- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Open .pse file in Chimera?
by Desiree Benefield 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

Dear all, I have a .pse file generated with MacPyMOL that I would like to try to dock into a EM density map using Chimera. It would appear that this is not possible. Can you offer any advice or alternative approaches to try? With many thanks, Dez

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Silhouettes and depth cueing
by Oliver Clarke 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

Hi all, I’ve noticed that the intensity/color of silhouettes does not vary with depth cueing the way everything else does - normally this is fine, except when one is showing a slab of a structure - fragments of secondary structural elements which would otherwise blend into the background tend to become overly emphasized by the presence of silhouettes. The obvious solution to this for now is to turn off silhouettes when making these kinds of figures, but I quite like the effect that silhouettes provide, so I would rather not do so if there is an alternative. Perhaps in Chimera 2 it may be worth considering applying a depth dependent factor to the silhouette color (so it fades into the background color as it approaches the yon clipping plane)? Cheers, Oliver.

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Changes in transparency during animation
by Ashley Acevedo 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

Hi, I'm trying to animate a change in surface transparency. I have made a scene with my molecule at 0% transparency and a second scene with the same molecule at 70% transparency. The problem that I'm having is that when I set the transparency in one scene that transparency setting is carried over to my other scene, so I end up not being able to animate changes in transparency. Is there a solution to this problem? I'm using Chimera version 1.10.2 on a mac. Thanks, Ashley

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Non-alphanumeric character in keyword
by MPI 31 Oct '15

31 Oct '15

Dear users, In Chimera, I tried to run a vina docking in command line like vina docking receptor #0 ligand #1 output mytest search_center 10,20,30 There is an error: Non-alphanumeric character in keyword 'search_center' I have tried tweaking the keyword 'search_center' in different ways but the error won't go. Dose anyone know how to fix it ? or is this format correct ? Many thanks, Dwey

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Keep path when opening chimera from command line
by Eiros Zamora, Juan 30 Oct '15

30 Oct '15

Dear Chimera experts, I am working with Mac OS X version 10.11.1 and Chimera 1.10.2 I use Chimera to visualize MD trajectories. Usually I launch the program through the command line. I’ve got a pretty deep hierarchy of directories to keep my data organized, so I’ve been trying to look for a way to make Chimera keep the path of the directory where I launched it from, with no success. What I mean is, if I launch it from a given directory and then try to load MD NetCDF files with the “MD Movie” option, is there a way for it to show me the files in the directory where I opened it from?. Because now what it does is show me the ones from the last time I used this. Also, is there a way to load the topology and trajectories directly from the command line? I have looked for this option but haven’t found anything. Thanks for your help Juan

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Move molecule to center of rotation?
by Oliver Clarke 30 Oct '15

30 Oct '15

Hi all, Feature suggestion - it would be very useful if there was a way to automatically move a specific molecule to the current center of rotation (relative to all other models). I can do this manually by deactivating all other models for motion and moving using the “move” command or the mouse, but it seems like this could be made much quicker by automatically applying the translations necessary to bring a given molecule to the current center of rotation. I can probably do this using a python script but I think it is also a generally useful feature, particularly when fitting multiple protein components to a density map, or bringing in a ligand, etc. Cheers, Oliver.

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Molmap incorporation of B-factors
by Oliver Clarke 29 Oct '15

29 Oct '15

Hi all, For the purposes of model validation, I’d like to analyze local correlation of my model with the experimental map (and color it on either/both the model or map). I figured the easiest way to do this is to use molmap to generate a synthetic map, then use vop local correlation to generate a correlation map which I can use to color either the model or map (using scolor or “Values at Atom Positions”). This works fine, and generates informative looking pictures, I just wanted to clarify exactly what molmap is doing, to make sure I understand it. Am I correct in thinking molmap does not use a per-atom temperature factor (or alter the width of the gaussian depending on the atomic B-factor)? Because if this is the case I guess the way I am doing things will exaggerate how bad the model is in regions where the B-factor is high and the density weak (which is not the worst thing in the world - better than having an unrealistically rosy view of one’s model!). Would it be possible to incorporate atomic B-factors into molmap calculations for Chimera 2? Or does anyone know of an external program that will perform a similar calculation (I know I can generate RSCC plots in Phenix which must be doing this internally, but I rather like displaying it on the model and map for ease of interpretation). Cheers, Oliver.

