- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

improved movie tools
by Martin de Jonge 16 May '12

16 May '12

Hi, I recently published a tomographic reconstruction that was rendered using Chimera (see: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/36/15676.abstract) The movie that we were able to build using Chimera was excellent, but had to be recorded entirely in real time. That is, we had to turn on recording, manipulate the model, and turn off recording. I feel that it would be much easier if there was a nice interface to sequencing functionality. In this (as I imagine it) a sequence of particular views could be stored, and times specified for smooth transition from one element in the sequence ('view') to the next. These views could even be stored as saved sessions (if that helps with implementation). Please let me know if this functionality is already possible and (if so) please send me a sample! I note that my licence has expired; but when I try to renew it I run into problems with the server. Looking forward to your reply, Martin de Jonge Senior Scientist - XFM Australian Synchrotron p: (03) 8540 4195 | f: (03) 8540 4200 | m: 0488 338 594 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168 <br>This message and any attachments may contain proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or you received the message in error, you must not use, copy or distribute the message. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy the original message. Thank you.

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RMSD between ensemble of a protein and its paralogue crystal structure
by Thomas Evangelidis 15 May '12

15 May '12

Dear UCSF Chimera developers, I want to calculate the RMSD between a MD trajectory of a protein and the crystal structure of its paralogue protein. I have looked though the Ensemble Match and RMSD Analysis pages but these applications work for the same proteins (correct me if I am wrong). Is there any way to provide an alignment file to Chimera and calculate the time series of the RMSD between the two paralogues? Thanks in advance, Thomas -- ====================================================================== Thomas Evangelidis PhD student Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens 4 Soranou Ephessiou , 115 27 Athens, Greece email: tevang(a)bioacademy.gr tevang3(a)gmail.com website: https://sites.google.com/site/thomasevangelidishomepage/

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Addition of phosphates to PDB structures
by Donado, Carlos 14 May '12

14 May '12

Hi all, I would like to learn how to add a phosphate group to a particular residue, resembling phosphorylation of a particular residue, to a PDB structure. If this is doable using Chimera I would really appreciate any hints on how to do this. Also, I am new to Chimera but I was wondering if there was a way of adding ATP to a designated ATP binding site. I would very much appreciate any responses, Thanks, Carlos Donado The information in this e-mail is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If you believe this e-mail was sent to you in error and the e-mail contains patient information, please contact the Partners Compliance HelpLine at http://www.partners.org/complianceline . If the e-mail was sent to you in error but does not contain patient information, please contact the sender and properly dispose of the e-mail.

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Re: [Chimera-users] semi-transparent ribbon behind semi-transparent surface
by Tom Goddard 14 May '12

