model I wrote them from. Is there something I have to do to "fix" their new orientation so when they are written out they retain this orientation? I am using beta version 1 build 2199 01/24/2006 on a linux platform. Thanks Albion

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how to save a copy of the reply log via command line
by Cathy Lawson 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

Hi, I'd like to issue a command-line command within a python script read into chimera to save a copy of the reply log. I tried googling the chimera site but didn't find the answer--what would be the command to do this? thanks, Cathy

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question about annealing residues in pdb file
by Shah, Sanket S 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Hello, I have been using chimera extensively for pdb rendering and manipulation. I needed some information that i couldn't find in the archives. I am aware that chimera displays the pdb file according to the co-ordinates mentioned in the pdb file. However in my situation I have changed co-ordinates of some of the secondary structure elements like helices to do a better fit. and I have saved the new coordinates in the same pdb file. So now when i render this pdb file it shows me the structure with the modified orientation, however chimera displays a continuous model. In the sense, the breaks that I had introduced by changing the angles of some of the helices and thus making the linkage discontinuous are somehow annealed by chimera. So my question is what sort of algorithm chimera employs to seal breaks in the pdb structure. The same pdb strucutre when viewed in swiss model deepview software contains gaps/breaks at the junctions where the coordinates of the helices have been modified from the original ones. however no such breaks are seen when displayed through chimera. First I thought chimera does energy minimization to find out the best way to arrange the loops between the helices so as to create the best continuous structure. However it seems that chimera doesn't do energy minimization, yet it's able to display a complete structure. Could you please inform me about how this is accomplished. Thanks Sanket

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change chain id
by Yunierkis Perez Castillo 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

Hi all, I need to change the chain ID for a protein, that is, change the chain A to chain B. Can I do that with chimera? Thanks in advance Yunierkis

3 3

addH/removeH for charged a.a.
by Dave Roe 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

Is there functionality that will - add a hydrogen (if needed) to all Lysines and Arginines to give the protonated form - remove a hydrogen (if needed) from Aspartic and Glutamic acids to give the deprotonated form? -- Dave Roe roex0050(a)umn.edu

2 2

Volume color zones
by hsosa＠aecom.yu.edu 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Is is possible to use different colors for different Volume zones ?. I have a volume (MRC format) and have defined two marker sets using the Volume-Path-Tracer. Then I select one of the path and colored the surface volume around using the Volume Color Zone utility. This work fine but then if I selected the other markers and do the same the volume close to the new markers get colored but anything else get uncolored, including the areas previously colored. Am I doing something wrong ?. Can I color several Volume zones independently ? Thanks Hernando --

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RealD (Stereographics) E2SGI emitter on Quadro 3450?
by Sabuj Pattanayek 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Hi all, Anyone know if it's possible to use a RealD (Stereographics) E2SGI emitter on Quadro hardware? Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek

2 1

addH utility and PDB files
by Nihshanka Debroy 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

Hi, I have a couple of questions about the addH utility built into Chimera, and about PDB files in general. I used addH to protonate (add hydrogens) to PDB files. Does it use a force field of some kind in the process, like Amber or Charmm? It seems that depending on the force field used to protonate a PDB, the values for the partial charges and the van der waals radii are different. Specifically, I am using these charges and radii in the DelphiController. Another thing I've noticed is that when adding hydrogens, for the same amino acid, the hydrogens are sometimes different in name or number. For example if I have a Cysteine, in some cases, an HG (gamma hydrogen) is added for the gamma sulphur, balancing out charges completely. In other cases, the HG is not added, and so the amino acid ends up with a net negative charge. I was just wondering if this is supposed to happen. Here's another example. For Alanine, I was getting 1H, 2H and 3H attached to the nitrogen in some cases. In other cases, I just got "H" attached to the nitrogen. Does this mean those particular instances of ALA in the PDB had one only hydrogen attached to the nitrogen, instead of 3 ? Wouldn't the missing 2 hydrogens lead to a net negative charge on the ALA? Thanks for all the help and for this mailing list. It is a wonderful resource. Sincerely, Nihshanka Debroy

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Surfactant
by Annalisa Mercuri 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

Hallo everybody, I'm working with surfactants and emulsions. I'd like to use Chimera to reconstruct a micelle with my components, but I have no clue how to do that. Further my emulsion is made by a mixture of two surfactants. I would like to have a emulsion droplet image like the virus one. What do you suggest? Thank you for your help and advices Annalisa Mercuri MSc PhD Student School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy University of East Anglia Norwich Norfolk NR4 7TJ UK

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structure slice
by Raquel Hernandez 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

Hello chimera e-mail, I have received from a colleague data set from a virus reconstruction. I am a novice in the use of your program but have managed to make an image of my virus. I would like to add an image of a slice of the virus through the center perpendicular to the three fold axis. Can you please advise me on what I need to do to make a slice? I can get the tech people here to help if you tell me the tools, etc that I need to use. Thanks. Raquel Raquel Hernandez Research Associate Professor Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry 128 Polk Hall North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695 office:919-515-5765 lab: 919-515-5786 Fax: 919-515-2047

