- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Using pip/easy install in Python 2.7.8 included in Chimera
by Ahir Pushpanath 05 Nov '15

05 Nov '15

Dear Chimera Team, As I specifically want to use the python included with chimera as the main python distribution available on my system, I am limited to using the python version shipped with it, as a standard. This is no problem for me, however, I am struggling to get pip /easy install working with the inbuilt python, namely because of errors between "urllib3" and python versions below 2.7.10. So, I keep getting HTTPS errors. Is there any way to use pip and easy install properly with the inbuilt Chimera Python? I did see a section called "import python modules into Chimera", but it appears as though that requires an additional python distribution to be present on the system? Please do let me know. Ahir If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient(s), please be advised that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is strictly prohibited. Johnson Matthey Plc has its main place of business at 5th Floor, 25 Farringdon Street, London (020 7269 8400). Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company Registered Office: 5th Floor, 25 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB Registered in England No 33774 Whilst Johnson Matthey aims to keep its network free from viruses you should note that we are unable to scan certain emails, particularly if any part is encrypted or password-protected, and accordingly you are strongly advised to check this email and any attachments for viruses. The company shall not accept any liability with regard to computer viruses transferred by way of email. Please note that your communication may be monitored in accordance with Johnson Matthey internal policy documentation.

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Append PDB file to all individual PDB chains
by Carl Brown 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

To Whom This May Concern: In previous discussions, you explained how you could append two PDB files through the "join models" function: Discussion: <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2011-April/006245.html> Build Structure: <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/editing/editing.ht…> I would like attach a second PDB file to an initial one as well. However, my primary PDB file is a tetramer, made up of four identical chains. I would like to attach the second PDB to each of the four chains at the C-terminus. Is this possible? If so, how would I go about this? My concern is that using the "join models" function, it will only append the second PDB file once to the whole structure instead of to each individual chain. Cheers, Carl

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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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on mrz file
by Smith Liu 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

Dear All, Suppose I have 2 mrc files which are similar on the same protein, we call one map A one map B, and suppose onece we open them by chimera, A was in the centre of the window and B was not. By mouse dragging we moved map B almost overlap with chain B, then we fit map B to map A by the chimera "Fit in map" function. Is any way we can save map B, so that when we open map A and the saved map B by chimera, both A and B were in the centre of the Windows and A and B fitted as just before we saved map B? Best regards. Smith

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on scale command
by Smith Liu 15 Oct '15

15 Oct '15

Dear All, If I have used "scale 1.04" to scale up, will you please tell me the factor x in "scale x" by which I can return to the original size before I used "scale 1.04" ? Best regards. Smith

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Suggestion - autofilter history by typed substring?
by Oliver Clarke 14 Oct '15

14 Oct '15

Hi all, Just a suggestion (I guess for chimera 2) - would it be possible to autofilter the command history based on the typed substring? That is if I have typed “sel” and hit the up arrow, to only cycle through those commands in the history that start with “sel”. This would be particularly handy for scrolling quickly through recent “sel” and “color” commands - a similar mechanism is implemented in several shells and it works well. Cheers, Oliver.

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Re: [Chimera-users] Interactive Protein Structure and Sequence Alignment?
by Elaine Meng 14 Oct '15

14 Oct '15

On Oct 13, 2015, at 6:44 PM, Abba Leffler <aleffler(a)alumni.princeton.edu> wrote: > Dear Professor Meng, > I'm a frequent user of Chimera, mostly for visualization of homology models of large complexes. There's one feature I've search for in Chimera and not found. I wonder if you can help me. > > I would like to do two things, which are related. > > First, I would like to be able to visualize where inserts, deletions, and mutations are on the template structure relative to the target sequence. Is there any way to do that? I haven't found one. > > In a related question, I'd like to be able to interactively edit the sequence alignment (i.e. move indels that are in secondary structure elements) and then recompute the homology model to see if the DOPE score gets better or worse. Is that a possibility? > > I've found that many people have told me that alignments have to be "manually corrected", but there don't seem to be many tools out there for doing that in a sane way. If there are any you could recommend, I would sincerely appreciate it. > > All best, > -Abba Dear Abba, (1) Any time you have a structure open in Chimera and associated with some sequence in MultAlign Viewer (Chimera’s sequence viewer), you can easily map between the sequence and structure. It can be an individual sequence or one within a multiple sequence alignment. You can just highlight an area of interest on the sequence with the mouse and it will be highlighted on the structure. See the Sequences and Structures tutorial: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/super.html> … and/or the Multalign Viewer documentation, especially the part about sequence-structure association: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/multalignviewer/f…> <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/multalignviewer/m…> If you used the Modeller interface in Chimera, you already have the target-template sequence alignment open in Chimera. Then you could just use the mouse to highlight where in the sequence there is a mutation or insertion to have it highlighted on the structure(s). Actually this does selection. Then you can use the Actions menu to do something (e.g. coloring) to the current structure selection. While you can’t highlight something in the sequence that isn’t there (a deletion), you could certainly highlight the positions around it. (2) Multalign Viewer does allow for some small amount of manual editing, but it is not optimized for this purpose and other programs should be more suitable for any serious amount of editing. However, I don’t do this myself so I cannot advise... maybe JalView? Here are the instructions for manual editing in Multalign Viewer: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/multalignviewer/m…> I hope this helps. I’ve CC’d this reply to chimera-users, which is the address we recommend for asking Chimera questions. Best, 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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Announcing the 2015/2016 EMDataBank Model Challenge
by Cathy Lawson 14 Oct '15