14 May '12

Hi Sumitro, I made an image in the style of your image (1a0m.jpg below) using Chimera 1.6.1 and I think it captures the effect of your Chimera 1.5 image (ep.png) very well. The difference is that in your image where the ribbon crosses itself you can sometimes see through the top ribbon. Actually the top ribbon is only transparent in your image in about half of the crossings due to a Chimera 1.5 ribbon transparency bug. In the Chimera 1.6.1 image the ribbon is fully opaque so you do not see through it at places where it crosses itself. I think this produces a better image with less visual depth confusion. Also I think adding silhouette edges as I did in 1a0m_edges.jpg below improves the perception of ribbon crossovers further. I think the main virtue of your image is that the ribbon that is further back is lighter in color so it draws less attention. That is achieved by depth cueing which is the same in Chimera 1.6 and 1.5. My image perhaps does not illustrate depth cueing as well as yours since I used a different PDB model (didn't have yours) and in my view it doesn't vary as much in depth. Tom -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] semi-transparent ribbon behind semi-transparent surface Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 18:19:39 +0800 From: Sumitro Harjanto To: Tom Goddard Hi Tom, I've attached an image, it's something like this, can you view it? thanks! cheers, Sumitro On 12 May 2012 00:58, Tom Goddardwrote: Hi Sumitro, It is hard to completely understand your problem without seeing an example image made with Chimera 1.5 using the technique you described. If you provide such an image we might have suggestions about how to make something very similar in the latest Chimera. The image link you send before gives permission denied. Tom > Hi Elaine, > > thanks for the reply. I believe you exactly described what I did > with this paragraph: > "In Chimera 1.5 each surface could have its own single-layer > transparency. Thus you could still have multiple transparent > layers overall, but only the top layer of each surface. I'm > guessing the image is something like that (I don't have permission > to view it)." > Sadly, I resorted to re-installing CHIMERA 1.5 cos even if I use > pastel colours in Chimera 1.6, the effects were far from what I've > got using the multiple-single layer transparency previously. Is > there any plan to make the transparency setting more customisable > in the future? that will be of great help! thanks! > > Cheers, > Sum > > On 4 May 2012 00:18, Elaine Meng wrote: > > > On May 3, 2012, at 8:05 AM, Sumitro Harjanto wrote: > > > Hi Elaine, > > I used to use CHIMERA 1.5 to generate some molecular images. > and I was able to show a "hint of shadow" of ribbon behind a > semitransparent molecular surface. but I realised that I can > no longer do that from Chimera 1.6 onwards. I have tried > fiddling with the new "single layer transparency" value, but > either option did not provide me with the visual effect that I > could previously get in chimera 1.5. when I turned off the > single layer transparency, the molecular surface became very > messy with multiple shades and the color is visibly darker. > but If I leave it on, the semi-transparent ribbon was not > displayed at all. is there anyway that I can achieve a similar > effect in Chimera 1.6? i.e if you're wondering what effect I > am talking about here is an example: > http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/emmm.201200213/asset/image_n/n… > <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/emmm.201200213/asset/image_n/n…> > > Thanks, Elaine! > > Cheers, > > Sumitro > > Hi Sumitro! > In Chimera 1.5 each surface could have its own single-layer > transparency. Thus you could still have multiple transparent > layers overall, but only the top layer of each surface. I'm > guessing the image is something like that (I don't have > permission to view it). > > In Chimera 1.6 the choices are only either a single layer of > transparency, or all transparent layers. > > In Chimera 1.5 if you turn off single-layer transparency for > each surface, the result is the same as in Chimera 1.6 if you > turn off global single-layer transparency. However, I realize > that does not help, since you don't want to show all layers > (it's often ugly, as you describe). > > I don't know if there is any way to get exactly what you had > before, but in 1.6 I suggest trying this: use single-layer > transparency (which is the default), make only the surface > transparent, keep the ribbon opaque. If you want the ribbon > to be less bold, try making it a pastel color. > > I am not involved in the graphics programming -- I CC'd the > list since the other developers may have suggestions (and > other users might find the discussion informative). > I hope this helps, > Elaine > ---------- > Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab > Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry > University of California, San Francisco > >

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Surface atoms and charges
by Nikolay Igorovich Rodionov 14 May '12

14 May '12

Hi all, I was wondering if any of you knew of a way to determine exactly what atoms occur on the surface of a molecule or how to get the exact charge at a point on a surface. Thank you, Nikolay Rodionov

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AMBER ff99SB Documentation
by Nikolay Igorovich Rodionov 12 May '12

12 May '12

Hi all, Could someone point in the direction of some good documentation on ff99SB, how it functions, and what calculations it performs? Thank you, Nikolay Rodionov

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Using Chimera from non-chimera python scripts
by Dan Cohen 11 May '12

11 May '12

Hello, I would like to use Chimera python classes from a python script running outside Chimera (part of a larger python project). I saw another post that explained that this could be done but I was unclear which of the Chimera functionality can be used in this case. In case I want to create an image (e.g. load pdb files, do some editing and then create an image to a file) - can I use the "chimera" class or do I need to use something else? (I saw a reference to "midas" classes) Is there an example for doing that? Processing a file and creating an image in a non-GUI scenario running outside chimera? Thank you, Dany

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Re: [Chimera-users] semi-transparent ribbon behind semi-transparent surface
by Elaine Meng 11 May '12