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Fwd: Chimera and Macs
by Elaine Meng 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

Hello Mac users! When the Chimera window gets obscured by other windows on a Mac, clicking the X11 icon will bring it to the front (assuming you are using the recommended Mac/X11 version of Chimera). Begin forwarded message: > From: Kevin Dalby <dalby(a)mail.utexas.edu> > Date: August 13, 2006 11:54:43 PM PDT > To: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: Chimera and Macs > > Hi Elaine > > I think we spoke briefly at the enzymes GRC. > > I am not a sophisticated chimera user. I use it on my mac while > working with another 10 programs . Usually i cant see the chimera > screen when i need it. Normally, when I want to get back to a > program that is hidden i go to the doc and just click on the > program icon and it comes to the front. This does not happen for > chimera. I know other spoilt mac users would enjoy a remedy. > > > best wishes > > Kevin > > > Kevin Dalby > Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry > University of Texas at Austin > tel 512-4719267 > fax 512-2322606 > > > > ----- 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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spaceball
by Mario Halic 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

hi!, can I use spaceball 5000 as input device in chimera? thanks, Mario

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Re: [Chimera-users] Electrostatic Potentials
by Thomas Goddard 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

Hi Nihshanka, Oops! My previous descriptions of how to determine electrostatic potential values at specific surface points assumed you were using the Surface Color tool to display the potential (menu entry Tools / Structure&Binding Analysis / Electrostatic Surface Coloring, or menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Surface Color). But you are using DelphiController and it has its own code for displaying potential values for which my previously described techniques will not work. To print the potential values at every surface point when the potential display was done with Delphi Controller you could put a print statement in chimera/share/DelphiViewer/MSMSTexturer.py at line 155, after the following lines of code else: # Point is outside of phi map. phivalue = 0 add the line print v_rs, phivalue Make sure the "print" line is indented the same as the "else:". This is going to print many thousands of lines in the Reply Log so be prepared to wait a bit. You could also use my previously described methods for showing potential values by using the Electrostatic Surface Coloring tool. Show a surface for your PDB model using Actions / Suface / show. Then in the Electrostatic Surface Coloring dialog press the "Open map data..." button and select the *.phi file generated by DelPhi (the one computed when running Delphi Controller). Then press the Color button on the surface color dialog. My previous code modification or the marker probe method could them be used. Tom

1 0

Electrostatic Potentials
by Nihshanka Debroy 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions about the electrostatic potentials generated in Chimera using the Delphi Controller. If I have a protein with 5 chains A,B,C,D,E, and I choose to show the surfaces of all chains except C (but keep the wireframe of chain C's atoms) and then run Delphi using the DelphiController, does that mean that the potential surface generated is in the absence of chain C (which is what I want)? I'm trying to generate the potential surface without taking into account chain C, but would like to see C's wire frame for analysis purposes. Also, is there a way to get the actual potential values at each surface coordinate? Thanks a lot for the help. Sincerely, Nihshanka

4 3

coloring carbon and deleting hydrogens
by Narender Singh Maan 04 Aug '06

04 Aug '06

Dear all, I am trying to show two residues of a protein structure with 50% surface transparency along with a stick model (rest of the protein is 0% surface transparent). Now in this i am having trouble in showing those stick residues in a different color (for e.g. the default for C atom is gray, which i want to show in green). Is there anyway in which i can do it?. also for those two residues i want to delete the hydrogens (only in stick, and not in surface representation)? any suggestions would be of great help. Thank you

2 1

Coloring binding modes according to an energy term with ViewDock
by Vincent Zoete 04 Aug '06

04 Aug '06

Hi, Does it exist a way to color the different ligand positions obtained during a docking run, and displayed by the Viewdock module of chimera, as a function of a given energy term present in the columns of the viewdock table? If not, I think this could be an useful option to add to chimera. Also, it could be interesting to have the possibility to display the color scale as a function of the energy term together with the structures. If it cannot be done in the chimera display, it could be in the generated figures. Otherwise, congratulation for the great job the UCSF computer graphics lab is making with Chimera! Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Vincent

2 1

Re: [Chimera-users] X3D to VRML conversion
by Thomas Goddard 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

> Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:27:52 -0700 > From: Ben Morris > > Hey Tom, > > Were you using the chimera VRML viewer when you tested the new x3d2vrml > output? I had the same exact problem in my testing of the code before > submitting it, and Conrad told me that the Chimera vrml viewer is less > than perfect when it comes to complex geometry (surfaces and ribbons). I > don't know if you were using Chimera, or even if it is the only problem, > but when I tested the code using a third party viewer, ribbons and > surfaces worked fine! > > ~Ben Hi Ben, Yeah, I tested Chimera VRML output by reading it back into Chimera. I agree that the fact that ribbons did not display properly could very well be a problem with the Chimera VRML renderer rather than the output. I just displayed a Chimera round ribbon (1a0m) using FreeWRL 1.15 on Linux and it displayed correctly. It gave about 30 warnings like the following which may or may not be important: WARNING -- node Normal may not be ok as a field of type normal (...called from VRML::Field::SFNode, 1363) It sounds like you are the one who have worked on the Chimera VRML output rather than Greg. Thanks for working on this. I think it will be useful to many people. Tom

1 0

X3D to VRML conversion
by Nihshanka Debroy 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

Hi Dr. Meng, Thank you for your informative reply. That was very helpful. I was wondering if I could ask another quick question. I don't think that in Chimera, using the VRML format one can save non-surface information, like the backbone structure of a peptide (but one can display it). So I saved the information in X3D. And now, I'm trying to convert back to VRML format to be able to display it. I got completely lost when looking for some software to do this conversion. I tried using something called X3D to VRML97, but got a "segmentation fault" when I tried to open up the created VRML file. Has anyone faced this sort of an issue ? Thanks a lot, Nihshanka

2 1

about installation of Chimera in SUSE Linux 10.0 plateform
by Ching-Yi Hsieh 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Hi, I have trouble to install Chimera in in SUSE Linux 10.0 plateform. Can you e-mail me the detail instruction about how to install soon??? Best, Dr. ChingYi Hsieh UCDavis Cancer Center

2 1

Chimera and DelphiController
by Nihshanka Debroy 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Hi, My name is Nihshanka Debroy, and I am a graduate student at Duke University. I recently joined this mailing list. I was wondering if I could ask a couple of questions about the software. The first one is more related to Delphi. I have been using the Delphi Controller tool in Chimera, and I have been getting warnings that certain radii records are missing from my .siz file, and some residues have a net positive charge. I used the default files provided when installing Delphi. I was wondering if anyone has faced this problem before. Is there an online database where I could get the missing radii and charge values for atoms and residues ? Secondly, I am trying to generate the Connolly surface for certain proteins. What I have been doing so far is running Delphi Controller and assigning a probe radius of 1.4 Angstroms in the Parameter section. I just wanted to make sure that this is different from the molecular surface (MS) that is generated when simply choosing Actions->Surface->Show. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Nihshanka

2 1

Segmentation Fault
by Donglu Xie 24 Jul '06

24 Jul '06

Hi All, Anybody has met this issue. When running chimera, it only shows "Segmentaion Fault", or " Segmentaion Fault (core dump)". No interface is shown. If you need more information about the system, please let me know. Any help is appreciated. Donglu Xie

2 2

Surface color key
by Alexander Rusnak 19 Jul '06

19 Jul '06

Hey Folks, I'm using Chimera to create a surface colored representation of a virus based on radius. That was not the hard part, my question is how do you make a key to show the scale of coloring. I cannot find that in the documentation, faq nor the server list. If it's there and I missed it sorry but you point it out to me and if it's not an option any suggestions on how to create one. Thanks. Alex

2 1

write out adjusted EM map?
by jbrown 19 Jul '06

19 Jul '06

Hi, I've recently used Chimera to manually fit several PDB subunits into my EM map. I am trying to figure out a way to write out the EM map in CCP4 format with the adjusted rotation/translations that I performed during my fit. Is there anyway to do this in Chimera (or are there any other programs you would suggest)? Also, any plans to include a means for writing out EM maps from Chimera in future versions? Thanks a lot, Jesse --------------------------- Jesse Brown Research Technician TSRI, Dept. of Cell Biology 858.784.8598 jbrown(a)scripps.edu

3 2

chimera on linux ia64 (sgi prism)
by Sabuj Pattanayek 14 Jul '06

14 Jul '06

Hi, I was wondering if there is a port for chimera to run on Linux IA64 (sgi prism)? The x86 version runs in emulation mode on the system, thus the graphics defaults to Mesa indirect glx (really slow). Would a dev be willing to port it for this system if given access to the system? I'm also working on getting pymol compiled for it. vmd already has a native port with good performance. Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek

3 6

matchmaker command
by Haas, Ryan Matthew 10 Jul '06

10 Jul '06

Dear Chimera Users, How does the matchmaker command perform its superposition? Is it a C-alpha superposition, or just backbone atoms, or all atoms? Is it appropriate to use these RMSD values obtained from "mmaker" in a manuscript? Help is greatly appreciated. Matthew Haas

2 2

Re: [Chimera-users] script for residues w\in zone
by Eric Pettersen 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

