- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

v. 2540 linux - core dump (?!?!?!)
by Boaz Shaanan 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

Hi, After installing v. 2540 for linux I get 'floating exception' and core dump. The installation went fine as far as I can tell. It's a laptop running Mandrake 10. So far, I've had no problem running chimera on it. any clue about what might have gone wrong ? Thanks, Boaz Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D. Dept. of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel Phone: 972-8-647-2220 ; Fax: 646-1710 Skype: boaz.shaanan‎

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Chimera running un der 64 bit Vista
by Charles Letner, Ph.D. 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

Hello all, Does Chimera run under 64 bit Vista? Thinking about a new desktop and sure would like to go 64 bit. Cheers, Chuck Charles Letner, Ph.D. Alpharetta, GA 30004

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Display
by James Fethiere 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

Hi, I have a sudden problem with the display in version 1.2509. I was working with a session with about 20 models opened. For whatever reason, I just can't display any on the screen anymore; even if all are selected in the model panel. Am I missing something or is this a bug? Thanks James

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assignment of charges
by Barb Truitt 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

I have two different pdb files that differ only in how the atoms are listed in the atom name columns. In one file all of the Carbon atoms are listed simply as C. In the other file, the carbon atoms are numbered C1, C2, etc. This is true for the other atoms in the molecule, which is not a peptide chain. The mol2 files created by Chimera under the dock prep procedure have different charges assigned to the atoms, differing most in the aromatic carbons. Some of the hydrogens also have different charges assigned to them. Most of the differences are small, but some are 10%. What is the explanation for this? Barb Truitt

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sulfone
by Barb Truitt 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

I am trying to assign charges to a compound that contains a sulfone group. The charge assignment depends upon how I name the atoms. The atom assignment for the oxygens that are part of the sulfone group and the sulfur itself vary depending upon how they are named. How should I name them so that they are handled correctly? Barb Truitt PS - I receive the Chimera list emails, but my outgoing email address apparently doesn't match the one that I used to sign up for the list. Is there a way to fix that?

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POV-ray ignoring surface clipping
by Monica Tello 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

Help! I am having trouble saving my images when they have a surface clipped to show the inside. I attach an example for clarity, where the same view was saved with/without POV ray.. If I have a surface around my ligand and is partially clipped, at the time of saving the image: - If I save it without using POV-ray, it saves the exact same view as on the screen, with the surface clipped. - If I use POV-ray, it saves it with the full surface around the ligand, ignoring the clipping I had done. I have tried modifying several POV-ray settings but nothing has worked! Have you got any suggestions? Thanks! Monica SURFACE CLIPPED WITH POV-RAY, SURFACE DOES NOT SHOW THE CLIPPING! ------------------------------------------------- Monica Tello Soto, PhD The Salk Institute for Biological Studies Chemical Biology and Proteomics 10010 North Torrey Pines Road San Diego CA92037 858 453 4100 x1946 tello(a)salk.edu ------------------------------------------------

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POV-ray ignoring surface clipping
by Monica Tello 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

Dear all, I am trying to save a Figure that shows my ligand with its surface around partly clipped, and use POV Ray. The problem is that POV Ray modifies the output of the figure: the final picture shows the full surface around the ligand, although on the screen I designed it so that you can see the surface partially clipped. If I use transparency on the surface, POV Ray also ignores this and shows still the full surface around the ligand, and opaque. If I don´t use POV Ray, then I get the figure as seen on the screen! Why is POV Ray ignoring the surface as I want it? It ignores any kind of alteration of the surface! I was using the default POX Ray settings, although by now I have tried to change some of the ones I thought may be related to this, based on the Chimera Manual, but I haven´t had any success. Can anyone help me with this? It will be very much appreciated! I include an example of the same figure saved with and without using POV Ray. The one without using POV ray is the one that looks like what I designed on the screen. Thank you very much!! Monica ----------- ------------------------------------------------- Monica Tello Soto, PhD The Salk Institute for Biological Studies Chemical Biology and Proteomics 10010 North Torrey Pines Road San Diego CA92037 858 453 4100 x1946 tello(a)salk.edu ------------------------------------------------

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Re: [Chimera-users] ESP surface, DelphiController
by Elaine Meng 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

On Sep 1, 2008, at 9:14 AM, James Fethiere wrote: > > Once the .dx file is loaded in Chimera, I get a nice ESP map. > However, it seems sensitive!! how? well, when I color the surface > of a transcription factor bound to DNA (1DH3) according to the dx > ESP loaded file, it's nice. But when I display the ribbons of the > bound DNA in the same model and color these ribbons, the previous > surface reverts to the default Chimera colors and I loose the ESP > from the dx file. Quite strange no? Hi James, The reason is that the surface cannot have "custom" colors (e.g. ESP coloring) and coloring to match the underlying atoms at the same time, even in different areas of the surface. If you make sure to color only ribbon and not surface, the surface should stay ESP-colored. If you are using the Actions... Color menu, make sure to check only "ribbons" as what will be colored, color the ribbons, and then change it back to the default "all of the above" coloring targets. If you are using a command, then something like color red,r :30-50 specifies coloring ribbons only (the ",r" part). The alternative is to do all the ribbon/atom coloring first, ESP-color the surface last. > > It is also not possible to select this dx ESP file in a command > file to make a movie. And if it is displayed before movie record > starts, I get a black frame movie with the avi encoding (yes I did > modify the video acceleration in media player). So I guess it will > be still pictures. Check out the session attached. > What are you trying to do with the surface in this movie (why are you trying to select or specify it?). Most command-line selections are based on specifying a set of atoms, so you would just specify the atoms associated with the molecular surface. However, I would need to know which commands you are trying to use to be more specific/ concrete, or let you know if what you want to do is possible with commands. > Thanks > > James I am unable to deal with that attached session because it is just shown as a zillion lines of text beneath the mail message. My cut- paste attempts failed. You could instead use Help... Report a Bug and attach the session to it to illustrate the black movie problem. We may or may not be able to reproduce it, but having the session (and perhaps also your movie script?) would help. It may only let you attach one thing, so I'd say attach the session and put the script (or some short version that exhibits the problem) as part of the message text. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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POV-ray ignoring surface clipping
by Monica Tello 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