11 May '12

On May 3, 2012, at 8:05 AM, Sumitro Harjanto wrote: > Hi Elaine, > I used to use CHIMERA 1.5 to generate some molecular images. and I was able to show a "hint of shadow" of ribbon behind a semitransparent molecular surface. but I realised that I can no longer do that from Chimera 1.6 onwards. I have tried fiddling with the new "single layer transparency" value, but either option did not provide me with the visual effect that I could previously get in chimera 1.5. when I turned off the single layer transparency, the molecular surface became very messy with multiple shades and the color is visibly darker. but If I leave it on, the semi-transparent ribbon was not displayed at all. is there anyway that I can achieve a similar effect in Chimera 1.6? i.e if you're wondering what effect I am talking about here is an example: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/emmm.201200213/asset/image_n/n… > Thanks, Elaine! > Cheers, > Sumitro Hi Sumitro! In Chimera 1.5 each surface could have its own single-layer transparency. Thus you could still have multiple transparent layers overall, but only the top layer of each surface. I'm guessing the image is something like that (I don't have permission to view it). In Chimera 1.6 the choices are only either a single layer of transparency, or all transparent layers. In Chimera 1.5 if you turn off single-layer transparency for each surface, the result is the same as in Chimera 1.6 if you turn off global single-layer transparency. However, I realize that does not help, since you don't want to show all layers (it's often ugly, as you describe). I don't know if there is any way to get exactly what you had before, but in 1.6 I suggest trying this: use single-layer transparency (which is the default), make only the surface transparent, keep the ribbon opaque. If you want the ribbon to be less bold, try making it a pastel color. I am not involved in the graphics programming -- I CC'd the list since the other developers may have suggestions (and other users might find the discussion informative). I hope this helps, Elaine ---------- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Partial Charge and Electrostatic Potential Maps
by Nikolay Igorovich Rodionov 10 May '12

10 May '12

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if there is a way to create a maps of partial charge and electrostatic potential that I could then overlay on top of a similar structure. The biological assembly I am working with is too large for good surface calculations so I would like to overlay these maps on the surface of a condensed structure that only includes the regions I am concentrating on. Thank you, Nikolay Rodionov

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Recording actions
by Nikolay Igorovich Rodionov 10 May '12

10 May '12

Hi all, Is there any way to get a read out of all of the operations I have performed within a session? I know of the command history option but that only record the commands I have entered in the command line. I would like to be able to record my command line and non-command line actions, in the order they occurred. Thank you, Nikolay Rodionov

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Writing image to a file using Chimera python script
by Dan Cohen 10 May '12

10 May '12

Hello all, Is there a python interface for exporting images to a file in the UCSF Chimera. I understand I can use runCommand("copy") or runCommand("export"). Is there a python class for doing such commands? Thank you, Dany

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Re: [Chimera-users] [chimera-dev] Dividing a model into seperate models - one for each chain
by Tom Goddard 09 May '12

09 May '12

Hi Mateusz, The "split #0" command produces separate models for each chain. They are numbered #0.1, #0.2, #0.3, ... with the same primary id number (0) and different secondary id numbers. You can use these two-part id numbers in any Chimera command (e.g. color blue #0.2), or you can refer to all the models using #0. There is currently not a way to change the id numbers of models. Tom > Hello, > > Is there a command / a way to split a model into seperate models (one > for each chain)? I know there is the "split" command, but it divides > the model into submodels. > > Mateusz >

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keyboard accelerator "es" doesn't not work after open the command box
by Weimin Wu 09 May '12

09 May '12

A command box was open to input a sym command to generate 60 copies of a pdb structure on the virus capsid surface. Does anybody know how to close this command box? because the keyboard accelerator "es" always goes to command line instead of erasing the density I specified. It is really annoying. Weimin

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Add-H to water O
by Francesco Pietra 09 May '12

09 May '12

Is it possible with CHIMERA to add-H selectively to O atoms to get H-bonded water molecules? I used REDUCE to add-H (-build flag) but was unable to get H2O from O atoms, although het database is in place. What I am trying to get is a reasonable H-bonded water for a highly hydrated protein, before submitting to MD to actually see h-bonding. thanks francesco pietra

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hydrogen bonds in Chimera
by Beale, John 09 May '12