On Jul 6, 2006, at 1:54 PM, Sorani, Marco wrote: > Thanks. I'm running Chimera and Python\IDLE on Windows XP. > > a) Can I still use the "script.com" you suggested? You could, by getting a UNIX-shell-like environment such as Cygwin (www.cygwin.com) or possibly just from the DOS prompt. If you don't care if Chimera's interface shows as the script runs, you could just run Chimera and then use File...Open to run the script. > b) When I try "script.py", I can't find the module "chimera" or > "chimera.py". Where should I look? script.py will only work if Chimera is the interpreter, rather than a stand-alone Python interpreter. So you need to either run "chimera -- nogui script.py" using methods like in the previous answer, or open the script using Chimera's main File...Open dialog. --Eric

1 0

script for residues w\in zone
by Sorani, Marco 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

Hi, A question: For a given PDB structure (say, 1J4N) and a given point mutation (say, C104K), I want to find all residues within 5 angstroms. Manually, this is easy to do with 'Select' --> 'Zone...', but if I have 1000 mutations, is there a way to automate the process and send results to a file? ****************** soranim(a)pharmacy.ucsf.edu Marco Sorani Program in Biological & Medical Informatics University of California, San Francisco

1 0

calculating charges for Dock
by Joshua D Campbell 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

Hello, My name is Josh Campbell and I'm trying to prepare a ligand for docking that is made up of non-standard residues using Chimera. The Dock Prep tool of course does not assign charges to non-standard atoms. I looked at your UserGuide and it said that there were other places to calculate non-standard residues using the Antechamber module, but I could not find any of these tools anywhere in the Chimera program. If you could give me some clarification as to adding charges on non-standard residues, I would be very greatful. I am working with "beta version 1 build 2199 2006/01/24". Thanks. Sincerely, Josh Campbell Harvard Medical School Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology

2 1

select certain transformants of multiscale models.
by Jonathan Hilmer 27 Jun '06

27 Jun '06

Actually, it is possible to use the command line to select portions of a multiscale-models generated volume set: it's just not really efficient. Open your structure and apply the BIOMT with multiscale models. Then select all the surfaces of the multiscale structure. Hide the surface representation and then show a ribbon representation. You might have to wait awhile for this to finish on a large structure. This will generate a new model for each subunit that can be selected manually, via command line, or with the model panel. You can then use the multiscale models panel to make color adjustments, show surfaces etc using selections defined in the command line. However, I can say from experience that learning the Python code is worth the effort in the long run. Jonathan > Hi, > > I'm wondering if it is possible to select specific volumes generated > via the multiscale model tool via the command line? E.g., for a set > of 60 biomt matrices I'm interested in coloring the chains generated > with matrices 1-20 in one color, matrices 21-40 in another color, and > matrices 41-60 in yet another color. Any suggestions on how to > accomplish this would be appreciated. > > thanks! > > Cathy Lawson > > > > *****************************************************************' > Catherine Lawson > Laboratory for Structural Biology and Bioinformatics > Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology > 610 Taylor Road > Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA > http://roma.rutgers.edu > http://rutchem.rutgers.edu/~lawson > ***************************************************************** > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:18:57 -0700 (PDT) > From: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] selecting multiscale model volumes > To: cathy.lawson(a)rutgers.edu > Cc: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Message-ID: <200606270118.k5R1IvGE1909532(a)guanine.cgl.ucsf.edu> > > Hi Cathy, > > Unfortunately no Chimera commands allow selecting or coloring > multiscale surfaces. The multiscale tool in general is not well > integrated with the other Chimera capabilities -- like the Actions > Color menu won't color chain surfaces that you select with the mouse. > We plan on fixing this in the future but it may take a while (6 months > or more). > > Everything is possible using Python code, although this can be quite > difficult to figure out. It is not documented and the best approach is > to ask for examples from us that you can then modify. Below is code > to color multiscale surfaces with specific matrix subunits and chain IDs. > If you open that file in Chimera (with File / Open..., or with the "open" > command) it will do the type of coloring you requested. When you modify > the code be careful not to change the indentation since this is important > in Python. > > We could easily do a little better and add a Chimera command so that > you would not have to edit a Python script to specify what residue > ranges and colors to use. > > I am going on vacation tomorrow until July 18 but can make that > command for you when I return. It just requires some additional > Python code that Chimera will load at startup. > > Tom > > ---- > Python file mmcolor.py follows: > > # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > # Color certain matrix subunits and chains of a multiscale model. > # > def color_multiscale(rgba, model_num, matrix_nums, chain_ids = None): > > import MultiScale > d = MultiScale.multiscale_model_dialog(True) > for cp in d.chain_pieces(): > g = cp.surface_group > if g.model().id == model_num: > mnum, chain_id = g.oslName.split('.') > if chain_ids == None or chain_id in chain_ids: > if int(mnum) in matrix_nums: > cp.set_color(rgba) > > # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > # > red = (1,0,0,1) # Red, green, blue, opacity > green = (0,1,0,1) > blue = (0,0,1,1) > cyan = (0,1,1,1) > > color_multiscale(blue, 1, range(1,21)) # Color matrix subunits 1-20 > color_multiscale(cyan, 1, range(21,41)) # Color matrix subunits 21-40 > color_multiscale(green, 1, range(41,61)) # Color matrix subunits 41-60 > > # Example coloring subunits 1-20, only chains 'A' and 'B'. > #color_multiscale(red, 1, range(1,21), ['A', 'B'])