I am having trouble saving my images when they have a surface clipped to show the inside. If I have a surface around my ligand and is partially clipped, at the time of saving the image: - If I save it without using POV-ray, it saves the exact same view as on the screen, with the surface clipped. - If I use POV-ray, it saves it with the full surface around the ligand, ignoring the clipping I had done. I have tried modifying several POV-ray settings but nothing has worked! Have you got any suggestions? Thanks! Monica ------------------------------------------------- Monica Tello Soto, PhD The Salk Institute for Biological Studies Chemical Biology and Proteomics 10010 North Torrey Pines Road San Diego CA92037 858 453 4100 x1946 tello(a)salk.edu ------------------------------------------------

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automating/scripting bond rotation
by E. Merkley 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

Hello chimera team, I am trying to evaluate which regions of (chi1,chi2) space for a particular tryptophan residue create steric clashes with a bound ligand. I see from the archives that findclash can be called from the command line, but I have been unable to find a way to use the "adjust torsions" feature from the command line. Is this possible? If not, any other suggestions? Thanks in advance, Eric Merkley

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decommissioning SGI Irix platform
by Eric Pettersen 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

Hi all, We are decommissioning our SGI machines as of 9/15, which means that the 1.2540 release was the last production release for SGI Irix. Daily builds will continue to be made for SGI until 9/15, so some post-1.2450 fixes/features will be available that way. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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Povray and semitransparent maps
by odonnell＠chem.fsu.edu 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

Hi. I'm seeking a tip or two on how to save an image of a semitransparent map with PovRay. Povray works fine, but the image of the semitransparent map it generates is much darker that it appears on the screen. Any advice would be much appreciated. -Jason ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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ESP surface, DelphiController
by Elaine Meng 28 Aug '08

28 Aug '08

Hi James, Just because it has red, white and blue blotches does not mean it is showing ESP!! I don't think the different filenames in the DelPhi log are a problem - I believe temp files are generated from the ones you specify and used in the calculation for technical reasons. However, I do not know the reason for the error and not getting any output. You could try using Help... Report a Bug in the Chimera menu - give more details, such as all the error messages obtained and what it says at the end of the DelPhi log file. The main difficulty with DelPhi and any ESP calculation program is that atom names need to match those in the DelPhi charge parameter files. If you want to use all the hydrogens, you have to either edit all the names in the DelPhi charge parameter file or write out your PDB beforehand and edit all of its atom names to match those in the DelPhi charge parameter file. I have found this to be well nigh impossible. In general many hydrogen names not match and your molecule gets a very large net negative charge. Chimera tries to name hydrogens according to current PDB standards, but these old DelPhi parameter files use a different set of names. Instead, I would just used the DelPhi parameter files "default.crg" and "default.siz" which ignore hydrogens and just plop positives on nonhydrogen atoms in Lys, Arg (maybe His and N-term, I forget) and negatives on nonhydrogen atoms in Asp, Glu (maybe C-term). It is impossible to tell what "half all red" and "half all blue" means. It depends on what levels you have specified to be displayed as red and blue. Maybe the APBS map is fine - try changing the values set to red and blue to larger magnitudes. If APBS writes some sort of log file I would look at that, see if there is a reasonable net charge. Again most of the trickiness is in getting the right charges assigned to the atoms. You could use the PDB2PQR server to get an input file for APBS (if you didn't try that already). <http://nbcr.sdsc.edu/pdb2pqr/> Another possibility is to use the webPIPSA server as mentioned in previous messages, e.g. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2008-August/003006.html Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Aug 27, 2008, at 7:58 PM, James Fethiere wrote: > Hi Elaine, > > Nice that you found what I did 6kkm away!!! thanks. However, I must > say that it does look artificial. I'm just desperate to get the > electrostatic look as nice as possible (just like the pictures in http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/maps08/exercises.html#esp) > and found that was the closest I could get. One example I'm trying > is on 1DH3 > > On this note, I did try the delphicontroller to get the true > potentials but cannot get it to work. I have installed delphi on > windows-XP and called it from within chimera with tool/ > surfaceanalysis/delphicontroller. I entered the path for the > executable and charge and radii files. When I run delphi, I get an > error with no output file generated and some strange parameters in > the log file: > > in(pdb, file="tmph4vkzc") This does not correspond to the chimera > model I have chosen > in(siz, file="tmplk_go0") same here; not the file specified > in(crg, file="tmpbg7nlz") same thing > AC = true > CS = true > PF = 60 > SC = 1.2 > PR = 1.4 > FC = true > LG = false > LP = false > PX = false > PY = false > PZ = false > BC = 4 > ID = 2 > ED = 80 > GC = 0.0 > IS = 0.0 > IR = 0.0 > NI = 0 > > P.S. I did addH before starting Delphi! Any idea of what is going > wrong? > > I also tried to run APBS and got a potential file. But when I read > it in chimera, I get strange looking surfaces with half all red and > half all blue!!! here again I could use some guidance. > > Thanks for your help. > > James > -- > James Fethiere, Ph.D. > Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et Cancerologie > Pavillon Marcelle Coutu, University de Montreal > 2900 edouard-montpetit > Montreal, Qc H3t 1J4 > Tel: 514-343-6111 ext. 0918/0919 > Fax: 514-343-5839 > james.fethiere(a)umontreal.ca