09 May '12

I have a model of a ligand docked in the active site of a receptor protein. I want to visualize only the hydrogen bonds between ligand and receptor- not for the entire protein. Is this possible in Chimera? John John M. Beale, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy Saint Louis College of Pharmacy 4588 Parkview Place Saint Louis, Missouri 63110-1088 Office: 314-446-8461 Cell: 314-315-0409 FAX: 314-446-8460 John.Beale(a)stlcop.edu<mailto:John.Beale@stlcop.edu>

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Glassy surface in Chimera
by John Squire 08 May '12

08 May '12

Hello, I am trying to show a density map as a glassy surface within which various molecular chains have been fitted. Can anyone please tell me how to produce such a glassy surface for the density map in Chimera? Thanks, John Squire Professor John M Squire, Muscle Contraction Group, School of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD. United Kingdom. Visiting Professor Imperial College London (44) (0)1722 421734 j.squire(a)imperial.ac.uk j.m.squire(a)bristol.ac.uk -------------------------------

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NMR
by MESHAL ALMUALLIMI 07 May '12

07 May '12

Hello, How can I show only the average of my NMR solved structure? As when I fetch the PDBID 1YJR it shows all the structures aligned and I only need the average. I figured out how to eliminate as much structures as I can but I am interested in taking the average of all. Regards Meshal MS candidate Georgetown University

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Chelation of Calcium with Citrate
by Nancy 05 May '12

05 May '12

Hi All, I would like to find the stoichiometry for the chelation of a calcium ion (Ca 2+) with a citrate ion (citrate 3-), as well as the equilibrium constant or free energy of calcium-citrate complex formation. x*Ca2+ + y*citrate3- <=> z*calcium-citrate-complex (x, y, and z are the stoichiometric coefficients) Thanks in advance, Nancy

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Amber Force Field
by Forbes J. Burkowski 04 May '12

04 May '12

Hi: I have noticed that scripts can start with: import MMTK import MMTK.ForceFields from MMTK.ForceFields import Amber94ForceField We are doing some side chain packing studies that would benefit from the availablity of "easy" force field calculations. Currently, the algorithm works with useRotamers() to set two neighbouring rotamers and this is followed by a simple energy calculation to evaluate the interaction energy between the two rotamers. Right now, the energy calculation is only a bit more sophisticated than a steric collision detector. Question: Can we use some functions in the MMTK.ForceFields module to get an improved energy calculation? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers, Forbes

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Re: [Chimera-users] transform coordinates of multiple volumes
by Elaine Meng 03 May '12

03 May '12

On Apr 27, 2012, at 9:26 AM, Ludovic Renault wrote: > Hi Elaine, > I have 120 or so 3d volumes (EM maps). They are all equivalent and are centered at the same position. > I would like to move each one of these 120 volumes by a specific value in terms of euler angles and shift (in pixels I assume). I can use the 'trAnsform coordinates' tool but then if I save the map, it is not saved with the new coordinates. > So > 1- How to (Or can I) save the new coordinates for each volume? > 2- Can I use command lines to automate the process for example by giving the command a text file with the specific coordinates for each volume? > > I did do the rotation with spider software, but the shifting doesn't work because the volume(s) go outside of the box. So if all the above is not doable, is it possible to increase the volumes boxe size in chimera, then I could use the shift function in spider? > > I hope I'm clear enough. > Thanks, > Ludovic Hi Ludovic, It is recommended to send Chimera questions to the chimera-users list (CC'd) -- I'm not the top expert on volumes, so others may have better answers! I think the shift in Transform Coordinates is not in pixels but in units of length. <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/transform/transfor…> How the volume grid units map to units of length can be viewed by using Features...Coordinates in the Volume Viewer menu. Chimera has commands for translation (move) and rotation (turn) in X,Y,Z coordinate systems, but I don't know of a command to apply Euler rotations. <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/move.html> <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/turn.html> About saving a transformed map: The map formats don't include transformation information, so there is no way to save EXACTLY the same data, except transformed. However, you can resample the map onto a new grid, and then save the new map. The values at the new grid points are determined by interpolation, so there will be some (generally minor) data loss. <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/savemodel.html#afterfitting> The resampling of one map onto the grid of another can be done with command "vop resample", for example: vop #1 resample onGrid #0 <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/vop.html#resample> To save the new resampled volume to a file, you could use "File... Save Map as" in the Volume Viewer dialog or the command "volume" with its "save" option. However, I see that "vop resample" is most pertinent for saving a map that has been fitted to another. In your case you are simply transforming the map, so it is unclear on what grid you could resample. Maybe there is some way to make a "dummy" grid in the right place. Although "vop cover" extends a map, it assumes periodicity of that map, whereas I assume you want zeroes in the expanded parts. Perhaps expanding a map with zeroes could be done using "vop add" to add a dummy zero map to your data set of interest. Sorry I couldn't give a more complete solution, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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About resolution and origin
by Yuhong Li 02 May '12