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Keep electrostatic surface color without using map
by Tom Goddard 29 Oct '15

29 Oct '15

Hi Joshua, If you color a molecular surface with the Electrostatic Coloring tool in Chimera (menu Tools / Surface & Binding Analysis) using a Delphi or APBS electrostatics map, then close the map file using Model Panel (menu Favorites), then save the session (menu File / Save Session As…), then restart Chimera and load the session and the surface coloring is still there but the map is not used. Tested in current Chimera version 1.10.2. Tom > On Oct 28, 2015, at 8:22 PM, Broyde, Joshua E. wrote: > > Dear Tom, > Hope all is going well. I had a quick question about coloring surfaces by electrostatics and other properties. Currently, when you color surfaces with electrostatic potentials (e.g. with delphi .phi files) the molecular surfaces are colored by the delphi files, which are loaded into the chimera session everytime the chimera session is loaded. If the delphi files are deleted, the surfaces cannot be colored. Also, the delphi file has to be loaded every time the session is started, which can take a very long time (some of these delphi files are > 1 G). Is there a way to "permanently" color the molecular surfaces with the electrostatic potential, so that the delphi files have to be loaded only once? > > Sincerely, > Joshua Broyde

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movie related commands
by Smith Liu 27 Oct '15

27 Oct '15

Dear All, For the scale command, it will change (enlarge or decrease) the view immediately. Is any way we change the view gradually, for example in 10 frames or 100 frames? For the center command, it will also change the view immediately. Is any way we change the view gradually, for example in 10 frames or 100 frames? Best regards. Smith

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AM1-BCC: Question
by José Luis 26 Oct '15

26 Oct '15

Dears Devepolers: My name is José Luis. PhD student and to run docking and MD I was using Chimera 1.3 for AM1-BCC partial charges calculationwithour problem. Now, I´m using 1.10 and 1.10.2 but in the firt one the calculation doesn´t complete it and in the second one the following message appears: the system can´t find C:\Program Files\Chimera 1.10.2\share\chimeraInit.py", line 259, in CreateProcess current_directory, startup_info). Can you help me? Many thanks in advance. José Luis --- El software de antivirus Avast ha analizado este correo electrónico en busca de virus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Access to "Match Align" programmatically
by Miguel Ortiz Lombardía 26 Oct '15

26 Oct '15

Hi, Is it possible to call "Match Align" from a script or a 'com' file without using the GUI? I would use that possibility, if it does exist, to check pair-wise rmsd's of previously superimposed structures. I guess people may have asked this question before, but I couldn't find an answer in the usual places... Cheers, Miguel

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Query on Cryo-EM map
by Aditya Padhi 25 Oct '15

25 Oct '15

Dear Chimera Users, I have a cryo-em map file and I would like to convert it into a PDB file. How can I do that? I tried saving the .pdb file but it throws an error saying “No model chosen to save”. Another question, If I open a .map file of a protein complex in Chimera, how can I select a subregion (a particular chain) and colour the surface of that part differently? I am not able to select the chain when I upload the .map file. Thank you, Aditya

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How to make a microtubule model
by Tom Goddard 22 Oct '15

22 Oct '15

The following page shows a “bent microtubule” model made with a Chimera Python script https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/data/microtubule_aug2013/bent_mt.html <https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/data/microtubule_aug2013/bent_mt.html> The bend makes it more complicated than a straight microtubule. Here is an explanation of how the Chimera “sym” command can make a straight microtubule model. These commands in Chimera (menu Favorites / Command-line to enter commands) make a straight microtubule from a PDB model as shown in the attached image. open 1jff sym #0 group h,9.8,27.7,13*shift,8,80.0 surf true axis x center 0,115,0 res 5 The sym command took the tubulin dimer (shown in red and blue in the image) and made copies in a helical pattern to look like a microtuble. The trick is to find the right helical parameters. I just did a few minutes trial and error to find the above. The “group” option says make a helix where each subunit is shifted 9.8 Angstroms from the previous one and by 27.7 degrees around the axis from the previous one, and make 13 copies (for a 13 protofilament microtubule). This makes a single turn of the microtubule. A microtubule does not have helical symmetry, the one turn achieves a shift of 1.5 subunits creating a seam where alpha and beta tubulin are touching in two adjacent protofilaments. So I just make one turn. Then the above command says shift that one turn by 80 Angstroms along the axis for each of 8 copies. The “surf true” option says show the copies as surfaces. Without that it will copy the atomic model and use a ton of memory. The helix axis is x (just judged by eye after opening tubulin dimer 1jff. The 1jff dimer seems to be centered not far from 0,0,0 so I shifted the helix axis 115 Angstroms along y to make the diameter about 23 nm. Here are the docs for the sym command: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/current/docs/UsersGuide/midas/sym.html <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/current/docs/UsersGuide/midas/sym.html> Here’s a web page where I did something more sensible to get better symmetry parameters — I fit the tubulin dimer to an EM map of a microtubule. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/data/cellcomplexity06/tcell-demo.html <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/data/cellcomplexity06/tcell-demo.html> Tom

