- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

new Chimera production release
by Eric Pettersen 14 May '04

14 May '04

Hi all, A new Chimera production release (version 1.1951) is now available for download. I've summarized the major additions since the last snapshot (1.1917) below. A list of all the changes since the last production release (1.1872) is in the release notes: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/relnotes/1.1951.html Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu Changes since 1.1917: General changes --------------- Newly opened models are shown larger (as well as models after a 'window' or 'focus' command) Selections can be written out as parsable text files (Actions->Write... or from the Selection Inspector) New residue attributes: kdHydrophobicity (Kyte-Doolittle hydropathy, amino acids only) mavPercentConserved (% conserved in a sequence alignment open in Multalign Viewer) above for use with Render/Select by attribute tools Double-picking a bond brings up a menu with Rotate Bond and Select Bonded (the latter is new and selects the atoms); double-picking a pseudobond bring up a menu with just Select Bonded; "select bonded" also now in Pseudobond Panel As much as possible, can handle PDB files with 100000+ atoms (e.g. AMBER output). Some PDB records (e.g. CONECT records) have no room for 6-digit atom serial numbers, so only can be used for the first 99,999 atoms. A new tutorial describing preparing images for publication Select by Attribute Value... in Selection menu and Model Panel New Tools --------- Lighting (Viewing Parameters): change and save lighting parameters Color Secondary Structure (Graphics): color peptides/proteins by secondary structure Render Attributes (Graphics): color or otherwise change atom, residue, or model displays based on attribute values; was in 1.1917 release but several changes have been made and documentation added Demo (its own category; entries are individual demos): create/replay demos in Chimera; example demo included (Cyclooxygenase) Tool Changes ------------ Adjust Torsions now allows a bond to be rotated with mouse motions in the graphics window Movie has File->Save PDB for writing out either the current frame or all frames that have been viewed Multalign Viewer: ClustalX-style residue letter coloring added and made the default; can save alignment depiction as an EPS file; can hide Consensus and/or Conservation lines RibbonStyleEditor now has two panels in which scalings and cross-sections can be defined and named; named cross-section are analogous to the built-in cross-sections (flat, edged, round) and can be accessed from the Actions menu or with ribrepr; nucleic acids are now treated separately in the scalings panel New "Graphics" category; Per-Model Clipping, PipesAndPlanks, ResProp, and Ribbon Style Editor moved into it SimpleSession saves lighting, ribbon scaling and cross-section(s), B-factor and occupancy values Web Data asks for confirmation before accepting certain files; associated option in Preferences Command Changes --------------- alias: $1, $2, $3, ... may be used to indicate the first, second, third... arguments of the alias conic: works on Windows, and the -s flag now works on Linux (besides Mac, SGI) write: has "trajectory" keyword to write all frames that have been viewed (loaded) [analogous option added to Model Panel's "write PDB" dialog] ribbackbone: now applies to nucleic acids also

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by riccardodesantis＠fastwebnet.it 05 May '04

05 May '04

Hallo, my name is Riccardo De Santis and I'm a new user of CHIMERA. I'd like to know how run the program from the command line. I've tryed with the command NOGUI but the program doesn't start. Another question is: how can I use matchmaker (in the graphic menu) to match the molecules from the command line? Which is the istruction to type? Thank you in advance, Riccardo De Santis.

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by riccardodesantis＠fastwebnet.it 04 May '04

04 May '04

Hallo, my name is Riccardo De Santis, and I'm a new user of CHIMERA. I'd like to know how to use the program in command line mode. I noticed that there is a NOGUI option, I tryed it but unsuccessfully. Cuold you help me , please? Thank you in advance, Riccardo De Santis.

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Coloring by bfactor
by Thomas Goddard 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

Hi Padma, We have developed a Chimera tool to color by bfactor or other attributes but it is not yet released. We expect to have a new release in the middle of May. Here are a couple approaches you could use now. You can use the color command like the following to color all atoms with bfactor between 10 and 15 green. color green @/bfactor>=10 and bfactor<=15 You could put a series of these commmands in a file to color several intervals different colors to get a rainbow effect. Use the "open" command to run the file of coloring commands. A more flexible route is to use some Python code. Putting the code shown below in a file bcolor.py and then opening this file will make a rainbow coloring by bfactor for the selected atoms. A fancier version of this could have a dialog popup to specify bfactor range and colors. If you make a molecular surface with Actions/Surface/Show the default coloring of this surface is to use the atom colors. So coloring the atoms by any of the above means will allow you to get the same coloring on a surface. Tom ----- code bcolor.py follows: # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def color_atoms_by_bfactor(atoms, b0, rgb0, b1, rgb1): for a in atoms: if hasattr(a, 'bfactor'): b = a.bfactor if b < b0: f = 0 elif b < b1: f = (b - b0) / (b1 - b0) else: f = 1 r,g,b = ((1-f)*rgb0[0] + f*rgb1[0], (1-f)*rgb0[1] + f*rgb1[1], (1-f)*rgb0[2] + f*rgb1[2]) import chimera a.color = chimera.MaterialColor(r,g,b) # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # from chimera import selection atoms = selection.currentAtoms() # currently selected atoms b0 = 5 rgb0 = (0,0,1) # blue b1 = 20 rgb1 = (1,0,0) # red color_atoms_by_bfactor(atoms, b0, rgb0, b1, rgb1) > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: One more Chimera question! > From: Padmaja Natarajan <nataraja(a)scripps.edu> > Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:31:38 -0700 > > Hi Tom, > > Is it possible to make a molecular surface based on PDB coordinates > and be able to view this surface colored (as a spectrum going from blue > for smallest to red for largest value), > depending on values stored in say B-factor column of the PDB file. > (as shown in figure below created using AVS) > > thanks again > regards > Padma

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Re: [Chimera-users] CHIMERA help - coloring density maps
by Thomas Goddard 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

Hi Padma, There is a Chimera command called "longbond" described in the Chimera User's Guide / Basic Functions / Commands / longbond http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/longbond.html that removes long bonds. There is currently no radial masking tool. But using the Isosurface Colorizer extension from EMAN you can set the color to transparent black outside or inside a certain radius. That will make it invisible. For example you can make the color blue at radius 10 nm, and transparent black at 10.01 nm. You will also want to turn on the Volume Viewer / Options / Dim transparent surface mesh switch to get rid of the specular highlights on the transparent black part of the surface. This trick for masking does not "cap" the isosurface at the radius where it is cut. So you see the inside of the isosurface. Turning off two sided lighting in Volume Viewer / Options will make the interior of the surface dark. To cut and cap the isosurface at a specific radius you really want to the display to act as if the volume data were zero outside a specified radius. I don't have any way to do that, although it probably would not be too hard to hack something into surface.py that copied the 3-d matrix and made it zero outside a specified radius. By the way, the modification I described to Chimera surface.py to make the Isosurface Colorizer from EMAN work is not needed in Chimera 1917. That change was included in Chimera 1917. I you are looking at models of virus particles you might be interested in the Chimera Multiscale extension. Here are some example images: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/viper/ The images at the bottom of that page show the RNA in satellite tobacco mosaic virus. Tom > From: Padmaja Natarajan <nataraja(a)scripps.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] CHIMERA help - coloring density maps > Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:08:02 -0700 > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > > Hi Tom, > > Thank you very much for the details you had given me earlier in > making the radial coloring work for surfaces. > I , with the help of my colleague Jeff who made the changes in the > chimera (version 1917) script, am > able to produce radial coloring for my density map! > > Can ask more questions?? > > 1) I have coordinates for an icosahedron, but when I read it into > chimera, > several un-wanted connections are made (probably because of the way the > PDB file is written - for use in the graphics program O). I do not see > any distance cut off > criterion command that would help (probably) remove some of those > connections! > > 2) density map: I would like a radial masking tool, that can be used to > choose > minimum and maximum values for radius and be able to see the map only > within this > radius range. For example, this helps in looking at the inner (RNA) > density in a virus structure. > > thanks again! > regards > Padma > ______________________________ > Padmaja Natarajan, Ph.D > The Scripps Research Institute > La Jolla, California, USA.

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install question
by Randy Heiland 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

Greetings from a newbie to Chimera, Is there a searchable archive? (I found the archive, but no associated search engine) I'd really like to be able to install Chimera without blowing away my current Python installation - is this possible? (I'll be using both Windows and Linux) Thanks, Randy

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Viewing orbitals and charge distributions
by João Otávio 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

Hello All! I am a CHIMERA newbie and I would like to know how could I create a module in order to read orbitals and/or charge distributions from molecular orbitals programs such as GAUSSIAN, GAMESS, etc. Thanks in advance, .................................................................João -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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save session error in Chimera 1892
by Juha Huiskonen 22 Apr '04

22 Apr '04

Hi, when trying to save session in chimera 1892 I get an error: Error processing trigger "save session": ValueError: Can't convert type <type 'bool'> (see reply log for Python traceback info) Reply log: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/chimera1892/share/__main__.py", line 56, in ? value = chimeraInit.init(sys.argv) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimeraInit.py", line 285, in init tkgui.eventLoop() File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/tkgui.py", line 2809, in eventLoop app.mainloop() File "/usr/local/chimera/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 965, in mainloop self.tk.mainloop(n) File "/usr/local/chimera/lib/python2.3/site-packages/Pmw/Pmw_1_2/lib/PmwBase.py", line 1747, in __call__ return apply(self.func, args) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/baseDialog.py", line 409, in OK self.Apply() File "/usr/local/chimera/share/OpenSave/__init__.py", line 141, in Apply self.command(1, self) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/SimpleSession/gui.py", line 24, in _saveCB saveSession(paths[0]) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/SimpleSession/save.py", line 269, in saveSession chimera.triggers.activateTrigger(SAVE_SESSION, buf) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/triggerSet.py", line 214, in activateTrigger self._triggerDict[name].activate(data) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/triggerSet.py", line 127, in activate ret = handler.invoke(self._name, triggerData) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/chimera/triggerSet.py", line 82, in invoke self._funcData, triggerData) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/VolumeViewer/__init__.py", line 138, in save_session_cb session.save_volume_state(self, file) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/VolumeViewer/session.py", line 22, in save_volume_state t = objecttree.instance_tree_to_basic_tree(s) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/SessionUtil/objecttree.py", line 69, in instance_tree_to_basic_tree d[k] = it2bt(getattr(itree, attr)) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/SessionUtil/objecttree.py", line 37, in it2bt return instance_tree_to_basic_tree(it, c, a) File "/usr/local/chimera/share/SessionUtil/objecttree.py", line 72, in instance_tree_to_basic_tree raise ValueError, "Can't convert type " + str(t) ValueError: Can't convert type <type 'bool'> -- The session file is written, but it doesn't contain the files I have read into chimera. Cheers, Juha Huiskonen

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Re: [Chimera-users] chimera and hydrophobic potentials
by Thomas Goddard 12 Apr '04