1 0

new snapshot release
by Eric Pettersen 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

We just put out another snapshot release (1.2255), principally to improve Antechamber reliability (particularly on Windows), but it nonetheless has a few other significant improvements: If you have Modeller installed, the Model Loops extension (very much under development) can fill in missing sections of structure. The defaults for Movie Recorder have been changed to improve playback performance and the ability to produce .avi files has been added. Multalign Viewer can add plain-text sequences to an existing alignment. Volume Viewer can display meshes as squares instead of just triangles. The "reset" command can interpolate between saved positions (i.e. positions in "savepos" commands) to ease creation of scripts involving motion. A new "Alignments" tutorial covers MatchMaker and Match->Align capabilities. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

1 0

selecting multiscale model volumes
by Cathy Lawson 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

Hi, I'm wondering if it is possible to select specific volumes generated via the multiscale model tool via the command line? E.g., for a set of 60 biomt matrices I'm interested in coloring the chains generated with matrices 1-20 in one color, matrices 21-40 in another color, and matrices 41-60 in yet another color. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this would be appreciated. thanks! Cathy Lawson *****************************************************************' Catherine Lawson Laboratory for Structural Biology and Bioinformatics Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology 610 Taylor Road Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA http://roma.rutgers.edu http://rutchem.rutgers.edu/~lawson *****************************************************************

2 1

Making aliases persist
by Jeramia J Ory 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

I have some students this summer who are using Chimera to check out ligand anomalies in the PDB, and have fallen in love with the 'alias' command, no surprise. Is there a way to have them persist between sessions, or save them in the preference file somewhere? I imagine piling them all into a file and then having them 'read' it each session would work, but I thought I would see if there is a better way. Thanks, Jeramia Ory

3 2

question
by Jaya Bhatnagar 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

Hi, Is it possible in chimera to define a new amino acid residue? Also, what algorithms does it support involving docking of two proteins? And is there a limit on number of amino acids present in the protein? thanks a lot, Jaya

3 2

Selecting from a surface area
by Miguel Ortiz-Lombardia 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, I'd like to pick an area of a (msms) surface (like with a "lasso" tool) and from that area, select the atoms/residues from which it is built. I haven't found anything like this in the documentation, so I'm afraid it's not possible. Or is it? Best regards, Miguel - -- Miguel Ortiz Lombardía Centro de Investigaciones Oncológicas C/ Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3 28029 Madrid, Spain Tel. +34 912 246 900 Fax. +34 912 246 976 e-mail: molatwork(a)yahoo.es - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Et ainsi ne pouvant faire que ce qui est juste fût fort, on a fait que ce qui est fort fût juste. Blaise Pascal, Pensées -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (Darwin) iD8DBQFElFsPF6oOrDvhbQIRAiLYAJ9NHoF7sHbXJnZijo9Gfv8z9HJatQCfb9XQ 9q3hYNVjsZjVslF3Hv9+8ZU= =5dnB -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [Chimera-users] question
by Goel, Manisha 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

Hi Elaine, I too have been looking for a good protein-protein docking program, so I am jumping on the bandwagon .. Just small question regarding point 2 in the mail .. Does chimera do any minimization/optimization of the complex after we manually dock the two protein together ? Thanks a lot for your help.. Regards, -Manisha -----Original Message----- From: chimera-users-bounces(a)cgl.ucsf.edu [mailto:chimera-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu] On Behalf Of Elaine Meng Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 11:34 AM To: Jaya Bhatnagar Cc: chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] question Dear Jaya, (1) Chimera will display whatever coordinates and residue names are present in the input file. It does not matter if the residues or the atoms in them are standard or not. However, you cannot define new residues to be built by Chimera with the "swapaa" or "addaa" commands. We have recently added a Build Structure tool (Structure Editing category) that lets you add arbitrary atoms and bonds to structures interactively. It is in the early stages of development, however, and is likely to change in the future. If you use this, you may want to check the bond lengths and adjust them in the "Set Bond Length" section of the Build Structure tool. The man page for Build Structure: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/editing/ editing.html (2) Chimera does not do any automated docking. However, you can manually/interactively dock structures by moving one relative to the other (to freeze a structure and move only the others, you would uncheck its Active button in the Model Panel or its checkbox under the Command Line). The man page for the Model Panel: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/modelpanel.html (3) I believe there is no limit on the number of amino acids present in the protein. There may be limitations due to the input file format (that is, the residue number column can only be a certain width in the input file format, usually PDB). However, in combination with use of different chain IDs this limit is quite high. For example, ribosome structures can be viewed in Chimera, although it may take a while for the structure to load. I hope this helps, Elaine On Jun 23, 2006, at 8:06 AM, Jaya Bhatnagar wrote: > Hi, > Is it possible in chimera to define a new amino acid residue? Also, > what > algorithms does it support involving docking of two proteins? And > is there > a limit on number of amino acids present in the protein? > > thanks a lot, > Jaya > > > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-users mailing list > Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users ----- 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 _______________________________________________ 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] Chimera-users Digest, Vol 38, Issue 12
by Jonathan Hilmer 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