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center of mass
by erik.laurini＠di3.units.it 21 Oct '15

21 Oct '15

Dear Chimera users, I would to plot the distance between the centers of mass of a ligand and a specific portion of its biologic target during the corresponding MD trajectory. I tried with the "MD plot" but it seems that it works only with atom selection. Do you have any advice? Thanks in advance! -erik- Dr. Erik Laurini Department of Engineering and Architecture University of Trieste, Via Valerio 10, 34127, Trieste (Italy) Tel. + 39 0405583440

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Calculating the total areaSAS from a series of PDB files
by ros 21 Oct '15

21 Oct '15

Hello! I would like to measure the SAS from a series of PDB files to see how the surface value changes over time (the PDB files are from an MD simulation). I know that If I open a PDB file and calculate the surface, I get the areaSAS value, but I do not want to do this 5000 times. I am making progress on a python script to automate the process, which is: -------------------------------------------- import os from chimera import runCommand as rc from chimera import replyobj os.chdir("/home/tmp/pdb") file_names = [fn for fn in os.listdir(".") if fn.endswith(".pdb")] for fn in file_names: replyobj.status("Processing " + fn) rc("open " + fn) rc("surf") rc("sel :1-6") from chimera.selection import currentResidues residues = currentResidues() outf = open("/home/tmp/sas.dat", "w") for r in residues: print>>outf, r, r.areaSAS rc("stop now") -------------------------------------------- The PDB's consist of only 6 residues (DNA residues). With this script, I get the output: #1 DA 1 320.8377808 #2 DC 3 277.614161432 #2 DG 4 323.883637217 #1 DC 3 284.934065707 #2 DT 6 221.04715555 #0 DA 1 321.883850728 #1 DC 5 345.231659889 #0 DC 2 179.379177183 #2 DC 5 350.455405176 #0 DC 3 285.785918236 #1 DT 6 245.048330456 #0 DG 4 303.501165912 #1 DG 4 314.409510799 #0 DC 5 352.639633257 #1 DC 2 193.509086639 #0 DT 6 214.883334659 #2 DC 2 183.766654447 #2 DA 1 344.369126737 using 3 test pdb's. Is there a way to get the total value of areaSAS of each model and not for each residue? I am interested in having a file just like (using for example 3 pdb's): Model # total areaSAS value #0 123123.123122 #1 123123.12312 #3 123123.12312 ... etc. I have tried deleting the residues loop, but I do not know how the total areaSAS attribute is stored or how to assign it to a variable. Thank you for your help! Rodrigo. PS. The main goal is to be able to do this without the PDB files and just reading an AMBER topology/trajectory...

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Change chain id of blank chain
by Tom Goddard 20 Oct '15

20 Oct '15

Hi Joshua, Eric looked at the code and said the changechains command can’t change the blank chain id because it won’t accept a quoted space character as the chain letter. It could be done with Python code, or as you mention you can do it with the change chain ids gui. Tom > On Oct 20, 2015, at 2:07 PM, Broyde, Joshua E. <wrote: > > Dear Tom, > Hope you are well. I am having an issue with redefining the chains in a pdb open in Chimera. If a model has two chains (A and B) then it is easy to reassign the chain ids using: > changechains A,B B,A > > However, if one of the chains does not have a chain id already, (what Chimera calls, the "principle chain"), how do I assign a chain id? This is easy to do in the GUI, but I cannot find a command for doing so. > > Sincerely, > Joshua Broyde

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Color blobs automatically
by Petr.Brazda＠seznam.cz 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

Hello, I have both periodically distributed blobs and blobs, which are randomly distributed in my volume data. I know the translational vectors of the periodic net of blobs and I would like to automatically color them to distinguish them from the rest of the blobs. Is there a way to tell Chimera to color the blobs, which contain voxel with particular x, y, z coordinates? Or is there some other way to do this job? Best regards, Petr