12 Apr '04

Hi Miguel, If GRID computes the hydrophobic potential on a surface, it seems like a bad strategy to save it in a volume format. If you interpolate onto a slightly different surface, you will get values interpolated with zeros in the volume because the hydrophobicity wasn't computed at most grid vertices. It seems it would be better to render the hydrophobicity values with exactly the GRID surface. Can GRID output the triangulated surface with hydrophobicity values? I looked at the MSMS library. It does not look like it provides a triangulated version of the solvent accessible service needed by Chimera. It can give you the surface area contributed by each atom to the solvent accessible surface. Tom > Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 22:39:40 +0100 > From: Miguel Ortiz <mol(a)ysbl.york.ac.uk> > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] chimera and hydrophobic potentials > > Dear Tom, > > I've tested your cns2delphi script and, as expected, it works wonderful- > ly. The problem with colouring the surface using these maps actually > comes from the fact that for the hydrophobic probe, grid only calculates > the potential on what it's called the "solvent accessible surface" and > not on the whole volume (as delphi does for electrostatics and grid for > other probes). Being this the case, the best solution would be to > render in chimera this surface (at present, msms renders the "solvent > excluded surface" defined as you said in your email) > > I will try to find out how msms renders its surfaces, because the only > difference between "solvent accessible " and "solvent excluded" is that > the first is the "surface" defined by the center of the probe, while > the second (msms one) is the contact surface between the surface of the > probe and that of the protein (as defined by the Van der Waals radii of > its atoms). And it seems to me that it shouldn't be difficult to convert > from one to the other. Or perhaps I'm wrong and it's more tricky... > > Thank you again for all your help. It has been not only useful but > also instructive. > > Best regards, > > Miguel

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Re: [Chimera-users] chimera and hydrophobic potentials
by Thomas Goddard 09 Apr '04

09 Apr '04

Hi Miguel, I wrote a conversion program cns2delphi.py that takes the k2f output and produces a delphi file and tried it on the data you sent. The delphi file is read properly by Chimera DelphiViewer and can be used to color an MSMS surface. A problem with the data you sent is that the hydrophobicity map is zero over the entire MSMS surface. There are blobs of hydrophobicity a few angstroms away from the surface but they don't touch the surface. I observed this by showing the map with the Chimera volume viewer (just use File/Open...). You can change the probe radius for generating the MSMS surface by going to Favorites/Model Panel, selecting the MSMS surface, clicking the Attributes button, changing the probe radius setting, and pressing Enter. (You need to set the surface color to a solid color before changing the radius or an error message is generated.) Unfortunately that does not push the molecular surface out uniformly -- only the surface in the cavities is pushed further from the molecule. Apparently the probe radius is the radius of a ball rolled over the molecule with standard atom radii. The MSMS surface is the surface of the region that cannot be touched by the ball. So a bigger ball does not change the surface location at protrusions. Maybe a better approach is to specify larger atom radii. Below is the cns2delphi.py Python program. It requires the Numeric Python module which is not a standard part of Python. The Python that comes with Chimera includes Numeric. You can convert k2f output to delphi format as follows. % /usr/local/chimera/bin/python2.3 cns2delphi.py 1ltlA.k2f 1ltlA.phi This creates the 1ltlA.phi file. To use the Chimera DelphiViewer extension, start Chimera, open 1ltlA.pdb, make a molecular surface with Actions/Surface/Show, start Extensions/Delphi/DelphiViewer, enter Potential File 1ltlA.phi, click the Browse button next to MSMS Surface in the Molecular surface pane so the surface is listed, then press Apply in the Molecular surface pane. This will color the surface. You can also just use File/Open... on 1ltlA.phi to see an isosurface of the hydrophobicity map. You can drag the vertical bar on the histogram shown in the volume viewer dialog to change the isosurface threshold level. Tom ----- cns2delphi.py follows. Preserve indentation since it is important in Python. #!/usr/bin/env python # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Convert CNS volume to Delphi format. # # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Returns matrix, xyz_origin, and xyz_step # def read_cns_file(path): f = open(path, 'r') f.readline() # First line is blank ntitle_line = f.readline() # integer number of comment lines try: ntitle = int(ntitle_line.split()[0]) except ValueError: raise SyntaxError, ('Invalid CNS comment line count on line 2: %s' % ntitle_line[:80]) for t in range(ntitle): f.readline() extent_line = f.readline() extent = split_fields(extent_line, 8, 9) try: na, amin, amax, nb, bmin, bmax, nc, cmin, cmax = map(int, extent) except ValueError: raise SyntaxError, 'Invalid CNS grid size line: %s' % extent_line[:80] cell_line = f.readline() cell = split_fields(cell_line, 12, 6) try: cell_params = map(float, cell) except ValueError: raise SyntaxError, ('Invalid CNS cell parameters line: %s' % cell_line[:80]) cell_size = cell_params[0:3] cell_angles = cell_params[3:6] axis_order_line = f.readline() # Must be ZYX asize, bsize, csize = (amax - amin + 1, bmax - bmin + 1, cmax - cmin + 1) if asize <= 0 or bsize <= 0 or csize <=0: raise SyntaxError, ('Bad CNS grid size (%d,%d,%d)' % (asize, bsize, csize)) import Numeric data = Numeric.zeros((csize, bsize, asize), Numeric.Float32) for c in range(csize): read_floats(f, 1) # c section number values = read_floats(f, asize * bsize) array = Numeric.array(values, Numeric.Float32) plane = Numeric.reshape(array, (bsize, asize)) data[c,:,:] = plane f.readline() # footer - int value must be -9999 f.readline() # density average and standard dev f.close() xyz_step = (cell_size[0]/na, cell_size[1]/nb, cell_size[2]/nc) xyz_origin = map(lambda gmin, step: gmin * step, (amin, bmin, cmin), xyz_step) return data, xyz_origin, xyz_step # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Read ascii float values on as many lines as needed to get count values. # def read_floats(f, count): values = [0.0] * count c = 0 while c < count: line = f.readline() if line == '': raise FileFormatError('File is shorter than expected') fields = split_fields(line, 12, 6) if c + len(fields) > count: fields = fields[:count-c] for v in map(float, fields): values[c] = v c = c + 1 return values # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def split_fields(line, field_size, max_fields): fields = [] for k in range(0, len(line), field_size): f = line[k:k+field_size].strip() if f: fields.append(f) else: break return fields[:max_fields] # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def write_delphi_file(path, matrix, xyz_center, scale): zsize, ysize, xsize = matrix.shape if xsize != ysize or xsize != zsize: raise ValueError, "Matrix size (%d,%d,%d) has to be the same in all 3 dimensions" % (zsize, ysize, xsize) size = xsize uplbl = delphi_record('Converted from ' + path) morelabels = delphi_record('%70s' % '') import Numeric data_flat = Numeric.ravel(matrix) data = delphi_record(floats_as_string(data_flat)) botlbl = delphi_record('') params = delphi_record(floats_as_string((scale,) + tuple(xyz_center)) + integer_as_string(size)) f = open(path, 'wb') f.write(uplbl + morelabels + data + botlbl + params) f.close() # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def delphi_record(data): size_str = integer_as_string(len(data)) r = size_str + data + size_str return r # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def integer_as_string(i): import Numeric return Numeric.array((i,), Numeric.Int32).tostring() # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def floats_as_string(f): import Numeric return Numeric.array(f, Numeric.Float32).tostring() # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def cns_to_delphi_file(cns_path, delphi_path): data, xyz_origin, xyz_step = read_cns_file(cns_path) if xyz_step[0] != xyz_step[1] or xyz_step[0] != xyz_step[2]: raise Value_Error, 'Step sizes (%.2g, %.2g, %.2g) are not the same along all axes' % xyz_step scale = 1.0 / xyz_step[0] size = list(data.shape) size.reverse() xyz_center = map(lambda o, st, sz: o + st * ((sz-1)/2), xyz_origin, xyz_step, size) write_delphi_file(delphi_path, data, xyz_center, scale) # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # if __name__ == '__main__': import sys if len(sys.argv) != 3: sys.stderr.write('Syntax: cns2delphi <cnsfile> <delphifile>\n') sys.exit(1) cns_path = sys.argv[1] delphi_path = sys.argv[2] cns_to_delphi_file(cns_path, delphi_path)

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Re: [Chimera-users] chimera and hydrophobic potentials
by Thomas Goddard 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

Hi Miguel, Send me some example k2a output and I'll send you a little Python program that will convert it into a Delphi file readable by Chimera DelphiViewer. Tom > Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 19:33:31 +0100 > From: Miguel Ortiz =?iso-8859-15?Q?Lombard=EDa?= <mol(a)ysbl.york.ac.uk> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] chimera and hydrophobic potentials > > Hi Tom, > > Thank you very much for your comments. > Part of the problem is that I don't trust the "delphi" maps that > GRID produces. Actually, I've been able to open some of them with > chimera. Other programs ablo to open such maps (like vmd) can't > open any of them. > > Yes, I've used k2a, and it works: it produces an ascii map that > looks sensible. My problem here is that my programming skills are > very reduced! I could work it out on a "model" program, but not > from scratch. Have you something like that? > > Thank you again, your answer has been very useful. > > Best regards, > > Miguel > > -- > Miguel Ortiz Lombardía > email: mol(a)ysbl.york.ac.uk > http://www.ysbl.york.ac.uk/~mol > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Our business in life is not to succeed, but > to continue to fail in good spirits. R.L. Stevenson >

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chimera and hydrophobic potentials
by Miguel Ortiz Lombardía 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

Hi, I would like to display the hydrophobic potential of a protein onto its MSMS surface. One program that calculates such potentials is GRID (from Molecular Discovery: http://www.moldiscovery.com/ ) GRID can produce the map in different formats. One of them is like delphi (grasp mode) map. This has the drawback that the map has to be 65x65x65 grid points and the grid points separation has to be an integer starting with 1 Ansgtroem. Hence, it's not appropriate for medium-big proteins. The GRID format hasn't those limitations. I can __sometimes__ read in chimera (throught the DelphiViewer) the delphi maps produced by GRID. Sometimes they are unreadable (and this seems to me more a problem with GRID than with chimera: something wrong in the header) But even when they are readable I'm not sure they are covering the region they are supposed to be covering. Does anyone know if chimera can read any other of the GRID map formats: GRID (this would be the optimal) Chem-X Frodo Insight Molcad Quanta Sybyl Otherwise: does anybody how to the kind of representation I'm looking for in any other way? Thank you for any advice! Miguel -- Miguel Ortiz Lombardía email: mol(a)ysbl.york.ac.uk http://www.ysbl.york.ac.uk/~mol ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits. R.L. Stevenson

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compiling minrms on mac os10.2.8
by Chris Adams 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

Hi: I am also trying to get minrms on my OS10.2.8 machine. I followed the commands you recommended to Howard to get the "make" command to work. However, my ls output was not at all like what you said would happen in the message. I get this: ls -1 /usr/bin/*make /usr/bin/automake and am unable to compile the minrms program. I am not very unix savvy but am learning, perhaps you can help? thank you, Chris Adams UW-Biochemistry Madison, WI 53704

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correction re sessions
by Elaine Meng 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

Hello, in my previous message about saving parts of PDB files, I included some text from older replies to users, and this part about sessions is no longer true: >The command "save" (or File... Save Session As... ) doesn't save coordinates, >only how they are positioned/colored/displayed, etc. In fact, restarting >a saved session will use the original input file(s) for coordinates. Actually in the last few versions, the session files do include coordinates and do not look for the original input files. Sorry about that, Elaine

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writing out part of a PDB
by Elaine Meng 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