Thanks to all for the quick responses on interpolation. Here's a quick example showing what I was concerned about: arrows.bld ------------------ .color red .arrow 0 0 0 1 0 0 .color green .arrow 0 0 0 0 1 0 .color blue .arrow 0 0 0 0 0 1 ------------------ matrix2 ----------------- Model 0.0 0.505641 0.433743 -0.745785 -2.58211 -0.807506 0.542275 -0.232105 2.90884 0.303746 0.719587 0.624446 -0.194334 ----------------- matrix3 ---------------- Model 0.0 0.60158 -0.458982 0.653787 0.653219 0.190507 -0.712397 -0.675423 5.48737 0.775763 0.530872 -0.341124 0.0103466 ---------------- The first matrix is just unity. The 'reset'-based interpolation works great for going between 1 and 3 or 1 and 2 in both directions, as well as 3 to 2, but fails from 2 to 3. Since all this is new to me, I can't say for certain that this is due to gimbal lock, but that was my first guess. I haven't had the opportunity yet to try out Tom's axis-angle approach, but that should rule out any Euler problems. The other problem for me is that all my current methods are based upon a stepwise approach via commands (ungainly, but very functional when combined with shell scripts, imagemagick etc), and this is incompatible with the 'reset' interpolation. Perhaps it was misleading to mention the use of 'matrixset'. I appreciate that it is more trouble to deal with external files, but if it is not possible to easily implement the interpolation I'm looking for dynamically within Chimera's Python (due to required math libraries, etc) then I would have to hard-code the interpolation matrices into the .py script file anway, defeating the purpose. Thanks for the help: I'd love to hear about any future development in this area.

3 2

Chimera paper virus models
by Thomas Goddard 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

Hi Ulrich, This week I made 5 paper virus models using the Chimera flatten icosahedron tool. You can have the images I created: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/temp/viper-gallery-jun2006/ The image files are named according to the Protein Data Bank (PDB) 4 letter id code. The page http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/temp/viper-gallery-jun2006/vipergaller… shows images of the approximately 200 known virus capsids taken from the VIPER web site. http://viperdb.scripps.edu/ I added some comments to the flatten icosahedron documentation a few days ago describing "tiling" of the Chimera image to handle capsid proteins that are cut in half -- so they appear on both sides of the cut. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/flatten_icosahedron/flaticos.h… I printed my images on standard photopaper. The images above will need to be scaled to fit on a piece of paper. I just asked my web browser to scale them to fit when I printed. One additional note about my images -- I turned on "silhouette edges" to give the black outlines around the proteins. This is done using Chimera menu entry Tools / Viewing Controls / Effects. Tom

1 0

Chimera movies in PowerPoint
by Thomas Goddard 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

Hi Xinchao, Several people have asked exactly your question of how to get a Chimera movie to play in PowerPoint on Windows without being jerky. I don't have a Windows machine to test on today but I investigated on the web and have a theory. I believe the jerky playback is because Chimera is encoding the movie using the -qscale option to the ffmpeg encoder causing variable bit rate (VBR) encoding. When you play the movie it becomes jerky because the player software does not handle the variable bit rate well -- it doesn't buffer up enough data and then can't handle the passages when alot is changing in the video. Another issue is choosing a format that PowerPoint on Windows accepts. Here are two suggestions. The first is to reencode the movie using the ffmpeg program included in Chimera: chimera/bin/ffmpeg -i mymovie.qt -f avi -vcodec msmpeg4 -b 2000 mymovie.avi This command produces an AVI file using msmpeg4 encoding at a bit rate of 2000 Kbits / sec (about 12 Mbytes / minute) from a quicktime file created by Chimera. You can increase the bit rate to get better quality or lower it to get smaller file size and worse quality. From what I read on the web Windows XP will be happy with AVI format and msmpeg4 encoding. You may find it hard to run this command unless you are familiar with running command-line programs on Windows. You could use a Windows Command Prompt window or Run Command, but you may need to provide full paths to the ffmpeg program and movie file. An alternative is to modify the Chimera Movie Recorder code chimera/share/MovieRecorder/ffmpeg_encoder.py putting comment characters (#) in front of lines 106-111: arg_list.append('-qscale') qsc = param_dict['Q_SCALE'] if qsc: arg_list.append(str(qsc)) else: arg_list.append('1') so they become # arg_list.append('-qscale') # qsc = param_dict['Q_SCALE'] # if qsc: # arg_list.append(str(qsc)) # else: # arg_list.append('1') This change is eliminating the -qscale option when Chimera runs ffmpeg to encode your movie. Instead we will explicitly request the encoding bit rate with the -b ffmpeg option. Now restart Chimera and record a movie with the Movie Recorder using "Custom" video format to select bit rate (which controls movie quality and file size). The Custom video format settings are under the Movie Options panel, swich on "Use preset video format" and select "Custom" from the Presets menu. Then set the resolution to match your Chimera window size (shown in the upper right corner of the Movie Recorder dialog, choose the encoding format and set the bit rate (in kilobits per second). If you don't make these Custom settings then Movie Recorder will use ffmpeg's standard very low bit rate of 200 kbits/second making a very low quality and small file size movie. Let me know if you found either of these suggestions to produce usable movies for PowerPoint on Windows. Then I can change Chimera Movie Recorder to make it easy to use such settings. Tom > To: goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Subject: Chimera Movie format > Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 15:33:52 -0400 > From: Xinchao Yu <yxinchao(a)bu.edu> > > Dear Tom: > I am a graduate student working with Dr. Christopher Akey at Boston > University. Recently, I have been trying to make some movies for large > compplexes with multiple domains. My problem is that if I use MPEG as the > output movie format, the movement can get very jerky in the movie. While I > don't have this problem with .mov format (compressed to the same extent as > the .MPEG files). But .mov file is not readily incorporated into powerpoint > presentations. Did you have similar observations? Or do you have some > suggestions concenning this problem. Thanks a lot! > > > Xinchao Yu > Department of Physiology & Biophysics > Boston University, School of Medicine > 700 Albany Str., Boston, MA, 02118 >