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unattended installation on Windows
by Nelson, Lisa 27 Aug '08

27 Aug '08

Hello, I am not a chimera user; I'm an IT person. I have been asked to provide this application for next semester on our walk-up Windows computers for students. I have downloaded the necessary Windows installation materials, but I cannot find any documentation about command line parameters for the installation process itself, and the installation executable does not appear to be one of the usual suspects that I'm familiar with. Specifically, I'm looking for a way to do unattended, silent installation from a batch file. Attended installation is not an option as there are thousands of computers involved. Thanks for any help anybody can provide. I am not on the chimera mailing list, so please send replies privately. (The "contact us" webpage appears to give me the option of e-mailing to this list even though I'm not a member, so since I have only this one question and no particular need to subscribe, I've done it this way.) Thanks, Lisa.

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selection
by James Fethiere 26 Aug '08

26 Aug '08

Hi, I'm trying to create a category for separate surfacing of chains in a session that has multiple models. The following command: _surfcat sh3 #7:.a, surf sh3_ returns mangled atoms specifier. This may looks trivial but I can't find the right syntax to specify both the chain and residues in the same command. Any idea? Thanks James

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mrc opaque faces
by Benoit Zuber 26 Aug '08

26 Aug '08

Hello, I have problem looking at maps in mrc format calculated with IMOD. In mesh or surface style, when I move "level" towards lower value, the outer faces of the volume gradually become opaque. When I set the level to the minimum I see a smooth rectangular parallelepiped. I can then zoom in and have the camera inside the parallelepiped. With these settings, no density is visible inside the parallelepiped, only its faces are visible. In 3dmod I checked the edges of the map: they have a variable density, and they are not all black, or all white. Has anybody got a clue of what's going wrong? Thanks Ben -- Benoit Zuber MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Hills Road Cambridge CB2 0QH UK

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Faster volume plane display
by Thomas Goddard 25 Aug '08

25 Aug '08

Optimization for tomogram display. I optimized volume plane display making flipping through size 2048^2 data planes run at 17 frames per second instead of the 1.2 frames per second in the last Chimera production release 1.2540. This is with solid style rendering (gray-scale) and with mid-range graphics cards (tested on Radeon X1600 and Radeon 9800 Pro). The improved performance will be available in tonights Chimera daily builds. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/alpha-downloads.html Tom

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Re: [Chimera-users] density maps in chimera- question
by Tom Goddard 22 Aug '08

22 Aug '08

Hi Sarah, Chimera does not show sigma values for a crystal map in the volume dialog. It shows whatever values are actually in the map file. Here is a description of how to convert to sigma values: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2008-May/002651.html Chimera map display was primarily intended for electron microscopy, hence the deficiencies with crystal maps you are encountering. Allowing direct display of sigma values is item 153 on our requested features list: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/plans.html Tom Sarah Boyce wrote: > Thanks Tom. I also was wondering about the display options for the > density. How does the histogram display level correlate to the sigma > level of the map? > > Sarah

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electrostatic surface coloring
by James Fethiere 22 Aug '08

22 Aug '08

Hi, 1. is there a way to use the electrostatic surface coloring from the tools/surface menu, in a command file? It seems that it is only available through the menu? 2. I have a pqr electrostatic potential file calculated from the PCE server http://bioserv.rpbs.jussieu.fr/Help/PCE.html using MEAD. How do I get it into chimera? Thanks

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Dr. Simon Sauve is out of the office.
by Simon Sauve 21 Aug '08

21 Aug '08

I will be out of the office starting 2008-08-21 and will not return until 2008-09-03. You can reach me at simsauve(a)yahoo.ca during the ICMRBS conference. In case of an emergency, please contact Dr. Yves Aubin by e-mail or @ 613-941-6155

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emulation of threee button mouse not working
by Geeta Narlikar 21 Aug '08

21 Aug '08

Hi, I'm having problems with the three button mouse emulation feature. My OS is Mac X Leopard and I turned on the "emulate three button" mouse feature in X11. But that does not seem to work. My version of Chimera is 1.2509. Is there any other setting I should change? Thanks for your help. Geeta Narlikar

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Re: [Chimera-users] density maps in chimera- question
by Thomas Goddard 21 Aug '08