14 Oct '15

Dear Chimera User List Members, EMDataBank is pleased to announce the 2015/2016 Model Challenge. All members of the Scientific Community--at all levels of experience--are invited to participate as Challengers, and/or as Assessors. Benchmark targets of varying size and complexity have been selected from recently deposited 3DEM structures based on current state-of-the-art detectors and processing methods, in the resolution range 2.2-4.5 Å. Challengers are sought to create and validate models from challenge target maps in four different categories (1. optimize current cryoEM model, 2. fit known related cryoEM, crystallographic, or comparative models, 3. ab initio model building, 4. any other method of map interpretation), and upload their results with associated details. Assessors are sought to participate in evaluating submitted models. Registration is now open for all interested participants. Challengers may submit their models between November and April. Before submissions open, all are encouraged to provide feedback on submission requirements. An open assessment period will commence in late 2016. To learn more about this challenge and to register, please visit http://challenges.emdatabank.org and click on "MODEL CHALLENGE" in the menu bar. This is the second of two community-wide challenges being sponsored by EMDataBank this year to critically evaluate 3DEM methods that are coming into use, with the ultimate goal of developing validation criteria associated with every 3DEM map and map-derived model. The first challenge is focused on creating reconstructions from raw 2D image data and is currently in progress (click on "MAP CHALLENGE" in the menu bar). Sincerely, Cathy Lawson on behalf of the EMDataBank Team and the Model Challenge Committee emdatabank.org www.facebook.com/emdatabank3dem

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Show symmetry axis?
by Oliver Clarke 13 Oct '15

13 Oct '15

Hi all, Is there any way to easily generate an axis (of the type created by define axis, not a BILD file) corresponding to the z-axis of a map? Or of the symmetry axis of a map as identified by measure symmetry (which should be the same thing I guess)? I would like to be able to align Cn symmetric maps, which in general have the Cn symmetry axis coincident with z, while strictly obeying the Cn symmetry of the map. There is no built-in way to do this in chimera that I know of, but if I could create an axis corresponding to z for both maps, I could measure correlation between the two maps about that axis, after first aligning the symmetry axes of the two maps and approximately matching their translations along that axis (incidentally, for the same purpose it would be handy to have an additional option for "measure correlation rotationaxis", to measure correlation in a distance range corresponding to +/- x Å from the current position along the specified axis - angleRange is currently present, “distanceRange” seems like it could be a useful extension). The closest I have come so far is the following alias: alias ^screen_axis cofr view; savepos tmp; ac mc; namesel z1; clip hither -50;clip yon -50;cofr view; ac mc; namesel z2; sel z1 | z2; define axis sel; ~disp sel; reset tmp This will generate an axis perpendicular to and in the center of the screen, but this seems like a bit of a hack… also when I use measure correlation with this axis ("measure correlation #2 #0 rotationAxis a1”, where #2 and #0 are the two maps and the axis is a1), I get the attached error - is this a bug or did I make a stupid mistake somewhere? Cheers, Oliver.