1 0

matrixget/set, keyframes, and interpolation
by Jonathan Hilmer 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

Does anyone have experience making movies in Chimera used more advanced motions, besides the standard roll, rock, etc? My general idea is to use matrixget to output a series of matrices, interpolate them in my standard Python environment (which is related to the question from Vol 38, Issue 10), and create as output a Chimera script composed of hundreds of 'matrixset' matrices. The Python Computer Graphics Kit (http://cgkit.sourceforge.net) will give me the functions for quaternions, as would ScientificPython or pythonOpenGL, but a quick review of their documentation suggests that in any package it will be necessary to interpolate the rotation separately from the translation: obviously it would be more convenient if there is a package that can transparently interpolate the matrices as provided by Chimera. Has anyone gone through this issue before, hopefully with some tips for me? Thanks, Jonathan

4 3

how to tell chimera to use the local python installation
by Sabuj Pattanayek 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

Hi, With the release of xorg-7.1.1 and mesa-6.5 I finally have direct rendering for my i855gm/i810 intel video device under linux. However I get lots of flickering of an object inside of the chimera display window when I rotate or move the object. I don't have this issue with pymol (compiled against the system python) and vmd (compiled against C/C++ opengl bindings?) or even glxgears. Perhaps I can workaround this problem by telling Chimera to use the local python installation? How is this done? Thanks, Sabuj

2 1

saved image discoloration
by Megan Grabenauer 13 Jun '06

13 Jun '06

I've successfully used Chimera in the past to make beautiful images for publication. However I recently installed v1.2199 for Mac OS X and now whenever I try to save an image I get discolored boxes throughout the saved image. (see attached) The position of the boxes varies slightly each time. I have the image width set to 1050 pixels, 300 pixels per unit, and supersample at 3x3. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I do have an older computer, is this possibly a hardware issue? Megan

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Dock PDB into low resolution EM map.
by Puey Ounjai 12 Jun '06

12 Jun '06

Dear all, I am trying to dock atomic coordinate of a protein derived from 3D X-ray crystal (PDB format) into lower resolution (about 20-25 A resolution) EM map (BRIX, XPLOR ASCII or SITUS format) from 2D crystal. 1. Does Chimera have this kind of fitting tool (PDB to volume) or I have to fit the coordinate by hand? If chimera can do this task, Which command should I use? 2. Does Chimera have any statistical evaluation for manual fitting? 3. How can you evaluate the % matching of 2 models in Chimera? Best regards, Puey Ounjai

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Fish-eye view
by Thomas Goddard 12 Jun '06