21 Aug '08

Hi Sarah, You can use the keyboard shortcut "bv" to create a new map that covers your PDB model. To enable keyboard shortcuts use Tools / General Controls / Keyboard Shortcuts and turn on "Enable keyboard shortcuts" in the dialog. Select the atoms of your PDB model. If you have more than one map open make sure the highlighted one in the volume dialog is the crystal map for the selected atoms. Then type the "bv" shortcut to create a new map covering the select atoms. This assumes that the starting map is a full unit cell. If you don't want to go to the trouble of enabling keyboard shortcuts, you can use the command "ac bv" which runs the shortcut (accelerator) bv. You can save the covering map with volume dialog File / Save Map As.... Tom Sarah Boyce wrote: > Hi Tom- I was told you might be the person to ask about the density map > features in chimera. I'm trying to display crystallographic electron > density maps and I've run into a problem aligning some of the maps to > the protein model. When I load the map and model it looks as though the > map is of the symmetry related molecule, but when viewed using Coot it > automatically centers the map on the model. So far the only tool that > I've found to do this is by hand alignment, which doesn't work at all > for an atomic level model (or at least when I've tried it it is too much > of a pain). Is there an automated tool in chimera that will > automatically center the map on the model similar to the way Coot > handles it? > > > Thanks, Sarah

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(no subject)
by charles marchand 21 Aug '08

21 Aug '08

Greetings, I was wondering if someone could tell me how to select multiple sequences in the sequence viewer. I am trying to select different regions of RNA to visualize, but Chimera has not allowed me to pick to sequences that are separate. Is there a way to do it through the sequence viewer? Thank you, Charlie

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Re: [Chimera-users] CHARMM PBEQ calculations
by Tom Goddard 21 Aug '08

21 Aug '08

Hi Fabian, The OpenDX file you sent has a small but important error. It is missing the words "data follows" at the end of the header line that says "object 3 class array..." so Chimera never reads the data. The misleading error message comes about because the last line of the file is blank and Chimera still thinks it is reading the header. The header line object 3 class array type double rank 0 items 378885 has to be object 3 class array type double rank 0 items 378885 data follows Hopefully Sunhwan can update the phi2dx.py script to include the very important "data follows". The OpenDX format is described in Appendix B of the OpenDX User's Guide: http://opendx.npaci.edu/docs/pdf/userguide.pdf Tom Fabian Glaser wrote: > Dear Elaine, > > I am afraid it's still giving the same error when I try to open the dx > file, even when the first line is removed or # starts it. Here is the > message: > > Opening /media/data/WORKSPACE/PROJECTS/DanCassel/COP/step2_pbeq.dx > Error reading file step2_pbeq.dx, format apbs > Incorrect format: blank header line. Comments must begin with # > character. > > And the dx file is attached, probably I am doing something wrong.... > > THanks a lot, > > Fabian > > > Elaine Meng said the following on 19/08/08 19:19: >> Hi Fabian, >> Well, the error message says the format is wrong. Based on the >> message, you could try removing the blank line at the top of the file >> or adding # in front of it. >> >> If that still doesn't work you could send me the file to look at, but >> it is probably just a simple fix such as the above. >> Elaine >> ----- >> Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab >> Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry >> University of California, San Francisco >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html >> >> >> >> >> >> On Aug 19, 2008, at 7:03 AM, Fabian Glaser wrote: >> >>> Dear Sunhwan >>> >>> Thanks a lot for your kind answer and for the script. The script run >>> fine, but when I try to upload it to chimera I get an error: >>> >>> Opening >>> /media/data/WORKSPACE/PROJECTS/HaimManor/EladEliahoo/MODELS/POMBE/CHARMM-PBEQ/charmm-gui/step2_pbeq.dx >>> >>> Error reading file step2_pbeq.dx, format apbs >>> Incorrect format: blank header line. Comments must begin with # >>> character. >>> Done opening >>> /media/data/WORKSPACE/PROJECTS/HaimManor/EladEliahoo/MODELS/POMBE/CHARMM-PBEQ/charmm-gui/step2_pbeq.dx >>> >>> >>> Which maybe perfectly chimera problem, so I am CCing this email also >>> to Elaine Meng from the CHIMERA team. >>> >>> Any help will be very appreciated, >>> >>> Thanks a lot, >>> >>> FAbian >>> >>> Sunhwan Jo said the following on 19/08/08 15:25: >>>> Dear Dr. Glaser, >>>> >>>> I'm afraid CHIMERA is not able to read CHARMM phi80 format. But simple >>>> search guided me that CHIMERA can to read dx format file, which I >>>> have a >>>> converting script. So, please find the script in the attached file. >>>> We've been >>>> using this script to read our potential data in Pymol, so I believe >>>> this should >>>> be working fine with CHIMERA as well. >>>> >>>> usage: >>>> python phi2dx.py step2_pbeq.phi80 > step2_pbeq.dx >>>> >>>> Please feel free to contact me, if you have a further problem. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Sunhwan >>>> >>>> >>>> On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 4:53 AM, Fabian Glaser >>>> <fglaser(a)technion.ac.il> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Dearl CHARMM team, >>>>> >>>>> have been trying to upload the electrostatic potential calculated >>>>> by CHARMM PBEQ routine to the CHIMERA viewer, since the java >>>>> viewer you use is very good but at least in my machine does not >>>>> work. But despite I have been trying to upload it to chimera there >>>>> seems to be some stubborn problem (or I am doing something wrong). >>>>> What I am trying to do is to color the pdb by the potential in >>>>> chimera so I can freely manipulate it and compare it with other >>>>> calculations. >>>>> >>>>> If you have any suggestion I'll be very grateful, >>>>> >>>>> Best regards, >>>>> >>>>> Fabian Glaser, PhD