Hi Shuanghong, Question (1), surface problem: I don't think the problem where nothing happens when you type the command "surface" has been reported. Sometimes there is a delay while the surface is being calculated, but it shouldn't be terribly long. Problems have been reported in some cases, but they generally cause some sort of error message. To register a problem more formally, you could send mail to chimera-bugs(a)cgl.ucsf.edu and be sure to include what version of Chimera and what kind of computer you are using, and what structure(s) cause the problem. Question (2), writing out part of a PDB file: If you are on a **non-Windows** system, you can use the command "pdbrun" to save just the atoms that are displayed. You could display only the atoms you want by first selecting what you want to measure the distance to. Then, use Select...Zone... to select all the atoms in the region you want to write out. Then the command "show sel" will undisplay the rest of the stuff. (Or, instead of selecting you could do it all in one command, for example show :212.a za<4.5 for all atoms within 4.5 A of any atom in residue 212 of chain A. Specifying zones in the command line is described in the manual page on atom specification, which is listed in the Basic Functions index.) Next, use pdbrun (see man page using the command "help pdbrun"), for example: pdbrun nouser cat > myzone.pdb Pdbrun literally sends the information for only the displayed atoms in their displayed positions to another command, in this case "cat" to send the information to the file myzone.pdb. If you want the coordinates to be the same as in the original file, first use the command "reset." The command "save" (or File... Save Session As... ) doesn't save coordinates, only how they are positioned/colored/displayed, etc. In fact, restarting a saved session will use the original input file(s) for coordinates. The command "write" (same as the function "write PDB" in the Model Panel) saves coordinates into a file. However, these will save the entire coordinates whether displayed or not. If you are on **Windows** the only way I can think of is to actually delete the atoms/bonds you don't want to write out ("delete" command or Actions... Atoms/Bonds... delete). For example, when only what you want to write out is displayed, delete @/!display actually deletes the other stuff. Subsequently, a file created with "write" would only contain the atoms/bonds that had not been deleted. I hope this helps, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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crashing when calculating larger surfaces
by Elaine Meng 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

>From eperozo(a)virginia.edu Wed Mar 31 15:15:53 2004 >Sorry to bother you, but I'm having terrible problems with the generation of >surfaces. The program crashes as soon as I request a surface to be built (a >tetramer with ~250 residues/monomer). Interestingly, I don't seem to have >problems with a smaller protein (120 residues). When it crashes it gives me >exit code - 1073741819. Tried two versions of chimera in two different >computers. Same result. >Is this a known bug? >Thanks in advance. >Eduardo Hi Eduardo, It is a known problem that the surface routine is a memory hog. If you are on a unix-type machine it might help to type "unlimit" in the shell before starting Chimera. Otherwise, it might just be trying to use more memory than your machines have. We have been using code developed elsewhere, MSMS, for these surfaces. Due to memory/robustness problems, we are generating some code in-house which will eventually replace MSMS. However, this is still in progress, and has not been incorporated into any Chimera release. You could try deleting extra monomers before using surface or instead show the low-resolution surface generated by the Multiscale Models tool (although it builds multimers with matrix info, even if there is no matrix info, it will still show the low-res surface for the structure you have open). Tools...Multiscale... Multiscale Models, click the "Make models" button. Then if you select All chains (button near the top) you can change the Resolution value and then click Resurface to see different levels of detail. There is a man page for this tool in the Tools section of the User's Guide if you want more info. If you want to register the problem more formally, please send a message to chimera-bugs(a)cgl.ucsf.edu including version, platform, and an example or few of which structures (e.g. their PDB IDs) cause the problem. Best, Elaine

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Re: [Chimera-users] Rotating molecules
by Elaine Meng 30 Mar '04

30 Mar '04

Hi Eduardo, yes, the command "move" does translations by a specified amount and the command "turn" rotates by a specified amount. Type help move in the command line to see the man page for move, and help turn for the man page for turn. You might also want to take a look at the commands "rock" and "roll" Hope this helps, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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Rotating molecules
by Eduardo Perozo 30 Mar '04

30 Mar '04

Hello, Is there a way to rotate/translate a molecule by a specific amount? Clearly I can do "freehand" rotations with the mouse but I will like to define rotations and translation numerically. Thanks! Eduardo

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Re: [Chimera-users] export pdb file
by Elaine Meng 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Hi Shuanghong, there are two ways to export a PDB file. One is by choosing the "write PDB" function from the Model Panel. The other is by using the "write" command. Each way has an option to save the transformed coordinates or the coordinates relative to the untransformed coordinates of a particular model (take a look at the User's Guide for detailed descriptions). Hope this helps! Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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Re: [Chimera-users] v1.1917 OpenGL misconfiguration detected.
by Greg Couch 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Got it. The /usr/X11R6/lib/ligGL.so.1 file should have been removed as part of the NVidia driver installation. We just confirmed that with the Red Hat 9 and the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run driver distribution. You had version 53.28, so maybe it was a bug in that driver? We had previous installed NVidia version 43.63 using the same mechanism, so it's probably not a problem with the driver, but something went wrong during the installation. You should uninstall and install that driver again (or just upgrade to the 53.36). Good luck, Greg On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Pattanayek, Sabuj wrote: > Here is the output > > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 367092 Jan 3 12:17 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 264888 Feb 12 13:22 /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1 > > I am using RH9. > > Quoting Greg Couch <gregc(a)cgl.ucsf.edu>: > > > Chimera checks /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 and /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1 to see > > if they point to the same file or not. If they do not, then that indicates > > that there was an OpenGL driver installation error -- sometimes resulting > > in chimera not using the hardware accelerated OpenGL driver. > > > > Could you send the output from: > > > > ls -Ll /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1 > > > > I'd like to confirm that they are different. And which version of Linux > > are your running -- Red Hat 8.0? Mandrake? Suse? Debian? We'd like to > > try to recreate the problem here. > > > > Greg Couch > > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > > gregc(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > > > > On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Pattanayek, Sabuj wrote: > > > > > Finally got around to installing the latest development linux version. At > > > startup I'm getting the following messages: > > > > > > OpenGL misconfiguration detected. > > > Please reinstall graphics driver. > > > > > > v1.1872 & v1.1892 still work on the machine with no problems. > > > > > > The video card on the machine is nvidia quadro 750 xgl running this driver > > from > > > nvidia's ftp site: > > > > > > NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5328-pkg1.run > > > > > > I know this is not the latest version of the driver, would upgrading it > > make a > > > difference? > > >

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v1.1917 OpenGL misconfiguration detected.
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Hi, Finally got around to installing the latest development linux version. At startup I'm getting the following messages: OpenGL misconfiguration detected. Please reinstall graphics driver. v1.1872 & v1.1892 still work on the machine with no problems. The video card on the machine is nvidia quadro 750 xgl running this driver from nvidia's ftp site: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5328-pkg1.run I know this is not the latest version of the driver, would upgrading it make a difference? Thanks, ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sabuj Pattanayek Martin Egli Lab Vanderbilt University Dept. Biochemistry http://linegli.mc.vanderbilt.edu

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export pdb file
by Shuanghong Huo 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Hi, I remember that Midus can export pdb file, but I cannot find this function in Chimera. Thanks, Shuanghong

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question
by Wendy Ochoa 28 Mar '04

28 Mar '04

Could you please tell me how can I define the secondary structure of the protein i am displaying with chimera. I know the secondary structure of my pdb, so I would like to draw a picture of the protein showing the B sheets and alpha helix in different colors. Thansk a lot!!!

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32 bit / 64 bit Linux mixup
by Thomas Goddard 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

The 32 bit Linux Chimera 1917 was accidentally replaced with the 64 bit Linux version yesterday (Thursday 11 AM PST, March 11). The 32 bit version has been restored Friday 7 PM PST, March 12. Tom

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Re: [Chimera-users] chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture.
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

[root@eglimp]# uname -iorsp Linux 2.4.22-openmosix2smp athlon i386 GNU/Linux it seems the link to chimera-1.1917-linux.exe on the download page is actually the link to the x86_64 version: [root@eglimp]# head chimera-1.1917-linux.exe ELF> @@@@"@@@@@�@@@@d�d�PP��``P`@@ P�d � � �||Q�/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2GNU etc.. and [root@eglimp]# head chimera-1.1872-linux.exe ELF44 (#�#��x▒�@ /lib/ld-linux.so.2GNUCVN>LU@SB<5QF/4)1K$.TG!J▒= Can you please put the correct link to the x86_32 linux version on the download page? Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek Quoting Greg Couch <gregc(a)cgl.ucsf.edu>: > The linux distribution is only for the Intel/AMD x86 architecture. Are > you trying in install on something else? For example, and Alpha or > PowerPC? > > - Greg > > On Fri, 12 Mar 2004, Pattanayek, Sabuj wrote: > > > I'm getting this error when I try to run the installation > > > > -rwx------ 1 root root 26226504 Mar 12 12:02 > chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > [root@eglimp]# chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture. > > [root@eglimp]# ./chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > ./chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture. > > [root@eglimp]# md5sum chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > 67e955ce87d000916039d94c7d6d0a56 chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > [root@eglimp]# uname -rs > > Linux 2.4.22-openmosix2smp > > > > web page: > > > > linux chimera-1.1917-linux.exe > > Size: 26226504 bytes > > MD5: 67e955ce87d000916039d94c7d6d0a56 >

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save session stripping TER statements from PDB's
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

In version 1.1892 (and older possibly), file > save session seems to be stripping TER statements from PDB files. The TER statement is helpful for specifically telling Chimera and other PDB viewers not to connect consecutive residues in a PDB (for example ATP/water molecules at the end of a PDB that are not part of the main protein chain). Re-inserting TER's manually into the .py file can become cumbersome especially when one PDB insertion in the .py is 27000+ columns long. Would it be possible to fix this in future versions? Thanks in advance, Sabuj Pattanayek

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[Chimera-users] chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture.
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

I'm getting this error when I try to run the installation -rwx------ 1 root root 26226504 Mar 12 12:02 chimera-1.1917-linux.exe [root@eglimp]# chimera-1.1917-linux.exe chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture. [root@eglimp]# ./chimera-1.1917-linux.exe ./chimera-1.1917-linux.exe: Exec format error. Wrong Architecture. [root@eglimp]# md5sum chimera-1.1917-linux.exe 67e955ce87d000916039d94c7d6d0a56 chimera-1.1917-linux.exe [root@eglimp]# uname -rs Linux 2.4.22-openmosix2smp web page: linux chimera-1.1917-linux.exe Size: 26226504 bytes MD5: 67e955ce87d000916039d94c7d6d0a56 Thanks in advance Sabuj Pattanayek

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mac version of 1.1917 snapshot
by Eric Pettersen 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

Hi again, If you downloaded the Mac version of 1.1917 before about 5pm PST today, you should download it again because we updated it to fix a bug. The non-Mac versions are fine. The Mac version was not displaying atoms in stick, ball-and-stick, or sphere modes (wireframe mode was okay). Sorry for the possible inconvenience! Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu

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new snapshot release (1.1917)
by Eric Pettersen 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