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Show symmetry axis?
by Oliver Clarke 13 Oct '15

13 Oct '15

Actually never mind… just realized I have requested similar previously and there is already a ticket open (http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/chimera/ticket/13829 <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/chimera/ticket/13829>). Nevertheless, consider this another vote for constraining fitmap to the symmetry of the input maps (or models) - would be very very helpful when dealing with ion channels. Cheers, Oliver. > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 20:13:37 -0400 > From: Oliver Clarke <olibclarke(a)gmail.com> > To: "chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu BB" <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: [Chimera-users] Show symmetry axis? > Message-ID: <5DBFD175-0F48-4731-9E7E-C3F635BC571D(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi all, > > Is there any way to easily generate an axis (of the type created by define axis, not a BILD file) corresponding to the z-axis of a map? Or of the symmetry axis of a map as identified by measure symmetry (which should be the same thing I guess)? > > I would like to be able to align Cn symmetric maps, which in general have the Cn symmetry axis coincident with z, while strictly obeying the Cn symmetry of the map. > > There is no built-in way to do this in chimera that I know of, but if I could create an axis corresponding to z for both maps, I could measure correlation between the two maps about that axis, after first aligning the symmetry axes of the two maps and approximately matching their translations along that axis (incidentally, for the same purpose it would be handy to have an additional option for "measure correlation rotationaxis", to measure correlation in a distance range corresponding to +/- x ? from the current position along the specified axis - angleRange is currently present, ?distanceRange? seems like it could be a useful extension). > > The closest I have come so far is the following alias: > > alias ^screen_axis cofr view; savepos tmp; ac mc; namesel z1; clip hither -50;clip yon -50;cofr view; ac mc; namesel z2; sel z1 | z2; define axis sel; ~disp sel; reset tmp > > This will generate an axis perpendicular to and in the center of the screen, but this seems like a bit of a hack? also when I use measure correlation with this axis ("measure correlation #2 #0 rotationAxis a1?, where #2 and #0 are the two maps and the axis is a1), I get the attached error - is this a bug or did I make a stupid mistake somewhere? > > Cheers, > Oliver. > > > > >

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drawing single stranded dna
by Sanders, Melanie - ARS 13 Oct '15

13 Oct '15

Dear, Is it possible to draw a single stranded dna. I always get a double stranded one if I enter the nucleic acids. Best regards, Melanie Sanders, PhD. Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology USDA-ARS 1815 North University Street Peoria, Illinois 61604-3999 Phone: 309-681-6208 e-mail: melanie.sanders(a)ars.usda.gov<mailto:melanie.sanders@ars.usda.gov>

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output hdf5
by gijs 13 Oct '15

13 Oct '15

Dear Sir/Madam. First of all I want to complement the chimera team for writing a fantastic package for view macromolecular complexes. I am a researcher from the coherent X-ray diffraction community and we are also producing 3D models using our software [1]. However, we write data in a hdf5 format. Would you be interested to incorporate our file system into your package, or, and I think this is for now the better solution, could you provide a way I can write my hdf5 file to a chimera readable format and visa versa? For instance, I am trying to open a .map file from the EM databank, but do not know to exactly how to convert it. Are there tools? What file tree in hdf5 do I need? With kind regards, Gijs van der Schot [1] http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.098102

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on 2d label related movie command
by Smith Liu 13 Oct '15

13 Oct '15

Dear All, By chimera is any method we label a residue in a protein after scaling-up around that residue in a movie? Best regards. Smith

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rmsd overlay
by Francesco Pietra 12 Oct '15

12 Oct '15

Hello; Ho to superimpose a fake atom (pdb file available) to a coordiated metal in a protein? I could change the name of the fake atom to that of the metal, but then I need an rmsd overlay. hope it is clear. thanks francesco pietra

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python/model panel
by Dougherty, Matthew T 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

I would like to print out the model ID, name and input files as they are listed in the model panel. Can you point me in the direction of how to loop over the model panel ? Such as elevant variables, and what would be a block of code in chimera that I should study. Matthew Dougherty National Center for Macromolecular Imaging Baylor College of Medicine ================================================= =================================================

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Re: [Chimera-users] pipes & planks
by Tom Goddard 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Hi Gabe, I've added a "pipes" command to tonight's Chimera daily build, for example, pipes #0 helixColor pink strandColor salmon and to delete the pipes and planks ~pipes #0 Other command options with default values are: helixColor = None, helixEdgeColor = None, helixArrow = True, helixFixedRadius = True, helixRadius = 1.25, helixSplit = False, helixSplitRatio = 2.5, strandColor = None, strandEdgeColor = None, strandArrow = True, strandFixedWidth = True, strandWidth = 2.5, strandFixedThickness = True, strandThickness = 1.0, strandSplit = False, strandSplitRatio = 2.5, displayCoils = True, displayTurns = True, turnColor = None, turnEdgeColor = None, turnResolution = 10, turnWidth = 0.25, turnThickness = 0.25 Colors by default match the ribbon color, or molecule color. Tom > On Oct 9, 2015, at 1:12 AM, Gabriel Lander wrote: > > Hi Tom, > 2 quick questions: > > 1) is there a way to turn generate a pipes & planks model from the command line? > 2) Can the coils in the pipes & planks be depicted as rounded instead of edged? > > Thanks as always, > -gabe > >