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clipping planes question
by William Jeffrey Triffo 20 Aug '08

20 Aug '08

I know of the hinder and yon clipping planes, and also the per-model clipping plane that allows individual model clipping. I have a current imaging session where I have already used per-model clipping on several models, but would like to trim off some material from the side of the entire combined model - I don't suppose there is an arbitrary clipping plane that applies to the whole scene, like hinder-yon but from any user-defined direction? For now, I was just going to crop the resulting image. But this will result in an abrupt end to the background color (I can adjust the image border clone the background in photoshop/etc, but would be nice to be able to do that within Chimera) thanks, -Jeff

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saving nol2 files
by 吴超 20 Aug '08

20 Aug '08

Hi, dear folks, I have some doubt about how chimera determines the atom type when you save mol2 files from ligand pdb files. Because when I opened the saved mol2 files, I found there were some mistakes about atom type. Does Chimera use the same procedure that Sybyl uses to determine the atom type? -- Chao Wu

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MultiScale.color_surfaces_to_match_atoms() and MultiScale mesh resolution ???
by Darrell Hurt 20 Aug '08

20 Aug '08

Hi there, I¹m trying to use the command MultiScale.color_surfaces_to_match_atoms(). I want to point out a mutation on the surface of a virus. I can color the atoms correctly, but I can¹t figure out how to apply that color to the MultiScale low-resolution surface. Any hints on how to use this command? Also, how can I increase the mesh resolution on MultiScale surfaces for input for 3D printing? Thanks! Darrell -- NIH Researchers: check out our new web site <http://inside.niaid.nih.gov/topic/IT/bioinformatics/Pages/default.aspx> Darrell Hurt, Ph.D. Section Head, Biocomputing Research Consulting Bioinformatics and Scientific IT Program (BSIP) NIAID Office of Technology Information Systems (OTIS) National Institutes of Health, DHHS Contractor, Lockheed Martin 4 Memorial Drive, Room 424 Bethesda, MD 20892-0485 Mobile: (301) 758-3559 Fax: (301) 402-0366 NIAID Intranet: http://bioinformatics.niaid.nih.gov <http://bioinformatics.niaid.nih.gov/> Disclaimer: The information in this e-mail and any of its attachments is confidential and may contain sensitive information. It should not be used by anyone who is not the original intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please inform the sender and delete it from your mailbox or any other storage devices. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shall not accept liability for any statements made that are sender's own and not expressly made on behalf of the NIAID by one of its representatives.

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Re: [Chimera-users] Distance and Angles
by Thomas Goddard 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

Hi Andy, To show a distance between atoms select the two atoms and use menu entry Tools / Structure Measurements / Distances and press the Create button. You can show distances for multiple pairs of atoms. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/structuremeas/stru… Not sure what you mean by the angle between two density map surfaces. The surfaces intersect in many places making different angles. You could place 3 markers with Volume tracer and measure the angle made by those 3 markers using the Angles/Torsions tab of the Structure Measurement dialog. Tom Anindito Sen wrote: > Hi Tom > > Probably this question is already answered before- > > How do I show multiple distances between different amino acids of two > molecules from two different parts of the density map. > > Also do can I determine the angle between two surfaces? > > Thanks > Andy > > Dr. Anindito Sen (Ph.D) > Research Associate , Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics > University of Virginia > Box 800733 Charlottesville, VA 22908

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saving maps generated with molmap - origin?
by Grigore Pintilie 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

Hello, I'm wondering why when I generate a density map from a pdb structure (using the molmap command) and then save it, once I reopen it it seems to have shifted with respect to the structure. I'm noticing that before saving it, the generated map has a certain origin (shown in the Coordinates pane in the Volume Viewer), and then when I reopen it the origin appears as 0 0 0. If I copy the origin shown initially and then paste it into the origin of the opened file, this shifts the map to the correct position, but why isn't the right origin saved with the file? I'm using alpha version 1 build 2509 2008/05/01, platform win32 Many thanks, Greg

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How to Create Isopotential Contours, not Surfaces, with Chimera
by Charles Letner, Ph.D. 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

Hello all, I have a map of electrostatic potentials. Using volume viewer I am able to display the surfaces at any potential value I would like (as well as multiple values by having multiple bars in the volume viewer histogram). Now, I would like to be able to take a slice through that potential surface and see a line associated with a given value of the potential in that slice - call that the contour. I would like to have multiple potential contours, each with a different constant value in that contour (-10 for one contour, -20 for the next, -30 for the third, and so on- call these the iso-potential contours). This would allow the contours of potential to be seen in a single plane. Seems like I am so close using planes but that just isn't working. Am I approaching this right and if so any hints would be appreciated? If I am off base with the approach, I sure would appreciate a nudge in the right direction? Cheers, Chuck

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Flipping between alternate conformations (depiction/movie)
by David Chenoweth 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