Hi, We've just put a new snapshot release of Chimera up for download on the web site (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera) Here are the highlights of the changes between this snapshot (1.1917) and the previous one (1.1892): tools: Match -> Align can create sequence alignments for multiple matched structures (not just pairs) Multalign Viewer can show/edit sequence annotations for relevant formats (RSF, Stockholm) SimpleSession -- saves label font/size and secondary structure assignments -- compiles to .pyc file: 50% less memory use, 15% less time to restore added Export Surfaces as VRML (in Utilities category) -- save surfaces made by Multiscale Models and Volume Viewer as VRML files added Browser Configuration (also in Utilities) -- configure browsers to send certain file types to Chimera (see also new Web Data preferences) FindHBond and PBReader allow line width to be set Movie has preliminary support for reading GROMOS trajectories newly available commands: bondcolor -- color bonds independent of flanking atoms bonddisplay -- set how bond display depends on flanking atom display bondrepr -- set bond representation to be wire or stick (independent of atoms) hbonds -- command equivalent of FindHBond tool rlabel -- whether residue name/number is included in the first atom label per residue Model Panel new 'render attrs...' button allows coloring by model/residue/atom attributes (e.g. B-factor) The 'render attrs...' interface is in preliminary form and will be changing. It also isn't documented yet but is pretty easy to use. Just pick an attribute of interest and a histogram of values will be displayed. By default there will be three color bars on the histogram that you can grab and move around with the mouse, or add or remove with control-click. You can use the 'Color' color well to set the color of the last bar you picked. The 'No value' color well is used in the rare case of the attribute being missing (or set to None) in the atom/residue/model. Click Apply or OK to make the coloring happen. Several parts of the interface are grayed out since they haven't been implemented yet. In the future you will be able to select by attribute value, and change atom radii or ribbon widths based on attribute values. If you are using the last production release (1.1872) instead of the previous snapshot, then you will also be getting these features when you go to 1.1917: general: additional file formats for saved images (PS, EPS) different lighting scheme in graphics window (over-the-shoulder instead of headlight) tools: added Shininess Control (in Viewing Parameters) -- adjust shininess, brightness, and the color used for shiny highlights Collaboratory section in Preferences allows designation of port number and IP address (for firewalls/NAT) Movie -- allows definition of scripts to be run at each time step -- looping can be turned off Multalign Viewer allows structure selection by arbitrary % residue conservation Volume Viewer options added to subdivide and smooth isosurfaces commands: copy command now offers supersampling and PS/EPS formats new ribbackbone command controls whether ribbon and backbone atoms are shown simultaneously Enjoy! Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Use of Chimera for Trends Plant Sci March 2004...
by John F. Allen 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

....for article and issue cover illustration. Final proofs attached. Acknowledged. Great program. Will send reprint(s) and final pdf on request. Many thanks John F. Allen Professor of Plant Cell Biology Plant Biochemistry Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Lund University Box 124 SE-221 00 Lund Sweden Tel: +46 46 222 7788 (Office); +46 46 222 4073 (Laboratory) Fax: +46 46 222 4009 (Direct); +46 46 222 4116 (Departmental) E-mail: john.allen(a)plantbio.lu.se Plant Cell Biology: http://plantcell.lu.se Publications: http://plantcell.lu.se:591/john/

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CHIMERA help - coloring density maps
by Padmaja Natarajan 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Hi, I have just started using CHIMERA to look at volume files in the CCP4 format for virus particles. I would like to color the density as a color ramp continuously changing between ANY two specified colors depending on the radial distance from the center of the virus particle (as shown in the attached figure). How do I achieve this with CHIMERA? thank you very much for your help in advance. -Padma

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Chimera dead after NVidia driver install...
by Patrick Ladam 12 Jan '04

12 Jan '04

Hi all, I had chimera 1.1872 working OK on my MDK 9.2 Linux box until I installed the NVidia driver for my GeFOrce2 card. What happens now is that chimera launches but stops during start-up with an error box indicating this message: "Togl: Couldn't get visual" This sounds like an OpenGL problem to me but I am far from being a specialist on this. Does anyone have a clue how I can debug/fix this ? Bye -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Patrick LADAM | | | Laboratoire CSSB | THE BIG BANG THEORY: | | UFR SMBH | | | 74 rue Marcel Cachin | In the begining there was | | 93017 Bobigny CEDEX | nothing at all. | | e-mail: | | | ladam(a)smbh.smbh.univ-paris13.fr | Then, it exploded... | | Tel: 01 48 38 77 26 / 76 85 | | | Fax: 01 48 38 77 77 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------

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hi
by amutha ramaswamy 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

Dear Sir It is possible to make movies with PDB structurers in chimera. this would really be helpfull in visualing the conformatinal changes. I know chimera has the option for movie with trajectory files. but i wish to kow the option with PDB files only. Looking forward for your kind reply Sincerely Amutha Dr Amutha Ramaswamy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biomedical Informatics 3184 Graves Hall, 333 West 10th Avenue The Ohio state University, Columbus, OHIO 43210 Phone: 614-688-3236 (Office); 614-291-0071(Residence) Fax: 614-292-7659 (Office) --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes

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Re: save selected atoms in a pdb file?
by Elaine Meng 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

Hi Sabuj, You can make surfaces that surround a set of atoms without making a separate PDB file. For example, if you have those atoms selected already, just use the command: surfcat mygroup sel where "mygroup" could be whatever you choose to name this set of atoms and "sel" means what is currently selected. Then, the command surface mygroup will show surface surrounding that group. There are several ways you could select the atoms of interest, and it sounds like you already figured out that part; the following detailed example is just one possibility: open pdb:2gbp sel :glc z<4.5 ~sel :glc ~sel solvent surfcat nearby sel ~sel surf nearby Here I opened a glucose-binding protein structure, selected all residues with any atom within 4.5 A of the ligand glucose (glc), then subtracted glucose itself and waters from the selection. Then I made the selected atoms a surface category with "surfcat," unselected them, and showed the corresponding surface. If you really want to save the selection to a file, it can be done on unix systems. Chimera can send information on what atoms are displayed to the system, and then the system command "cat" can send the information to a file. In Chimera, if the atoms of interest are selected: show sel pdbrun nouser cat > ~homedir/myfile.pdb (where "homedir" is your username) saves the displayed atoms to a PDB file named myfile.pdb in your home directory. It is necessary to use show (which undisplays everything else) since pdbrun includes all atoms that are displayed. The coordinates are transformed, so will be different from the original coordinates if you have moved the view around. If you want the untransformed coords, use the "reset" command before the "pdbrun" command. This process doesn't work on Windows as there is no cat command. I hope this helps, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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save selected atoms in a pdb file?
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

Hi, Is it possible to save only the currently selected set of atoms/bonds or the atoms/bonds currently shown in the display into a pdb file? This is would be useful when doing surfaces for a particular location (e.g. atoms surrounding a central cavity), since the command "surface selected" seems to leave gaps in inaccessible areas (behind the atoms surrounding the cavity). Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek

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[Chimera-users] shininess/brightness/specular color of surfnet surfaces
by Pattanayek, Sabuj 05 Jan '04

05 Jan '04

Hi, Is it possible to alter the shininess/brightness/specular color of Surfnet surfaces? Also is it possible to save the surfaces so they don't have to be recreated every time? Thanks, ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sabuj Pattanayek Martin Egli Lab Vanderbilt University Dept. Biochemistry http://linegli.mc.vanderbilt.edu

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Old version for Sparky
by laurent volpon 05 Jan '04

05 Jan '04

Hello, I would like to download an old version of Chimera (1.1442) because I have to use it with the same Python version (2.1) as Sparky. I tried at http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/distrib/oldreleases.html but I had this: "Error: The URL you used is malformed". Please can you help me to find this version, or is there a way to use the version I have (1.1872) with the version 2.1 of Python (instead of 2.2). Thank you by advance for your answer. Sincerely Dr Laurent VOLPON ______________________________ Dr Laurent Volpon 3575 Avenue du Parc, Suite 5315 P.O. Box #85 Montréal, Qc, H2X 4A3 tel.: (514) 847-9494 ______________________________ --------------------------------- Lèche-vitrine ou lèche-écran ? Yahoo! Magasinage.

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vdw viewer
by Terry Downing 23 Dec '03

23 Dec '03

Hey CGL, I would like to be able to visualize several different vdw parameter sets on the same molecule. Is there a way to visualize just the vdw surface? Can I change the parameter files easily? As always, thanks in advance for your help. Sincerely, Terry Downing -- P. Therese Downing Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program Kuntz and James Labs, UCSF Voice: (415)476-3986 Fax: (415)502-1411

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ribbon+atoms
by Eric Pettersen 22 Dec '03

22 Dec '03

Hi, the 1892 snapshot release we just put out allows control over whether backbone atoms can be displayed with ribbons (on a per-model basis). There is a "ribbackbone" command, an entry in the New Molecules preference category, and a control in the attributes panel (reached via the "attributes..." button in the model panel). Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu

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interactive volume segmentation
by Juha Huiskonen 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Hello, currently it is possible to select only box-shaped subregions in Volume Viewer. I would be especially interested in segmenting electron density maps or their isosurfaces to different subregions with any shape interactively. Is anyone planning to add a feature like this? Regards, Juha Huiskonen

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera export to VRML?
by Thomas Goddard 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

Hi Morgan, I've written an extension to export Chimera multi-scale and volume surfaces as VRML. I wasn't able to export the molecular (MSMS) surfaces because the code does not provide access to the surface coloring. I've submitted a request to enhance the molecular surface code to make surface colors readable. I'm not sure if the VRML surface exporting will make it into the coming snapshot release. If it doesn't I will provide it to you by email. I'll let you know when we have the snapshot ready, probably later this week. Tom

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera export to VRML?
by Thomas Goddard 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

Hi Morgan, We hope to have a snapshot Chimera release later this week. I'll try to get VRML output of multi-scale and msms surfaces in that release. Snapshot releases aren't as well tested as production releases, but are intended for trying out new features like this. Tom PS: Your email does not go to chimera-users unless you explicitly CC it to that list. We like to post to that list so others can benefit from it. I've included your email below and CC'ed this to chimera-users. Let me know if you want to keep your email private. > From: Morgan Ryan <mryan1(a)nc.rr.com> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera export to VRML? > Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 14:35:27 -0500 > > Thanks, Thomas. (Am I broadcasting to the list? I'm not sure if I'm > talking to a list or just you and Eric Petterson...) > > > For a large structure like a > > ribosome the VRML file ...might have a million triangles, and the file > > will > > at least be 30 megabytes. > > The 3D programs I use have fairly refined mesh management tools for > reducing complexity selectively, although being able to choose the mesh > density directly through MSMS would be pleasing. > > > You can choose the resolution of the multi-scale surfaces. We don't > > currently have VRML output for the multi-scale surfaces but that > > could be added fairly easily. I could look into that. > > The advantage of VRML output (or 3dmf, or dxf, or some other > interchange format) is that you could open the model in Maya, Studio > Max, Strata, Cinema 4D, any of the 3D animation programs, and make > startling movies wiith Hollywood special effects--light sabers! > Atomic-resolution recreations of enzyme reaction mechanisms! (The > latter is what I'm working on...) > > It would be a wonderful extension of Chimera if VRML output were added. > Morgan

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Chimera export to VRML?
by Morgan Ryan 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

VRML seems to be a native internal format for (the magnificent) Chimera. Is it possible to export VRML models from Chimera? Or do you worldly folks know of a mechanism for converting msms output into vrml files? Thanks! Morgan Ryan, enthusiastic amateur ____________________ Morgan Ryan Development editor W H Freeman 209 Adams Way Chapel Hill NC 27516 phone: 919 942 4890 fax: 651 846 5265 mryan(a)whfreeman.com

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help
by amutha ramaswamy 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