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bootstrap wanted boxsize
by Marlovits,Thomas 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Hi Chimera-developers, I am wondering, whether there is a command to generate a new (empty) volume box from scratch? This would be a great help. Many thanks, -Thomas

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Chimera crashes when I try to open a .gro file
by Raag Saluja 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Hi! Chimera crashes when I try to open a .gro file (created through GROMACS). I wanted to open the .gro file and then superimpose it on a .pdb file. Can you please guide? Thank you! Regards, Raag

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display a coordinate system in view
by Byrd, Robert A. (NIH/NCI) [E] 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

I would like to represent a xyz coordinate system by the unit vectors on the display with a molecule. Ideally, for a two domain protein, I would like to have two coordinate systems, one for each domain. In an ensemble of structures where one domain changes orientation with respect to the other, one coordinate system would move to the new position. It would be nice to then morph from one position to the next. This is straightforward with a set of structures and the morph utility in CHIMERA. The ability to add the two coordinate systems to the display, and have them ‘move’ or morph from one position to the other, would highlight the geometrical averaging that takes place. Is this possible in CHIMERA? Thanks Andy Byrd

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on command scripts related to movie by chimera
by Smith Liu 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Dear All, I want to learn several commands on chimera movie preparation. Only read the on-line material I find I still meet some difficulty. Suppose I have 2 scripts， each for 1 movie. Will you please tell me by which command in the script I can link the 2 scripts so that the 2 movie will change into 1 movie? Suppose in Chimera I have opened 2 PDB files. Will you please show me the commands to view the structure in the first PDB, then change to view the structure of the second PDB （different from the purpose of morph）? And how about if then we see the 2 structures together, all in a single movie? Best regards. Smith

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3D-visualization of protein chain and mutation
by Elaine Meng 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

> From: "Coci, Emanuele" <Emanuele.Coci(a)akh-celle.de<mailto:Emanuele.Coci@akh-celle.de>> > Date: Friday, October 2, 2015 at 8:54 AM > Subject: 3D-visualization of protein chain > > Deat Chimera team, > my name is Emanuele Coci, MD PhD. > > I would kindly ask you for help about Chimera software in solving the following technical issue. I want to visualize the 3D-structure of a mutated protein chain. > > Which of the chimera tools is more indicated to visualize the 3D structure? > Is the toll open source? > Which software do I need to download the tool on my PC : JAVA, …? > > Best regards and many thanks in advance? > Emanuele Coci Dear Emanuele Coci, Chimera is a free download for any noncommercial use (research, education, …) and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You should not have to download any other software to use it. All you need is a reasonably modern computer. See Chimera homepage and download links: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/index.html> <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html> I’ve CC’d chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu — that is the proper address for user questions. There are many possible styles of displaying a protein, and you have to use your own judgement and artistic taste to decide which style is best for what you want to see for yourself or show to others. There are several step-by-step tutorials for learning how to use Chimera, including “getting started” for beginners and some example image tutorials: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Tutorials/GettingStarted.html> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/frametut.html> For showing a mutation, the first thing you could do is just show the location of that amino acid on the structure (without mutating it), for example coloring it differently than the rest of the structure. It may be helpful to show the sequence of the protein so that you can identify the correct position (Chimera menu: Favorites… Sequence). You can choose a residue with the mouse in the sequence window, which will automatically select-highlight it in the structure. Secondly, you could try “mutating” that residue computationally. This could be done with the Rotamers tool (in menu under Tools… Structure Editing) or the “swapaa” command. There is an example of using the Rotamers tool in the “Structure Analysis and Comparison” tutorial: <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/squalene.html> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/rotamers/rotamer…> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/swapaa.html> However, Chimera will not predict any larger-scale changes in the structure from the mutation or calculate changes in stability or affinity. It will only change the sidechain and not move anything else. You can use Rotamers to analyze the H-bonds and clashes (bad contacts) of different conformations of the sidechain, which may allow you to hypothesize whether the mutation would be disruptive to the stability or interactions of the protein. 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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Newlines in labelopt string
by Repic Matej 07 Oct '15