Dear Chimera team, Is there a movie command that can easily depict the interconversion between two alternate conformations in a nucleic acid or protein residue (designated conformation a and b) within a pdb file. I am really trying to illustrate with a movie how the phosphates flip between two well defined states in an ultra-high resolution DNA crystal structure using a chimera movie. Thanks in advance, Dave Chenoweth ********************************************** David M. Chenoweth California Institute of Technology Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Mail Code: 164-30 1200 California Boulevard, 91125 Pasadena California, USA Phone: 626-395-6074 Email: dchen(a)caltech.edu **********************************************

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Question about Measure Volume and Area
by Patrick Redmill 18 Aug '08

18 Aug '08

Hi all, I am using the the calculate "Area and Volume" option in Chimera to estimate the SASA and excluded volumes of a family of fullerene materials. I need to calculate the area and volume using two different probe sizes (1.4 and 2.0, to be specific). For most of my particles, you see that the volume and area are relatively insensitive to a change in probe size (which I would expect). For one particle, however, I find the results to be quite different and unintuitive. For instance: 1.4: Area: 1174 Volume: 3534 2.0: Area: 1692 Volume: 2493 My (perhaps wrong??) assumption is that the area calculator uses a Connolly algorithm. If that is the case, I can't understand why a larger probe would give a larger area (smaller probes samples more surface). Also, why would a larger probe give a larger volume? Again, I thought the volume calculator used a Voronoi algorithm, which, to me seems independent of probe size. Any idea what may be wrong about my understanding? I've attached a .pdb of the molecule in question if you'd like to take a gander. Thanks in advance! ~Patrick

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stereo
by Matthew Dougherty 16 Aug '08

16 Aug '08

I have been using chimera/macAqua with sequential stereo with no problems on a CRT. I am running into problems using the depth-q stereo projector because of the way their frame buffer works. Their left and right is inverted relative to the CRT. On other packages I activate a left/right image swap to get around this. Is there something I can do to achieve this on Chimera? Matt National Center for Macromolecular Imaging

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Fwd: Question about Measure Volume and Area
by Elaine Meng 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Begin forwarded message: > From: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Date: August 15, 2008 12:11:33 PM PDT > To: Patrick Redmill <patrickredmill(a)gmail.com> > Cc: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Question about Measure Volume and Area > > Me again, I just wanted to quickly reiterate that if you want > analytical values, just look in the Reply Log after first showing/ > creating the surface. That will report the analytical values, and > not just the totals but also the values for each component > (disconnected blob, so outer surface and inner surface are two > components), and also both SAS and SES areas even though only the > SES is actually displayed in Chimera. > > So for molecular surfaces, there isn't really any reason to use > Measure Volume and Area or Measure and Color Blobs. Those tools are > mainly needed for other, nonmolecular surfaces. I didn't present > this clearly in the previous messages, sorry. > Best > Elaine

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Re: [Chimera-users] quick angles question
by Tom Goddard 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Hi Jeff, Here is a Python script to report the angles made by bonds attached selected atoms. Just select the atoms, then open the script. Output will be printed to the reply log. Tested in Chimera 1.2548 but should work in much older versions. Tom Jeff Triffo wrote: > hi Tom, > > if I have a Chimera marker file full of interconnected markers, is > there a quick/easy way to report all the angles formed in the > meshwork? (screenshot attached) > > I figure the easiest way is to cycle through the markers and survey > the angles it makes with each attached marker, but I don't know how to > do that (but it sounds like something that is probably straighforward > in python) > > thanks for any input there, > > -Jeff > # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Report all angles made by bonds originating from selected atoms. # from chimera import selection, angle atoms = selection.currentAtoms() print '%d atoms selected' % len(atoms) c = 0 for a in atoms: bonds = a.bonds for b1 in bonds: for b2 in bonds: if b1 < b2: a1 = b1.otherAtom(a) a2 = b2.otherAtom(a) t = angle(a1.coord(), a.coord(), a2.coord()) print ('Angle %s %s %s = %.3f degrees' % (a1.oslIdent(), a.oslIdent(), a2.oslIdent(), t)) c += 1 print '%d angles reported' % c import Accelerators.standard_accelerators as sa sa.show_reply_log()

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Re: [Chimera-users] midas/6155 (Chimera error)
by Eric Pettersen 14 Aug '08

14 Aug '08

On Aug 14, 2008, at 1:23 PM, Christine Deillon wrote: > Hi Eric, > > I try to save a movie of a collagen molecule (cylinder shape) > just moving around its major axis (along the molecule) for about > 15 secondes, then I would like to play the movie in the microsoft > power point program > is it possible to do that with chimera? > > Christine Hi Christine, Yes, absolutely you can do that. There is a Chimera tutorial that covers movie-making in good detail here: Movie Making in Chimera The "Spin Movie" section of the tutorial is almost exactly what you are asking for. Issues with embedding movies into PowerPoint are at the very end of the Movie Recorder documentation page: problems in PowerPoint --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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version 1.2540 stability
by James Fethiere 14 Aug '08

14 Aug '08

Hi, I just upgraded my May version with the last version of Chimera for PC and am having stability problems. Every now an then (every 10' or so), chimera freezes and the cursor flickers for a couple of seconds; then all goes back to normal. Sometimes, it just crashes completely. Is this last version more demanding on memory? Thanks James

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Re: [Chimera-users] calculation of volume
by Elaine Meng 14 Aug '08