Dear sir I am using the Chimera molecular visualising software. I am not able to color the PDB structure according to the B-factors. could you plase let me know how do i color accroding to the bfactor. i would greatly apprecuate your help in this regard sincerely amutha Dr Amutha Ramaswamy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biomedical Informatics 3184 Graves Hall, 333 West 10th Avenue The Ohio state University, Columbus, OHIO 43210 Phone: 614-688-3236 (Office); 614-291-0071(Residence) Fax: 614-292-7659 (Office) --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing

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Re: Gaussians
by Thomas Goddard 10 Dec '03

10 Dec '03

Hi Lars, I'm not sure what you mean by visualizing some Gaussians. If you mean you want to make a volume which contains some specified Gaussians then I can give you a separate Python program that will do that. I already wrote it for another user. It is included at the end of this email. It outputs a netcdf format volume file. Tom % ./spots.py Make a volume array that is the sum of specified Gaussians. The first line of the input file has the grid cell size. Each subsequent line has 5 fields giving x, y, z, width, height. A volume grid is made that includes each Gaussian out to 3 widths. The resulting volume is written in netcdf format. Syntax: spots.py <infile> <outfile> % cat spotfile .5 15.49100 7.05000 17.16500 0.38 1.00 14.94600 7.55000 15.88800 0.35 1.00 16.01100 7.60400 14.81400 0.34 1.00 ... % ./spots.py spotfile gspottest.nc The spots.py code follows. Note that it contains a path to your Chimera installation because it needs Chimera modules to write the netcdf volume. #!/usr/bin/env python # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Make a volume array that is the sum of specified Gaussians. # The resulting volume is written in netcdf format. # # Syntax: spots.py <infile> <outfile> # # The input file has a grid cell size on the first line followed by one # line per gaussian with 5 fields specifying x, y, z, width, height. # import os.path import sys # Need Chimera path to use VolumeData and Numeric modules CHIMERA_PATH = '/usr/local/chimera' sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(CHIMERA_PATH, 'lib')) sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(CHIMERA_PATH, 'share')) import Numeric # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def make_spot_grid(path): step_size, spot_parameters = read_spots(path) range = 3 # in spot widths xyz_min, xyz_max = bounding_box(spot_parameters, range) xyz_origin = xyz_min xyz_step = (step_size, step_size, step_size) xyz_size = map(lambda a,b: a - b, xyz_max, xyz_min) import math grid_size = map(lambda s, step, math=math: 1 + int(math.ceil(s/step)), xyz_size, xyz_step) a = spot_array(spot_parameters, range, xyz_origin, step_size, grid_size) from VolumeData import Array_Grid_Data g = Array_Grid_Data(a, xyz_origin, xyz_step) return g # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def read_spots(path): f = open(path, 'r') lines = f.readlines() f.close() step_size = float(lines[0]) spot_params = [] for line in lines[1:]: params = map(float, line.split()) spot_params.append(params) return step_size, spot_params # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def bounding_box(spot_parameters, range): xmin = ymin = zmin = None xmax = ymax = zmax = None for x, y, z, w, h in spot_parameters: pad = range * w if xmin == None or x - pad < xmin: xmin = x - pad if ymin == None or y - pad < ymin: ymin = y - pad if zmin == None or z - pad < zmin: zmin = z - pad if xmax == None or x + pad > xmax: xmax = x + pad if ymax == None or y + pad > ymax: ymax = y + pad if zmax == None or z + pad > zmax: zmax = z + pad return (xmin, ymin, zmin), (xmax, ymax, zmax) # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def spot_array(spot_parameters, range, xyz_origin, step_size, grid_size): shape = list(grid_size) shape.reverse() # array indices are z, y, x. array = Numeric.zeros(shape, Numeric.Float) for x, y, z, width, height in spot_parameters: add_spot((x,y,z), width, height, range, xyz_origin, step_size, array) return array # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def add_spot(xyz, width, height, srange, xyz_origin, step_size, array): ijk = map(lambda a,b,s=step_size: (a - b)/s, xyz, xyz_origin) w = width / step_size w2 = w * w r = srange * width / step_size import math imin, jmin, kmin = map(lambda l, r=r, math=math: int(math.floor(l-r)), ijk) imax, jmax, kmax = map(lambda l, r=r, math=math: int(math.ceil(l+r)), ijk) for k in range(kmin, kmax+1): for j in range(jmin, jmax+1): for i in range(imin, imax+1): di, dj, dk = i-ijk[0], j-ijk[1], k-ijk[2] s2 = di*di + dj*dj + dk*dk e = height * math.exp(-s2/(2*w2)) array[k,j,i] += e # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def bfactor_backbone_spots(path, molecule = None): if molecule == None: import chimera molecule = chimera.openModels.list()[0] out = open(path, 'w') out.write('.5\n') # step size import math for a in molecule.atoms: if a.name in ('C', 'N', 'CA') and hasattr(a, 'bfactor'): x, y, z = a.coord().xyz.data() w = math.sqrt(a.bfactor / (8 * math.pi**2)) h = 1 out.write('%8.5f %8.5f %8.5f %6.2f %6.2f\n' % (x,y,z,w,h)) out.close() # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def syntax(): msg = ('Make a volume array that is the sum of specified Gaussians.\n' + 'The first line of the input file has the grid cell size.\n' + 'Each subsequent line has 5 fields giving x, y, z, width, height.\n' + 'A volume grid is made that includes each Gaussian out to 3 widths.\n' + 'The resulting volume is written in netcdf format.\n' + 'Syntax: spots.py <infile> <outfile>\n') sys.stderr.write(msg) sys.exit(1) # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # def run_command(): if len(sys.argv) != 3: syntax() inpath = sys.argv[1] outpath = sys.argv[2] grid = make_spot_grid(inpath) from VolumeData.netcdf.netcdf_grid import write_grid_as_netcdf write_grid_as_netcdf(grid, outpath) # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # if __name__ == '__main__': run_command()

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B-Factor
by Luis Cuello 08 Dec '03

08 Dec '03

Hello, My name is Luis Cuello and I am a graduate student at the University of Virginia..I started using chimera recently but I have not been able to colored my files by B-factors values, Is there any way to do that with chimera software??? If you could help me in this matter I would appreciated..Sincerely Luis Cuello University of Virginia Molecular Physiology 1(434)9245473 e-mail:lgc4r@virginia.edu

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Re: [Chimera-users] delphi potenital map viewing
by Thomas Goddard 05 Dec '03

05 Dec '03

Hi Klaas, The Delphi Viewer is the only tool that can color a molecular surface according to the potential value. Can you email me the Python traceback you get when the "_cubes error: ..." occurs? This shows exactly where in the code the error happened. You find it by looking at Favorites/Reply Log. Having the traceback alone might be enough for me to figure out and correct the problem. If you could put the phi file on the web so I could download it I would almost certainly be able to figure out the problem. The Delphi Viewer is supposed to be able handle maps of any size. It will be much slower than volume viewer, but it should not generate an error with a large map. Tom > Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 21:10:20 +0100 > From: Klaas Decanniere <Klaas.Decanniere(a)pandora.be> > Reply-To: Klaas.Decanniere(a)pandora.be > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] delphi potenital map viewing > > Thomas Goddard wrote: > > >Hi Klaas, > > > > The size of the Delphi potential map Chimera can display is only > >limited by the size of your computer memory. > > > > If you open a large map it does not get shown immediately if the map > >is larger than 1 Mvoxels (~100^3). > > > > > > When I tried using the "delphi viewer" option, I get _cubes error: grid > index out of range > Using the volume viewer I can indeed load everything. > Is there a way to tie the volume viewer thing to a molecular surface? > With a colour gradient showing different levels of potential? (As in the > Molecular surface option in the Delphiviewer) > Or maybe I can save the subsampled map somehow and then read it into the > delphiviewer thing? > > Thanks again for your help. > > Klaas > > P.S.: I like the program more each day. > P.P.S.: If you ever have a day with nothing to do: the automatic > fetching of pdb files doesn't work for me as I'm behind a proxy server.

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delphi potenital map viewing
by Klaas Decanniere 04 Dec '03

04 Dec '03

Hello, Thinking that more is better I ended up with Delphi potential maps on a rather large grid which I would like to visualize with chimera (gsize=213) Chimera seems to think the grid is to large. Is there an easy way to have chimera accept bigger grids (speed is not really an issue)? Alternatively, what is the largest grid that chimera can accept? Thanks for your help. Klaas Decanniere

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ribbon+atoms
by Elaine Meng 25 Nov '03

25 Nov '03

Dear Soren, Thanks for the compliments - we're trying! You're right that in recent versions of Chimera , showing ribbon turns off the backbone atoms. There is an easy workaround: open two copies of the same molecule, use one copy to show ribbon and the other copy to show atoms. The reason for the behavior is when the ribbon is drawn as a smooth curve, it does not exactly pass through the backbone atoms. Often one wants to show just the ribbon and certain side chains, and the current behavior is to extend the side chain to meet the ribbon (even when the backbone atoms are not on the ribbon) so that they are not floating in space. However, we agree that sometimes one will want to display both the ribbon and the backbone atoms, and in the future there will a preference to switch between: (a) show ribbon, not backbone atoms, and extend the side chains to meet the ribbon (b) show ribbon and whatever backbone atoms are displayed by the user, do not extend side chains to meet the ribbon Until this switchable preference becomes available, we hope that the suggested workaround will let you do what you want. Sincerely, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Babbitt Lab and Computer Graphics Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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ribbon+atoms
by Soren M. Kristensen 25 Nov '03

25 Nov '03

Dear Chimera developers You have createdt an absolutely brilliant program. I have a small question/suggestion about displaying atoms and ribbons simultaneously. When displaying a number of backbone atoms and then putting on a ribbon, then some of the atoms dissapear in release 1700 and onwards. Is there a way to avoid this behaviour? It basically means that I am stuck with the pre-1700 version, but maybe there is some parameter I can tweak to make it work in the new versions? I would be grateful for your help. I reproted this as a bug some 6 months ago, but was told that it was supposed to be like this. I measure experimental values for selected backbone atoms and display them as colorcoded spheres on top of a ribbon to indicate what is measured different places in the structure. If you have suggestions to acieve this behaviour in another way I would be grateful. Thank you in anticipation, Søren -- Søren M. Kristensen, Ph.D. Phone: (+45) 3532 0301 University of Copenhagen FAX: (+45) 3535 0609 Department of Chemistry E-mail: smk(a)kl5.ki.ku.dk H. C. Ørsted Institutet http://kl5.ki.ku.dk/~smk Universitetsparken 5 Room: C508 DK-2100 København Ø Denmark

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some CADD tools released
by gentamicin5 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