07 Oct '15

Hi everyone, I have pretty long atom labels and it would be nice if I could split them with newlines. I set labels with labelopt info %(name)s %(ee).2f %(ea).2f %(er).2f # what I have C3 0.41 0.22 0.14 # what I want C3 0.41 0.22 0.14 The obvious \n does not work. Any ideas? Thank you, ------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Matej Repic Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Laboratory of Computational Chemistry and Biochemistry SB - ISIC LCBC BCH 4108 CH - 1015 Lausanne ------------------------------------------------------

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Joining Models + Avoiding Steric Clashes
by Carlos Gonzalez Oliver, Mr 06 Oct '15

06 Oct '15

Dear Chimera, I have been trying to use Join Models to make a C-N bond between the globular domain of a protein and a region of it (a C-terminal tail) whose structure I simulated using MD. However, when I do the joining with Join Models C-N bond option, I get some serious steric clashes. I have tried to resolve them by hand by adjusting the bond's torsion and angles but it is too complicated. Other than trying to use other software to minimize clashes, I think I might have to use a brute force method and try a bunch of the structures my MD generated until one of them works. So what I am trying to do now is write a script to do the model joining automatically with many different structures that I generated, and return the one with the least number of clashes. But I haven't been able to find a command line equivalent of the Join Models window.. I was wondering if you know if such a command exists, if not what combination of commands would work? (for repositioning the models and forming the bond) Thanks! -- Carlos G. Oliver M.Sc. Student Vogel Lab Department of Biology McGill University Montréal, QC, Canada

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Problem on Nucleic Acid Ribbon
by Francesco Papi 06 Oct '15

06 Oct '15

Good morning, I'm working on a DNA X-ray structure. The problem I have observed is that the terminal nucleotide of the DNA sequence is excluded from the backbone ribbon, in other terms the backbone ribbon is shown and it is ok, but it is made of all the residues except the terminal one, which is linked to the ribbon by a long phosphodiester bond (see the attached image). Moreover, if I put the representation "Show side (sugar/base)", from the option "Nucleotides", to be "fill/slab", the terminal residue still features an "Atom & Bonds" style. The PDB file seems to be ok, as confirmed by a colleague. Do you how to solve this problem? Best regards Francesco Papi

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solid rendering color voxel by voxel?
by Oliver Clarke 06 Oct '15

06 Oct '15

Hi all, I don’t think this is possible right now, but i just wanted to check and maybe put in a request for addition to Chimera 2 at some point if you think it would be a useful feature. I like generating looping maximum intensity projection movies like the following (using EMDB 2807 as an example): https://www.dropbox.com/s/elt2f5so6azvvhk/emdb2807_example1.mp4?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/s/elt2f5so6azvvhk/emdb2807_example1.mp4?dl=0> https://www.dropbox.com/s/julh586sc9yxl7g/emdb2807_example2.mp4?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/s/julh586sc9yxl7g/emdb2807_example2.mp4?dl=0> Command used to generate representation: #Makes a pseudoprojection style view of the given volume #Usage: volume_project #map_id alias ^volume_project background solid black; volume $1 step 1 sdlevel 0,0 color white sdlevel 20,1 color white style solid projectionMode 3d maximumIntensityProjection true btCorrection true linearInterpolation true; unset depthCue I feel like even at small sizes, this gives a good idea of the overall quality of the electron density, in both mobile and well-ordered regions, due to the non-thresholded nature of the representation. It seems to me that this would be a natural fit for Resmap coloring to color a map by local resolution, as one of the issues I have with the application of Resmap in surface representation is that if you contour the map at a sufficiently low threshold to see the less well ordered parts of the structure, you can’t see the voxels that have the best local resolution (necessitating slabbing of the map). This would also be handy for using Color Zone to color different regions of the map based on the model. Would it be possible to add per-voxel coloring in solid representation at some point, similar to scolor for surface representation, to make this kind of thing possible? Cheers, Oliver.

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Exporting coarse-grained models of proteins
by Hamish Todd 06 Oct '15

06 Oct '15

Hello all, So sorry to bother you all but I've tried googling a lot of things and not found out how to create a coarse grained protein surface like this one <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ImageGallery/entries/stmvrna/capsid.png>. Creating a *surface* is easy of course, but where does that nice, intuitive, bulbous STMV protein come from? And when I get it, can I export the vertex and polygon data? Hamish -- Hamish Todd 07722 400 806 Personal Website <http://www.musicofthespheresgame.com/?page_id=21>

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