14 Aug '08

Hi Navnit, Sorry, I don't know of a way to calculate the van der Waals volume in Chimera. You can see the VDW volume, of course, by simply displaying the atoms in the sphere representation, but that does not give the volume value. In theory, you could get values closer to the VDW volume by calculating molecular surface with smaller and smaller probe radius. In practice, this tends to increase the number of surface calculation failures, and currently the smallest allowed probe radius value is 0.5 angstroms. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Aug 14, 2008, at 7:01 AM, Navnit Kumar Mishra wrote: > Hi Elaine; > > Thank you for so detailed description. I am interested in measuring > the compactness of the complex during the simulation, I think the > calculation of the ratio of molecular volume to van der waals volume > provides the compactness. I have tried the procedure as you > suggested to calculate the molecular volume, the value in replylog > file is in two digits precision, for these calculation can I get the > value in four digits precision. I am using latest chimera version > 1.2540. I can calculate the total van der waals volume using the van > der Waals radii for each atom excluding the hydrogen atoms. Is there > a way in chimera to calcualte the van der waals volume. I would be > thankful to you for any suggestions. > > with regards, > navnit

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Color zone with transparency
by Tom Goddard 14 Aug '08

14 Aug '08

Daniel Wilson wrote: > Hi Tom, > > ... > > The other thing I noticed is that you lose transparency on a whole volume when you color zone one region of it? or am I making something wrong? Is it not possible to have a single volume with two different colours and transparent? > > Thanks for you advice and kind offer, > regards > Daniel > Hi Daniel, When I make a transparent surface for a volume by pressing the volume dialog color button and making opacity 0.5 and then use color zone to color part of the surface (using a PDB model), the transparent part far from the zone remains transparent. Also works if select the volume surface and use the Actions / Surface / Transparency menu then color zone. What are the exact steps you use when it fails to preserve transparency? Tom

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Two transparent models
by Tom Goddard 14 Aug '08

14 Aug '08

On Aug 11, 2008, at 12:15 PM, Daniel Wilson wrote: > Dear Elaine, > > I realise that there have already been requests about fixing the bug > in Chimera for displaying two transparent maps at the same time, so I > guess I am just asking whether this is likely to be fixed anytime > soon? We are desperate to use this function for a figure for a paper :) > > THanks, > Daniel > > Dr. Daniel N. Wilson > > Gene Center Munich > Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry > Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München > Feodor-Lynen-Str. 25 > 81377 Munich, Germany Hi Daniel, The incorrect transparency in Chimera when 2 or more models are transparent is very difficult to fix and will not be fixed any time soon. The trouble is that Chimera draws each model separately and it is not possible to correctly handle transparency without intermixing the drawing of parts of models (in depth order). If you use Chimera image saving in the POVray raytracing mode it will correctly show multiple transparent models. The trouble is that this takes a long time to render and adjusting the levels of transparency many times to get the right appearance may be tedious. It would be possible to make a script that combines the currently displayed map surfaces into a single model and hides all the original models so that multimodel transparency would appear correct on-screen. But the combined model would not update when you changed the transparency, color, ... settings of the separate maps. It would require rerunning the script that makes the single model. This would be tedious to use. But if you think it worth trying I can write the script and send it to you. It would not work for transparent molecular models (ribbons and atoms), just surfaces. Tom

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Hydrogens in proteins
by Walter Novak 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

Hi group, So I am struggling with hydrogens in proteins. I have neutron data which shows H-atom positions. Well, Deuterons, but here are the issues. If I open a pdb in Chimera with old school hydrogen names like HG1, how can I get it to write out the new ones (like HG11) without explicitly adding the hydrogens in Chimera? I don't want the atom positions to change. Also, I notice Chimera doesn't seem to handle deuterons optimally. Writing out the pdb moved the atom name column to the left one space and changed the atom type in the last column back to H. The problem is caused by Coot, which we use to perform real space refinement of atom positions, but to quote George Sheldrick, "I think that we will have to 'remediate' Coot (and the whole of CCP4 for good measure). I advise all SHELXL users NEVER to deposit hydrogen atoms, it saves lots of hassle." Unfortunately, the point of my project is to see the hydrogens!!!! Thanks for any help you can offer, Wally Walter R.P. Novak, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Rosenstiel Basic Medical Research Center Brandeis University 415 South St. MS 029 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-4944 Fax: (781) 736-2405

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opening CASTp results
by Walter Novak 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

Hi all, How can I open my own CASTp results easily? The fetch command works great, but I need to submit some modified structures, and I don't see CASTp under file type in the open window. Thanks, Wally Walter R.P. Novak, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Rosenstiel Basic Medical Research Center Brandeis University 415 South St. MS 029 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-4944 Fax: (781) 736-2405

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calculation of volume
by Navnit Kumar Mishra 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

Hello all; I am trying to compute the molecular volume of a complex. Chimera first computes solvent-excluded surface area using MSMS. I see it does not compute the surface area of ligand. I am wondering if I can add the extra parameters or atom types for my ligand in some file. I would like to calculate the molecular volume from amber trajectory. Can some one suggest me how to automate the computation of surface area and molecular volume for each snapshot. If you know, please point out the article which describes the procedure for the volume calculation. with regards, Navnit

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representing 70s ribosome in ribbon
by Bong-Gyoon Han 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Hi, I am tring to show the full 70S ribosome structure (PDB id: 1GIX and 1GIY) in ribbon representation with EM experimental density together. These PDB data consist of backbone atoms only (single alpha carbon for each a.a and single phosphate for each nucleotide). Ribbon option does not generate any ribbon (due to the incomplete information in the PDB?). Is there any way to show this molecule in ribbon format? I assume that backbone atoms must be enough to generate ribbons. BGHan