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mouse selection not working
by Joel Meyerson 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

Hi, I'm unable to click-and-drag to select objects in the latest version of Chimera. Specifically, when I hold 'ctrl' and drag over an object, no selection is made. This is something that worked just fine in previous versions of the program. Any suggestions on how to fix the issue? I'm using Chimera production version 1.10.2 (build 40686) and running Mac OS X 10.10.4. Thanks, Joel

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on movie command
by Smith Liu 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

Dear All, Suppose there is a 100-residue protein opened in chimera, and it was scaled to a windows which can hold 10 residues, for example residue 10-20. Is any good way we first center on residue 15, then smoothly center on residue 16 (window hold residue 11-21), then smoothly center on residue 17 (window hold residue 12-22), then smoothly center on residue 18 (window hold residue 13-23), ......., until we center on residue 100? Here I emphasize "smoothly" so that the residue "move" was not too sudden to the eye. Best regards. Smith

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label residues
by Albert 17 Oct '15

17 Oct '15

Hello: I got a question on label residues in Chimera. Is it possible to use a simple command line to label all protein residue name and number displayed in the workspace? Thanks you very much Albert

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can you provide more opition for webGL?
by Albert 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Hello everybody: I am just fascinated by the webGL function in Chimera and I am googling it today. Here I found something is even more interesting: http://istar.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/iview/ As far as we can see, it provide much more options in the above link. I am just wondering, could the Chimera developer also consider provide more options for the exported webGL file? That's definitely would be very attractive for the users. Thanks a lot Albert

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uneditable format
by Oliver Clarke 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Hi Eric, I had no idea you could do this, it works great and could be very handy!! The colors and lighting (and positions) don’t seem to be preserved though and differ between firefox and safari - see the attached screenshots and test webgl of 1BL* with EDS maps (WebGL link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlwt8ynrz59w5qx/test_webgl.html?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlwt8ynrz59w5qx/test_webgl.html?dl=0>). Oli. > Hi Albert, > Look at the File->Export Scene menu. That allows you to export to various file formats that your recipient may be able to view without any easy ability to save the result as a PDB file. In particular the “WebGL” export can be viewed as a web page in most modern browsers, with the ability to manipulate the structure interactively. > > —Eric > > Eric Pettersen > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab > > > > On Oct 16, 2015, at 6:41 AM, Albert <mailmd2011 at gmail.com <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users>> wrote: > > > > Hello: > > > > I've made a Chimera section which I would like to share with somebody else. However, I don't want the PDB within Chimera section to be exported by others. Is it possible for us to export some special file format so that other users can only visualize my file, but they cannot edit or export file into PDB coordinate? > > > > Thanks a lot > > > > Albert > > _______________________________________________ > > Chimera-users mailing list > > Chimera-users at cgl.ucsf.edu <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users> > > http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users>

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uneditable format
by Albert 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Hello: I've made a Chimera section which I would like to share with somebody else. However, I don't want the PDB within Chimera section to be exported by others. Is it possible for us to export some special file format so that other users can only visualize my file, but they cannot edit or export file into PDB coordinate? Thanks a lot Albert

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Failure to reproduce complete Consurf output
by George Tzotzos 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Hi everybody, I’m attaching a snapshot of the output of a Consurf job (snapshot1). Trying to save the file in EPS format produces only A PART of the right-hand-side pane of the output. No histogram is produced (see output.eps). I’d appreciate any suggestions as to how to produce a complete output. Thank you in advance George

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Re: [Chimera-users] uneditable format
by Oliver Clarke 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Hi Albert, I'm pretty sure this doesn't exist at present, and I guess it would require substantial changes to make it work - You'd need to make sure that chimera couldn't write out anything after reading that session, and given that Chimera is open source and has many different ways of writing data out that might be tricky. However, that said, I think having a read-only packaged session format would be a very valuable addition (particularly if it incorporated support for maps), because it would solve a long standing issue in peer review of structural biology results - how to provide raw data for inspection to reviewers without providing maps and models with no strings attached, which many PIs are disinclined to do. Cheers, Oliver. >Hello: > >I've made a Chimera section which I would like to share with somebody >else. However, I don't want the PDB within Chimera section to be >exported by others. Is it possible for us to export some special file >format so that other users can only visualize my file, but they cannot >edit or export file into PDB coordinate? > >Thanks a lot > >Albert

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