Dear all, I have written some CADD tools, and the details are described below. All of these programs are released under GNU/GPL. You can download them from: http://home.pchome.com.tw/team/gentamicin/mol/mol.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- CADD tools (linux & irix) pscan_2.2.0 PSCAN is a small but a practical tool for finding any potential binding site of a protein. It can picture the size and appearance of a binding site, and point out the possible pharmacophore.Thus it is helpful for drug design. While running DOCK, QCPE_MS is necessary for autoMS and even the next step sphgen. QCPE_MS, however, is a commercial package. Now, PSCAN and SPHBOX can do the same job. After removing all dots outside of the target binding site by SPDBV (or others), and choosing several positions you are interesting, run SPHBOX to generate sph and box files. pmol2q_2.1.1_rc2 PMOL2Q is a specific file format converter for protein pdb file to mol2 file with adding hydrogens and partial charges. From v2.1.1, PMOL2Q can also output pdbq and pdbqs format. (The pdbqs format is added solvation data according with ADDSOL in AutoDock) It can recognize each amino acid and reconstruct the coordination precisely. The bond length of 109 pm for C-H, 101 pm for N-H, 96 pm for O-H and 134 pm for S-H are used for adding hydrogens.You can choose to add global hydrogens or only polar hydrogens. KOLL and AMBER95 partial charges are available in PMOL2Q. PMOL2Q can also check probabel error of protein coordination, including incomplete atom_missing residues and atom bumps. Hydrogens will not be added on incomplete residues if they exist. You need to fix it by other program before converting file format. (ex. SPDBV can fix the incomplete residues by mutate function) dbfilter_2.2.1 DBFILTER can check the mol2 format database, and pick out any problematic structure which results in "segmentation fault" of DOCK during flexible docking. (for example, salt or structure which contains multi-molecular built in....) And DBFILTER will output a new database which you want. There are also 12 kinds of filters for spotlighting drug-like properties. Including: Common_atoms_only, Molecular_weight, LogP, H_bond_donors, H_bond_acceptors, Sum_of_N+O, Halogens, Rings, Big_ring_members, Rotatable_bonds, CH3(CH2)n- , CF3(CF2)n-. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 每天都 Yahoo!奇摩海的顏色、風的氣息、愛你的溫度，盡在信紙底圖 http://tw.promo.yahoo.com/mail_premium/stationery.html

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Fwd: MidasPlus version 2.1 (1997/02/04)
by Robin Parsons 17 Nov '03

17 Nov '03

Begin forwarded message: > From: Devleena Mazumder <devleena(a)chem.ucsb.edu> > Date: Fri Nov 14, 2003 6:04:37 PM US/Pacific > To: Robin Parsons <rparsons(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: MidasPlus version 2.1 (1997/02/04) > > Dear Robin, > Thanks for your email. > I have installed Chimera. Its easier to use than Midas. Unfortunately, > I > dont see the label3d option in it that was available with Midas. So, I > am > unable to get labels in neon. > Thanks > Devleena > > On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Robin Parsons wrote: > > :>To: Devleena, > :>University of California, Santa Barbara, > :> > :>Thank you for your interest in our MidasPlus molecular modeling > :>software. You should know, however, that MidasPlus 2.1 is the final > :>version of MidasPlus and will not be developed further. You may wish > :>to explore our next generation of molecular modeling software, > Chimera. > :> You can look over Chimera's capabilities on our web site at: > :> > :>www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ > :> > :>In addition, Chimera is offered at no cost to educational and > :>non-profit institutions. > :> > :>Please contact me if you have any further questions. > :> > :>Robin Parsons > :>UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > :>Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization and Informatics > :>600 16th St., Room N-472B, Box 2240 > :>San Francisco, CA 94143-2240 > :>Commercial Carrier Zip Code: 94107 > :>tel. 415-476-1540 > :>fax 415-502-1755 > :>rparsons(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > :> > :> > > > > _______________________________________________________________ > DEVLEENA MAZUMDER-SHIVAKUMAR > PhD Candidate, Dept of Chemistry & Biochemistry > UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA > http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/~devleena/ > > **Although the past gives us lessons, it does not > give the whole answer to what must be done now.** > > Robin Parsons UCSF Computer Graphics Lab Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization and Informatics Assistant to Thomas Ferrin, PhD 600 16th St., Room N-472B, Box 2240 San Francisco, CA 94143-2240 Commercial Carrier Zip Code: 94158 tel. 415-476-1540 fax 415-502-1755 rparsons(a)cgl.ucsf.edu

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quick question
by vreyes 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

To Whom It May Concern: Our system is SUN Solaris 64bit Sparc III. Should I select #4 from the list below when downloading Chimera? 1.) SGI IRIX Platforms 2.) i386 Linux Platforms 3.) Mac OS X using X windows 4.) Tru64 UNIX 5.0/5.1 Platforms 5.) Microsoft Windows Platforms Please let us hear from you ASAP. Thanks very much for your help. V. Reyes San Diego Supercomputer Center Structural Bioinformatics group

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Delphi controller
by Marco Sette 21 Oct '03

21 Oct '03

Dear all, I'm trying to use the Delphi controller but I have problems to interface Delphi to Chimera.I created a link to Delphi under the Chimera directory but it does not seems the correct way. Is there some place to look to solve this problem ? I use Linux RedHat 9.0 Thanks, Marco -- Dr.Marco Sette, Ph.D. Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology University of Rome, "Tor Vergata" via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy e-mail: sette(a)uniroma2.it Tel.: +39-0672594424 Fax: +39-0672594328

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Delphi under Chimera
by Marco Sette 20 Oct '03

20 Oct '03

Dear all, I'm trying to use the Delphi controller but I have problems to interface Delphi to Chimera.I created a link to Delphi under the Chimera directory but it does not seems the correct way. Is there some place to look to solve this problem ? I use Linux RedHat 9.0 Thankks to all. Marco -- Dr.Marco Sette, Ph.D. Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology University of Rome, "Tor Vergata" via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy e-mail: sette(a)uniroma2.it Tel.: +39-0672594424 Fax: +39-0672594328

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by solomon 15 Oct '03

15 Oct '03

Hi, I'm a new chimera user. Now I have some difficult to use chimera. How can I save the amino acid that I select as a new .pdb file. For example, I select the amino acids that is around the ligand within 10 A,and I want to save these residues as an another .pdb file. How can I do? Best regards, xiaogaokeng

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how to edit pdb file
by solomon 15 Oct '03

15 Oct '03

dear sir, I'm a new chimera user. Now I have some difficult to use chimera. How can I save the amino acid that I select as a new .pdb file. For example, I select the amino acids that is around the ligand within 10 A,and I want to save these residues as an another .pdb file. How can I do? Best regards, xiaogaokeng

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Re: bug? (HETATMs)
by Eric Pettersen 06 Oct '03

06 Oct '03

On Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 10:21 AM, solomon wrote: > when i open a pdb format file like below: > HETATM ................................. > HETATM ................................. > HETATM ................................. > ... > ... > ... > HETATM ................................. > > then I find that all the HETATM type atoms are bonding each other. All > the HETATM need a ter card to split them. As for HETATM type, I think > maybe there is some wrong with chimera. > best regards > gaokeng xiao Dear Gaokeng, As far as know, Chimera will connect HETATM segments of all standard PDB files (i.e. those distributed by the RCSB) correctly. That being said, Chimera has to do a lot of guessing when it comes to connecting non-standard PDB files (which I'm pretty sure is the kind of file you're talking about here). One thing to keep in mind with HETATMs is that they don't necessarily imply a chain break. Also, they are supposed to have CONECT records detailing their connectivity. So for instance, part of PDB entry 1f1j looks like this: ATOM 3688 OG SER B 602 58.714 25.290 29.976 1.00 66.81 O TER 3689 SER B 602 HETATM 3690 C ACE C 701 29.751 29.860 -0.650 1.00 52.20 C HETATM 3691 O ACE C 701 28.552 30.100 -0.812 1.00 55.72 O HETATM 3692 CH3 ACE C 701 30.801 30.183 -1.675 1.00 52.54 C ATOM 3693 N ASP C 702 30.252 29.308 0.427 1.00 51.48 N The ACE residue in the HETATM records is connected to residue 702 (as detailed in the CONECT records for the file). So in summary, you can have sequences like these where the HETATM residues are connected: ATOM ATOM HETATM HETATM HETATM ATOM ATOM -or- HETATM HETATM HETATM ATOM ATOM Now the really big problem is that the SCOP web site returns "PDB" files with just these kinds of sequences but with _no_ CONECT records! So, Chimera guesses as best it can in this situation. The rule of thumb that it uses is that HETATMs are connected unless they occur somewhere after a TER card with no intervening ATOM record. Explicit CONECT records can add connectivity. So for your file of all HETATMs where nothing should be connected, there is a silver lining: in order to get nothing connected you just have to add a _single_ TER card at the beginning of the file, like this: TER HETATM ................................. HETATM ................................. HETATM ................................. --Eric

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graphics accelorator choice of chip
by David Griffiths 02 Oct '03

02 Oct '03

Since Fire GL2 is now discontinued does anybody have experience of latest graphics acceloratots for use on chimera It has been suggested to me that the following should be OK but does anybody have experience of using them ? NVidia Geforce FX 5600/5900 ATI 9700/9500. david griffiths d.g.griffiths(a)herts.ac.uk

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Re: [Chimera-users] how to color ribbons?
by Elaine Meng 20 Aug '03

20 Aug '03

Hi Mario, I'll include two different ways you could do this in Chimera 1.1700: ---------------- with menu ---------------- Actions... Atoms/Bonds... hide Actions... Ribbon... show Actions... Ribbon... edged Actions... Color... white Select... Structure... secondary structure... helix Actions... Color... red Select... Structure... secondary structure... sheet Actions... Color... cyan Select... Clear selection ---------------- with commands ---------------- ~display ribbon ribrepr edged ribcolor white ribcolor red :/isHelix ribcolor cyan :/isSheet ---------------- In both approaches, first the atoms are undisplayed, then the ribbon is turned on. The step setting the ribbon type to "edged" is optional; you could use whichever ribbon type you want. Then, I make everything white before making helices red and strands cyan. The reason I don't use the turn descriptor is that it only applies to explicit PDB TURN records, whereas in most cases, the PDB only contains HELIX and SHEET records. You could just put the commands in a plain text file, for example named "sscolor.com," and then use the command "source sscolor.com" to execute all the commands in the file. (The file must be in the working directory; otherwise you will have to include the whole path in the source command.) I hope this helps! Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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how to color ribbons?
by Mario Albrecht 20 Aug '03

20 Aug '03

Hi, I'm new to Chimera but I'm missing a simple script in the menu for the normal display of ribbons. Helices in ribbons should be colored in red, strands in cyan, and the rest in white. May you provide such a script? Thank you much, Mario Albrecht

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background manipulation
by Jacob Schmidt 18 Aug '03

18 Aug '03

Greetings: Can you tell me how to completely get rid of the black background on which structures appear? As you probably know printer ink is not cheap. Thanks - Jakob Schmidt, Dept . Biochem and Cell Biol. SUNY Stony Brook

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saving partial coordinates
by Elaine Meng 21 Jul '03

21 Jul '03

Hi Mark, In the current release of Chimera: if you are on a non-Windows system, you can use the command "pdbrun" to save just the atoms that are displayed. You can see the manual page for this command by typing "help pdbrun" in the Chimera Command Line (by default, Favorites... Command Line). example: pdbrun nouser cat > myzone.pdb Pdbrun literally sends the information for only the displayed atoms in their displayed positions to another command, in this case "cat" to send the information to the file myzone.pdb. If you want the coordinates to be the same as in the original file, first use the command "reset." All the atoms should be in view (i.e. if you are zoomed in and the atoms around the periphery cannot be seen in the Chimera window, they won't be in your output file either). The command "save" (or File... Save Session As... ) doesn't save coordinates, only how they are positioned/colored/displayed, etc. In fact, restarting a saved session will use the original input file(s) for coordinates. The command "write" (same as the function "write PDB" in the Model Panel) saves coordinates into a file. However, these will save the entire coordinates whether displayed or not. If you are on Windows, I am not aware of a solution in the current release. In our working version and thus the next release (late summer or early fall, I believe) there is a delete action. This would allow you to select the atoms/bonds outside a zone, for example, and then actually delete them. (Actions... Atoms/Bonds... delete). Subsequently, a file created with "write" would only contain the atoms/bonds that had not been deleted. I hope this helps, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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I Need Help!
by Mark Cunningham 20 Jul '03