12 Jun '06

Hi Gabe, Fish-eye would be handy for presentation images. I submitted a request for this in 2003 to the Chimera bug/feature tracking system. Unfortunately it has not seen the light of day since. But I make fish-eye images once in while. I've attached one I just made for you as a test looking inside reovirus (1ej6). The trick is to bring up the Chimera Python shell, menu entry Tools / General Controls / IDLE and type a few things: >>> c = chimera.viewer.camera >>> c.viewDistance 30.0 >>> c.screenWidth 13.0 >>> c.viewDistance = 2 >>> The parameters that control the field of view are "viewDistance" (default 30) and "screenWidth" (default 13). I think view distance means how far your face is from your screen and screen width is how wide the Chimera window is -- maybe the defaults refer to centimeters. The defaults (narrow screen and far view) give a field of view of 25 degrees. Setting viewDistance = 2 gives a field of 150 degrees. Tom > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > From: Gabriel Lander <glander(a)scripps.edu> > Subject: odd request > Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 13:03:11 -0700 > > Hi Thom, > The P22 paper I presented at the biophysics conference in Salt Lake > City will be published on June 23rd in Science, so when that happens > I'll send the movie I made with Chimera your way. > We actually got the cover of the issue, and I worked with a graphics > artist here at scripps to put it together using his fancy graphics > software. One thing that really made the structure very visually > striking was the implementation of a fisheye lens. Although this > feature is not scientifically very useful, it would be a great artistic > addition to Chimera. I have no idea how difficult this would ever be > to implement or if it'd be worth it, but it's just a thought. I know > you get like a million suggestions a day, so obviously this would go > somewhere in the utmost bottom list of things to do. > I've attached the mockup we made for the cover to give you an idea of > what I'm talking about. > Cheers, > -gabe > > *** removed image ***

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Colored Rays
by Mark Cunningham 12 Jun '06

12 Jun '06

Elaine, thanks for your response to my question on the coordinate system problem. My problem, as you suggested, was not related to coordinate systems, rather there was a problem with GOLD writing extra coodinates (electron pair coordinates) to its output file, which caused the structures to have enormously large rmsd, so much until the GOLD ligand appeared to be in a different coordinate system relative to the reference ligand. After going in and deleting the extra coordinates, everything worked fine. But now I have another question. Occassionally, while visualizing and manipulating a protein structure (1XAP) with Chimera, I get colored rays (30-40) stretching across the screen. Is this a bug in the program? How can I stop this from happening? If I close Chimera, and open it again, it works for a while, and then sporadically the rays reappear. Thanks. Mark A. Cunningham, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry CPO 2191 Berea College Berea, KY 40404 (859)985-3029 Office (859)985-3303 Fax

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Sporadic Colored Rays Across Screen
by Mark Cunningham 11 Jun '06

11 Jun '06

Elaine and Eric, thanks for your responses to my question on the coordinate system problem. My problem, as you suggested, was not related to coordinate systems, rather there was a problem with GOLD writing extra coodinates (electron pair coordinates) to its output file, which caused the structures to have enormously large rmsd, so much until the GOLD ligand appeared to be in a different coordinate system relative to the reference ligand. After going in and deleting the extra coordinates, everything worked fine. But now I have another question. Occassionally, while visualizing and manipulating a protein structure (1XAP) with Chimera, I get colored rays (30-40) stretching across the screen. Is this a bug in the program? How can I stop this from happening? If I close Chimera, and open it again, it works for a while, and then sporadically the rays reappear. Thanks. Mark A. Cunningham, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry CPO 2191 Berea College Berea, KY 40404 (859)985-3029 Office (859)985-3303 Fax

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Reading Frame Problem
by markcunningham 10 Jun '06

10 Jun '06

Could someone please help with this. . Using Chimera, I am trying to calculate rmsd between an observed ligand versus GOLD docked ligand, however the problem is the ligands load into different reading frames. The format for both ligands is .mol2. How can I correct this problem, in other words load both ligands into the same reading frame so that I can then calculate their rmsd. Thanks. Mark

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Reading Frames
by Mark Cunningham 09 Jun '06

09 Jun '06

Hopefully someone can please respond to this before the weekend. I have Windows version of Chimera. I am using Chimera to run rmsd between observed ligands and GOLD calculated ligands. When I open both ligands ( with .mol2 format) with Chimera, they load in different reading frames, thus I can't make the rmds calculation. Please address this issue. The rmsd works fine otherwise, its just with the GOLD ligand files that I am getting the reading frame problems. Thanks very much. Mark Mark A. Cunningham, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry CPO 2191 Berea College Berea, KY 40404 (859)985-3029 Office (859)985-3303 Fax

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Writing a .x3d file that other programs can read
by Esther Bullitt 07 Jun '06

07 Jun '06

Hi, I am having trouble exporting a .x3d file in a format which programs that convert .x3d data to VRML data can read. The error message for one of them is: Xj3D Version: 1_0 Device found: Mouse-0 Device found: Keyboard-0 Error: Unexpected Exception: Unknown field name: chimera:hither for node: org.web3d.vrml.renderer.ogl.nodes.navigation.OGLViewpoint@1080876 Error: Failed to load file -- The ultimate goal is to have a VRML file that includes both the EM surface map and the pdb subunit structure together in a file that can be read by one of the companies that laser etches the structure into a glass cube. Some companies can read the pdb, some the VRML, but none can read both. Chimera says the .x3d can be converted into .vrml if there are no clipping planes or perspective, which there are not. But I still get this error. Any suggestions, pls? 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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