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IMOD model reader question
by William Jeffrey Triffo 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

I have an IMOD model (just a bunch of contours, representing filaments) that I tried to load into Chimera, but it threw some errors. This was odd, because it was a model I had augmented (added more contours) from a previous model that did load correctly (and I re-verified after the load error). is it helpful to forward the model file in question? best, -Jeff

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MatchMaker and Find Clash in nogui mode
by Ryan 11 Aug '08

11 Aug '08

Hi. I read in the archive (2004) that someone was looking to use MatchMaker in the nogui mode / command line, but that was not a possibility at the time. I am wondering if this ability has ever been implemented, and if so, how does one go about scripting this. Additionally, i would like to use the 'Find Clashes/Contacts' function in nogui mode. Is this possible? Thanks a lot, ryan

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protonating the protein
by Elaine Meng 11 Aug '08

11 Aug '08

Hi Francesco, > However, if you are using charges assigned in Chimera for something > (Dock Prep with AddH, Add Charge, and write Mol2 for input to DOCK > scoring grid calculations, for example), you would need to add the > protons in Chimera before assigning charges. This could be done by > selecting the carboxylate oxygens you want to get protonated (no more > than one per carboxylate group, of course) and changing their atom > types with the command: > setattr a idatmType O3 sel > prior to running AddH and Add Charge (alone or as steps in Dock > Prep). It is not necessary to rename the residues. Add Charge will > then recognize the neutral forms of ASP and GLU and use the > corresponding partial charges. I just tested this in the Chimera > production release, 1.2540 (July 9). The above is definitely true, you do not need to rename the residues in Chimera, but further tests reveal to get the correct charge distribution on the protonated carboxylic acid, the atom names also need to match the AMBER lib files: the protonated oxygen should be named OE2 (if glutamic acid) or OD2 (if aspartic acid) and the "free" oxygen should be named OE1/OD1. This will already be true sometimes, but not always. If you need to switch the atom names around before adding charges, it can be done by text-editing the PDB file or with commands. For example, you could change the name of an atom by selecting it and then using a command like: setattr a name OE2 sel After assigning charges, you can see the values as labels, for example: labelopt info charge la :6.a Again all this was tested in the production release 1.2540. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Volume planes tool
by Elaine Meng 08 Aug '08

08 Aug '08

Hi Jeff, Here is another idea, still not exactly what you were asking for, but perhaps worth a look. You can use the Per-Model Clipping tool (under Tools... Depiction) to show a thin slab of the data, and you can interactively rotate and translate the slab any way you want relative to the data with the mouse. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/per-model/ per-model.html Just choose which model to clip, enable clipping, turn on slab mode and adjust clipping with mouse. You may also want to adjust the contour level in Volume Viewer. I tried it on emd_1274.map in the production release (1.2540). You can use it on solid, surface, or mesh volume displays. Below I attach an image of a slab surface display together with an unclipped solid display (a second copy of the same data). There is also a command to control per-model clipping in a script, mclip. It lets you specify location/orientation in the data coordinate system or the viewing coordinate system. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/mclip.html Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Chimera: doubt on axes measurement
by Giovanni Cardone 07 Aug '08

07 Aug '08

Hi everybody, I have a doubt about my proper using the tool Axes for measuring angle between helices. After aligning two model and generating the axes corresponding to the helices of interest, I select them in the 'Structure Measurements' dialog windows. As you can see from a snapshot, they look properly selected. They are almost overlapping, but in the Reply Log I get the following info: col_best_001.pdb helix 10/col_best_005.pdb helix 2 crossing angle: 36.9 degrees, distance: 15.3 angstroms Beside the value of the angle seeming to me too high, shouldn't the distance between the helices be within few angs (at least according to how I interpret the documentation)? Probably I am missing something. Thanks in advance, Giovanni Cardone

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Protonating the protein
by Francesco Pietra 07 Aug '08

07 Aug '08

Hi: I am not saying anything new. I have a (for me) difficult problem of protonating a protein homology model (built with Modeller) where there are several halogen ion ligands. Actually I succeeded in getting a workable model. Chimera loads it and add hydrogens. I could even prepare the model for DOCK6, generating spheres. Now, however (and also because, before docking small ligands with DOCK6, I want to dock polypeptides, probably with DOT2) I would like to assign specific protonation states to certain carboxylic acids. That is, I want to create an overall model where certain facing carboxylic acids actually face as "carboxylate-carboxylic acid" or as "carboxylic acid-carboxylic acid", or, finally, as "carboxylate-carboxylate", the latter also with metal ligand in between or not. Question: to which extent can Chimera aid the task? And which other package (pdb2qr, H++, ...) may aid Chimera? Or no other package, but simply renaming the said residues in the pdb file and let Amber 10 (which is the package I'll use for MD, with ff99B ff for the protein) do the job of eliminating clashes? All that shows that I have no experience in selective protonation, and the halide ions (in the above said work, I have them simply under "ATOM" under the specific chain of the amino acid residues, not "HETATM", as the latter caused a lot or problems) create difficulty to protonating packages. Thanks for giving me a general guideline along with best moving. francesco pietra

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