20 Jul '03

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Re: ribbons, chimera, and collagen
by Eric Pettersen 18 Jul '03

18 Jul '03

Hi Randy, You can force Chimera to treat collagen as helical without too much difficulty. First, select a chain or chains (either Select...Chain, or pick an atom or atoms in the graphics window and use up-arrow several times until the chain(s) are selected). Then use the selection inspector (Tools...Inspectors...Selection Inspector, or click the button showing the selection in the lower-right part of the Chimera window). Change what is being inspected to 'Residue' and then set 'in helix' to true. The problem is that the ribbons don't look very good (they're too "twisty") because it's not an alpha helix. Maybe Conrad can suggest something. I don't have any suggestions myself (I tried making them "strands" and that was pretty twisty also). --Eric > I'm trying to make a ribbon plot of collagen using chimera, but it > doesn't > recognize collagen's secondary structure. > Can I just tell it to make a ribbon with the backbone atoms (or peptide > bonds), and not worry about what kind of secondary structure it really > is? > If so, how? > Have a nice day, > Randy

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Delphi and Chimera
by Marco Sette 09 Jul '03

09 Jul '03

Dear all, I have seen Chimera is able to create potential map using Delphi but, in your site, it is stated that this is valid only for unix systems. I have Delphi installed into windows and linux systems: it will be possible in the (near) future to run DelphiController onto these systems ? Thanks a lot for your attention, Best Regards, Marco -- Dr.Marco Sette, Ph.D. Deaprtment of Chemical Sciences and Technology University of Rome, "Tor Vergata" via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy e-mail: sette(a)uniroma2.it Tel.: +39-0672594424 Fax: +39-0672594328

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera - Dock grid
by Thomas Goddard 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

Hi Joel, The voldata.tar.gz file had a bug. I forgot to do byte swapping on the grid values. So it works on SGI and Mac or on Linux and Windows, but not both. I fixed this problem. The new code is at: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/voldata.tar.gz Tom

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Chimera - Dock grid
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

Hi there, I'm quite impressed with chimera and its dock functionality. My query is about dock grid. I can't find any documentation about this ie what the values and their ranges represent. Also I can't seem to turn them off once they are on. And not to be too ungrateful different colours would be handy as well...how can I change those? While I'm at it is there a delete molecule button? Thanks for your help in advance joel -- ________________________________________ Joel Tyndall, PhD Research Officer http://www.imb.uq.edu.au Institute for Molecular Bioscience incorporating Centre for Drug Design and Development Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology The University of Queensland Brisbane Australia 4072 Tel: +61 7 3346 2988 Fax: +61 7 3346 2101 email: J.Tyndall(a)imb.uq.edu.au

2 1

denbsity maps
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

Hi, I am using chimera to make some pictures of a model docked into a low resolution electron density map. Is there a way to make the mesh lines representing the electron density thicker? Also is it possible to have a cubic grid rather than triangles? Thankyou very much for your help. Suzanne Brewerton University of Cambridge --

2 1

writing Mol2 format
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

Hi David, Writing out Mol2 format can in principle be done, but there are a few caveats. If the original format is Mol2, the original information could be retained and written back out. I don't know how simple/hard this would be to implement (feel free to chime in, other members of the team). When the original format is not Mol2, there is less information in the molecule data than is needed to write the file. Chimera uses a fairly rich set of atom types, but there is still not a one-to-one relationship with all Mol2 types. One would need to create a mapping between the types. Also, I believe Chimera currently knows connectivity but not bond orders, and does not retain any point charge information. The online Chimera Programmer's Guide actually includes an example of code required to write out a mol2 file. I had forgotten about this when visiting your office earlier. It discusses a mapping between atom types (if you use this, you should examine this mapping and make sure it works the way you think it should). The example code writes out all bonds as single. Check it out: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ProgrammersGuide/index.html click the "Examples" link and then "Chimera's Object Model" This example is "writeMol2.py" If you have a molecule open in Chimera, you can view the type assignments using Actions... Label... IDATM type (version 1.1700). A listing/explanation of Chimera types can be seen at http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/idatm.html Best, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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denbsity maps
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

Hi, I am using chimera to make some pictures of a model docked into a low resolution electron density map. Is there a way to make the mesh lines representing the electron density thicker? Also is it possible to have a cubic grid rather than triangles? Thankyou very much for your help. Suzanne Brewerton University of Cambridge --

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Writing to mol2
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 18 Jun '03

18 Jun '03

Hi, I'm one of your "neighbors" working in the Shoichet lab for the summer. I think it'd be neat if you could output in mol2 format rather than just pdb format, especially if the input is in mol2. Is this in the works? Has it already been done? Is it easy to do? David Minh

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Chimera & dock grids
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 18 Jun '03

18 Jun '03

Dear Dr. Tyndall, Thanks for your interest - DOCKgrid is indeed undocumented, partly because we have a much more advanced extension for viewing 3D data sets, Volume Viewer. This would let you have multiple contour surfaces or transparent solids in colors of your choosing, with interactively adjustable thresholds. The current hitch is that the DOCK grid formats have not yet been added to the Volume Viewer extension. We are actively looking into this and hope to incorporate it soon (we will let you know when this happens). I believe the values are directly those stored in the grid files, which (for dock 4 at least) are described in http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/dock4/html/Manual.1c.html#pgfId=850 The VDW repulsion, VDW attraction, and electrostatic grid values are described in equation 9 (all three are in the *.nrg grid). These are not in energy units until multiplied by ligand atom parameters. I believe the color choices in DOCKGrid are red and red. Display with Volume Viewer should be a vast improvement. To close molecules and also these contour surfaces, one way is to open the Model Panel (Tools... Inspectors... Model Panel in version 1.1700). In the Model Panel, choose the model(s) you want to close on the left side, then click "close" on the right side (not the Model Panel Close button). Unfortunately the contour surfaces created by DOCKgrid are each VRML files without an informative title, so it may be hard to tell which is which. If you only have one, of course, it will be obvious. I hope this helps! Best regards, Elaine =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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Re: Chimera graphics card requirements
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 10 Jun '03

10 Jun '03

Hi Jim, I think Chimera will start without an OpenGL stencil buffer. But the outline highlighting of selected atoms/bonds/... will not work. Fill mode highlighting settable with Favorites/Preferences/General/ Selection highlight method will work. With a Quadro4 700 XGL on Linux you should definitely have a stencil buffer available. Below is the output of "glxinfo -t" on my Linux system with Quadro4 500 graphics. It shows half the visuals have 8 bit stencil buffer. It shows I am using the Nvidia 4191 driver OpenGL version string: 1.4.0 NVIDIA 41.91 Check the OpenGL version string on your machine to make sure you are using the Nvidia driver and not Mesa (software opengl). Tom $ glxinfo -t name of display: :0.0 display: :0 screen: 0 direct rendering: Yes server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation server glx version string: 1.3 server glx extensions: GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation client glx version string: 1.3 client glx extensions: GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIX_swap_group, GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_NV_float_buffer GLX extensions: GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_ARB_get_proc_address OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation OpenGL renderer string: Quadro4 500 GoGL/AGP/SSE2 OpenGL version string: 1.4.0 NVIDIA 41.91 OpenGL extensions: GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_S3_s3tc, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture, GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_KTX_buffer_region, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_fence, GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil, GL_NV_pixel_data_range, GL_NV_point_sprite, GL_NV_register_combiners, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_env_combine4, GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_vertex_array_range, GL_NV_vertex_array_range2, GL_NV_vertex_program, GL_NV_vertex_program1_1, GL_NVX_ycrcb, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_multitexture, GL_SGIS_texture_lod glu version: 1.3 glu extensions: GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess Vis Vis Visual Trans buff lev render DB ste r g b a aux dep ste accum buffers MS MS ID Depth Type parent size el type reo sz sz sz sz buf th ncl r g b a num bufs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0x21 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x22 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x23 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x24 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x25 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x26 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x27 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x28 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x29 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2a 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2b 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2c 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2d 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2e 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2f 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x30 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 > From: Jim Procter <procter(a)zbh.uni-hamburg.de> > Reply-To: procter(a)zbh.uni-hamburg.de > Organization: Zentrum Bioinformatik Hamburg > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Chimera graphics card requirements > Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 10:53:20 +0200 > > Hi. I'm sorry to bother you again - particularly with some trivial hardware > question, but I've been wondering about the minimum specification of OpenGL > graphics driver needed for Chimera. > > We have Quadro4 700 XGL/AGP/SSE2 drivers for our linux-installations, on what > I would expect to be fairly high-end PCs. There doesn't seem to be any way to > force these drivers to generate a stencil buffer - is this what other people > have found ? > > Thanks. > Jim

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Re: Chimera at NCMI
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 09 May '03

09 May '03

Hi Steve, I'll ask the other Chimera developers about making independent mode rotation use the center of the whole model when it is undisplayed. Unfortunately that is a change in the C++ that would not be available for a while. I'll try making a rotation/translation undo button next week. I think it can be done all in Python and I could just email you the code. Tom > Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 20:48:49 -0500 (CDT) > From: Steve Ludtke <stevel(a)blake.3dem.bioch.bcm.tmc.edu> > Reply-To: sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu > To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > > Yeah, a rotation/translation undo would be great! The miscentering > problem isn't an issue for what I'm doing right now (at least not much of > one, but a more generic way of setting the center would be nice. Perhaps > using the origin you set for the volume data as a center for rotation. The > manual translations seem to be independent of this value... > > cheers... > > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Steven Ludtke, PhD | Baylor College of Medicine > sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu | Co-Director > stevel(a)alumni.caltech.edu | National Center For Macromolecular Imaging > V: (713)798-6989 | Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol. > instant messenger: sludtke42 | * Those who do ARE * > http://ncmi.bcm.tmc.edu/~stevel | The converse also holds

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independent rotation mode
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 09 May '03