02 May '12

Hi friends, Firstly, I was wondering how to know the resolution of my map since one day I opened volume viewer...tools...fit to segments. And I found that there displaying "density map resolution". So my question is whether that number is the correct resolution of my map? Secondly, in the volume viewer...corrdinates I can know the origin index, but how can I know the origin? These questions may seem to be stupid, but I just want to know. So hope to hear from you very soon! Best Wishes, Yuhong Lee

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changing map dimensions
by Elaine Meng 01 May '12

01 May '12

On Apr 30, 2012, at 6:56 PM, Yuhong Li wrote: > Hi Elaine, > Thanks for your help, now I've understood what those numbers mean. But I was wondering if you could tell me how I can change those gird points, such as change 88 66 94 to 94 94 94 or any cubic numbers ? > Best Wishes, > Yuhong Lee > Hi Yuhong, Please send Chimera questions to chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu instead of directly to me. Those numbers are the size of your input data file, so I'm not sure what you mean. You can't just change the numbers arbitrarily. It is possible to make a new data set by cutting off part of the original data set. One way to do that is to use the "volume" command to save a new map file, using the "saveSubregion" option to include only part of the original map. <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/volume.html#output> However, it sounds like you want to make a new data set that is bigger than your original map. There is a "vop cover" command that will make a bigger map, but it assumes periodicity of the input map. <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/vop.html#cover> If instead you wanted values of zero at the additional grid points, however, I don't know how to do that -- maybe the others have ideas. Elaine ---------- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Just want atom distances
by Patricia LiWang 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

Hello users group, I don't want anything complicated-- I just want to get some rough distances between atoms. So I go to Tools Structure Analysis Distances A window comes up with an empty table. (No instructions on how to pick atoms) A search of the Chimera documentation tells me I have to Control-leftclick to pick two atoms But no matter how often I click and click and click, it never gives me anything. I can't get even one atom to show up in the panel, let alone two. The side chains are sitting right there, getting clicked away, with nothing happening in the table. I am reading so many similar documentation pages, and apparently there is a difference between "selecting" and "picking" So I figure I'll just use the command line. But the instructions don't even bother to tell you how to use the command line to get the distance between two atoms. There is documentation on how to get distances between something and a "plane". Why do they make this so hard? Surely this is the main "simple" thing people want to do with this program. Would someone please tell me how to Pick or Select or Whatever two amino acids (any atom in them would be fine) and get a distance? Or better yet, please tell me the exact command line command I can use to get the distance between Asparate 234 carboxyl oxygen and Aspartate 295 carboxyl oxygen, both from chain "G"? Thanks! Patti ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Measure contact between copies of the same map
by Giovanni Cardone 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

Hi, I can use the tool measure contactArea on the surface models of two different maps, but I can not make it work when using it on two copies of the same map: no matter how much I move one map with respect to the other, the first surface listed in the command line will always be entirely colored in red (using offset 0). It looks like the command ignores the transformation. Is this the expected behavior? I can work around it by resampling the maps after the transformation (vop resample # onGrid #), but I liked more the idea of doing the measure without this additional step. Tested it with the latest alpha version 1.7 (build 36320). Thank you, Giovanni

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Contour mapping
by Nikolay Igorovich Rodionov 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could help me create an accurate contour map based on surface charge. I've tried rendering my molecule by charge, then using the surface clipping, capping, and the color zone tools. However, the coloring varies based on how I orient the plane. Does anyone know a better and more accurate way to creating a contour map? Nikolay Rodionov

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