09 May '03

Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 13:57:27 -0500 (CDT) From: Steve Ludtke <stevel(a)blake.3dem.bioch.bcm.tmc.edu> Reply-To: sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Hi again. I just ran across a bug I thought I'd report. The session file is rather large, so I won't attach it initially. Let me know if you have problems reproducing it. Anyway, I have loaded several volume data sets which represent different versions of the same structure. Then: 1) set 'independent' rotation mode 2) set one model so it is active, but not shown (in the model panel) 3) rotate the models 4) set the model in 2 to be shown again Even though it was active, the model in 2 was not rotated. I have a complex scenario of models where I need to do this operation frequently, so right now all my rotations keep getting messed up unless I make sure all the models are active AND shown before rotating anything. Cheers... PS - This happens with both the current 1700 version and the previous one. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Ludtke, PhD | Baylor College of Medicine sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu | Co-Director stevel(a)alumni.caltech.edu | National Center For Macromolecular Imaging V: (713)798-6989 | Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol. instant messenger: sludtke42 | * Those who do ARE * http://ncmi.bcm.tmc.edu/~stevel | The converse also holds Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 15:04:20 -0500 (CDT) From: Steve Ludtke <stevel(a)blake.3dem.bioch.bcm.tmc.edu> Reply-To: sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Not THAT big a rush. Whenever you have a chance :^) Anyway, I was trying to avoid having to explain the whole situation, but here goes. I have a PDB model, a density map based on the PDB model and 3 different EM maps of the same molecule (each a little different). All are aligned and centered. What I want to do is have the EM map(s) with overlaid PDB structure on the left side of the screen and the x-ray map with overlaid structure on the right half of the screen. Then I use 'independent mode' to rotate everything about its own center so I can see how the EM map and x-ray map compare. As long as everything is active and displayed, it works beautifully (except the PDB model center seems very slightly off, so you see a very small amount of the centering artifact you described). Anyway, on the 'EM' side, I have 3 models overlaid. Generally I want to turn their display on and off as I rotate each one around and look at them. However, even though all 3 remain active, when I turn off the display of a model (ONLY in independent mode), it no longer gets rotated properly. Hope that helps clarify... cheers. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Ludtke, PhD | Baylor College of Medicine sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu | Co-Director stevel(a)alumni.caltech.edu | National Center For Macromolecular Imaging V: (713)798-6989 | Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol. instant messenger: sludtke42 | * Those who do ARE * http://ncmi.bcm.tmc.edu/~stevel | The converse also holds From: Tom Goddard The problem is that indepedent rotation mode only rotates about the the center of the displayed part of the model. If nothing is displayed there is no center to rotate about. Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 20:02:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Steve Ludtke <stevel(a)blake.3dem.bioch.bcm.tmc.edu> Reply-To: sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu To: Thomas Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> I understand. I sort of figured it was something like this. Well, I'll give you my perspective as a 'user' from the EM community. As funny as it seems, I would actually want the opposite of the behavior you stated. That is, the molecules would always rotate about their 'true' center even if part wasn't displayed. The best solution from my perspective would either A) have a different 'independent' mode where things always rotated about their true centers or B) Make it so models that aren't displayed at all use their true center. This doesn't seem quirky to me. If the model is active, you assume some sort of rotation will occur. Presumably if part of the molecule is visible, the whole thing still gets rotated, just about a different center. So, it's odd for it not to get rotated at all. >From a user perspective, a problem I keep running into is that I accidentally do a rotation when not all of the molecules are active. This produces a relative rotation that is virtually impossible to undo through the GUI. Translations aren't a problem. They're pretty easy to 'undo' almost perfectly. But rotations are really tricky. When that happens I end up having to revert to my last saved session. So, having the model not rotate at all just because it isn't visible is doubly annoying... Anyway, just my perspective... -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Ludtke, PhD | Baylor College of Medicine sludtke(a)bcm.tmc.edu | Co-Director stevel(a)alumni.caltech.edu | National Center For Macromolecular Imaging V: (713)798-6989 | Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol. instant messenger: sludtke42 | * Those who do ARE * http://ncmi.bcm.tmc.edu/~stevel | The converse also holds Hi Steve, I agree it is odd for the undisplayed model not to be rotated at all. It seems reasonable that when the model is undisplayed it should use the center of the whole model if you are using independent rotation mode. There is the additional problem that the centers of the models don't coincide. When you display an isosurface, it uses the center of the bounding box that just contains the surface. It does not use the actual bounds of the whole density map. I see that Chimera has support for fixing the center of rotation for each model. This could be used to get exactly the rotation behaviour you want. But we need a user interface to let you say which models you want to group together with a common center. I could write something like this in Python. This would address both the undisplayed models not rotating, and the not quite right centers of rotation. I realize that accidentally unaligning two models in Chimera is a disaster -- it usually means starting over. I think we need a rotation and translation undo to address this. Tom

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Re: Chimera and O brix format
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 06 May '03

06 May '03

Hi Ed, I wrote the SPIDER volume file reader for Chimera. You can get it from http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/spidervol.tar.gz and unpack it % cd /usr/local/chimera/share % tar zxf spidervol.tar.gz It includes a new VolumeData/fileformats.py that adds the SPIDER file reader to the list of supported file formats, and a VolumeData/spider directory that contains the Python code to read the data. I don't think this should be announced on the SPIDER newsgroup until we make our next Chimera release that includes it. I'd like to figure out how the spacing between grid points in physical units is handled by SPIDER. I see a "scale" parameter in the SPIDER file header, but the documentation says SPIDER does not use this, and in the file you sent me it was set to zero. Chimera likes to know the correct scale in physical units (eg angstroms or nanometers) so when a second model is opened they are drawn to the same scale. There are entry fields to hand set the scale in the Volume Viewer dialog, but it is nicer to be able to extract this from the file header. Tom

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Re: Chimera and O brix format
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 05 May '03

05 May '03

Hi Ed, I extended the current Chimera DSN6 file reader to handle the BRIX files. The changed files are in chimera/share/VolumeData, specifically fileformats.py and the dsn6/*.py files. Here is a tar file you can extract in chimera/share to update these files. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/voldata.tar.gz % cd /usr/local/chimera/share % tar zxf voldata.tar.gz Let me know if you have trouble with it. I have only tested it on the file you gave me. I used BRIX format documentation from the web though and expect it should work with all files. It will be included in the next Chimera release. Tom

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Strange behavior, crashing, etc.
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 24 Apr '03

24 Apr '03

Okay, Chimera has rather suddenly gone unstable on me. I can fully appreciate that it might be something that I've done, but I'd like some help getting it usable again. I've seen two different behaviors now. The first is that when I load a pdb file of a calcite crystal, then try to rotate the crystal... boom. Chimera crashes and everything is gone. I'm not sure if this has to do with this one file or not. In an attempt to figure that out, I relaunched Chimera and started opening files, one at a time. The first file, a small NaCl crystal, opened just fine. I could rotate it, etc. I closed it, and opened a file with graphite in it. Same thing, everything was fine. Next I opened a diamond file. This turns out to have been a big mistake. When I tried to open the diamond file, everything froze. I couldn't close any of the Chimera windows or pallets. None of the menus would respond. After waiting for a little bit, I quit X11. This successfully shut Chimera down, but there's now a new problem. When I quit X11, the Chimera icon stayed in my dock. Right clicking on it brings up the contextual menu saying that the application is not responding, but choosing 'Quit' from this menu does nothing, and Chimera doesn't show up in the Force Quit dialog. To top it all off, relaunching X11, and then double clicking on Chimera (the application, not the dock icon) does nothing. Chimera seems to be down for the count. I haven't yet tried a command-line 'kill process', or restarting. The only two major changes/additions that I've made to my computer recently are updating to Mac OS X 10.2.5, and installing Fink. On a rather unrelated note, Chimera behaves very strangely if you Hide X11 while Chimera is running. All of the pallets simply have their title bars vanish, making it very difficult to work with them. I've gotten past this by using multiple desktops, but being able to hide an application while working in another is a valuable feature, and I'd like to see the proper functionality established, if that's possible. Geoff.

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Re: [chimera-dev] Strange behavior, crashing, etc.
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 24 Apr '03

24 Apr '03

Hi Geoff, Eric Pettersen tells me Chimera is hanging when you display diamond.pdb in ball and stick or sphere mode because it is searching for rings. There are too many rings to find. Eric will look at fixing the ring finding code. The reason it needs to know the rings for some display modes is so it can identify atom types (classed by connectivity) so it can assign correct atom radii. You can work around the problem by issuing a Chimera command to set the vdw radii before using ball and stick or sphere display. Use Favorites/Command Line and type a command like vdwdefine * * 1.0 This example sets all atom radii to 1 angstrom (for sphere display). See the User's Guide under Commands for details on setting the radii of specific atoms if you want different atoms shown with different sizes. Any application, Aqua or not, can have an icon in the Dock -- it just has to be packaged with the Mac App directory layout and have an icon file. But Force Quit apparently only lists Aqua applications. The Aqua version of Chimera is shown in the Force Quit list. Tom

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Re: [chimera-dev] Strange behavior, crashing, etc.
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 24 Apr '03

24 Apr '03

Hi Geoff, Chimera freezes up for me after I open diamond.pdb and then try to show it as ball and stick or sphere. It doesn't freeze up with wire display style. When it freezes I use: % ps -xwww | grep python2.2 3676 ?? R 0:44.37 /Users/goddard/Applications/Chimera-X11-1700.app/Contents/Resources/bin/python2.2 /Users/goddard/Applications/Chimera-X11-1700.app/Contents/Resources/share/__main__.pyp % kill 3676 The Chimera executable is python2.2 and this just kills Chimera, not the X server. It doesn't appear in the Force Quit dialog because it is not a native Aqua windows application. Are you using Chimera build 1700 (March 27, 2003)? The Chimera Help/Version Info menu entry will tell you which version you have. I'll look into why Chimera 1700 is freezing on diamond.pdb. Tom

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Re: [chimera-dev] Mailing list, etc.?
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 08 Apr '03

08 Apr '03

> Now to a comment. After some tinkering, I finally managed to output a > new PDB file that contained models from several other PDB files. This, > however, wasn't exactly an easy of intuitive thing to do. My first > thought had been to use the 'Write PDB' command in the Model Panel. > However, that button automatically greys itself out when more than one > model is selected. I finally stumbled upon the command line command > 'pdbrun cat > file'. So, I was able to do what I wanted, but I had to > go through a rather backdoor method. Any chance that things like > 'Write PDB' will be enabled when more than one model is selected? I could enable 'write PDB' with multiple models selected. I guess my question is why do you want multiple PDB models in a single file? What will you do with that file? Knowing how you want to use the file will help me decide if simply enabling the button is the way to go or if some other interface is more appropriate. If I enabled it, the models would be separated by END records. > And what about a method of adding more atoms, other than just > hydrogen? (I also know of 'backdoor' ways that I can do this, but I'd > love to see Chimera become a more fully featured molecular modeler, and > to that end, I'm quite happy to give all kinds of input.) I'm currently working on smarter hydrogen addition (avoiding steric conflicts and maintaining hydrogen-bonding interactions). I should be done with that in time for our next release. I intend to work on some limited structure-building features after that. So a preliminary version might be available two releases from now. Even I'm not aware of backdoor ways to add non-hydrogen atoms! I guess the swapaa command _sort_ of does this, but it's not at all generic. Are you writing Python code to do this? Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Re: [chimera-dev] Mailing list, etc.?
by chimera-users＠cgl.ucsf.edu 07 Apr '03

07 Apr '03

On Monday, April 7, 2003, at 10:06 AM, Thomas Goddard wrote: > Now to a comment. After some tinkering, I finally managed to output a > new PDB file that contained models from several other PDB files. This, > however, wasn't exactly an easy of intuitive thing to do. My first > thought had been to use the 'Write PDB' command in the Model Panel. > However, that button automatically greys itself out when more than one > model is selected. I finally stumbled upon the command line command > 'pdbrun cat > file'. So, I was able to do what I wanted, but I had to > go through a rather backdoor method. Any chance that things like > 'Write PDB' will be enabled when more than one model is selected? > And what about a method of adding more atoms, other than just > hydrogen? (I also know of 'backdoor' ways that I can do this, but I'd > love to see Chimera become a more fully featured molecular modeler, and > to that end, I'm quite happy to give all kinds of input.)

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