- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

eps image in publication quality
by Mahendra B Thapa 15 Sep '15

15 Sep '15

Dear Chimera Users, Using the following procedures in chimera window, I saved a sequence allignment image in eps format ( which looked like the first image of "file:///opt/UCSF/Chimera64-1.6.1/share/chimera/helpdir/ContributedSoftware/multalignviewer/framemav.html"). The image in the pop of window is nice but the saved image in the eps format is not so clear. Let me suggest how to save the image in the publication quality. (i) structure ---> matchmaker (ii) Tools ---> sequence ---> match ---> align (iii) file ---> save as ---> eps Thank you, Mahendra Thapa University of Cincinnati, OH

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how to move subunits of a pentamer receptor in a controlled way
by Zhang, Yinghui 14 Sep '15

14 Sep '15

Dear Sir, This is Yinghui Zhang from Massachusetts General Hospital. I am a frequent user of Chimera to understand the structure of a neuronal pentamer receptor which is ion channel. Now we want to do some modification of the receptor by manipulating the coordinates of the atoms of the receptor pdb files. The aim is to move each subunit radially away from the receptor’s central symmetry axis(which should be the central channel axis ) or tilt each subunit outward. The symmetry of the receptor cannot be disrupted and we want to do it in a quantitative manner(move by a specific ‎Å or tilt by a specific degree value). Could you please give us some clues if we can realize these aims in Chimera? Many thanks and regards! Yinghui Zhang The information in this e-mail is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If you believe this e-mail was sent to you in error and the e-mail contains patient information, please contact the Partners Compliance HelpLine at http://www.partners.org/complianceline . If the e-mail was sent to you in error but does not contain patient information, please contact the sender and properly dispose of the e-mail.

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setting solvent density threshold at 2.5 times of the bulk solvent density
by Mohan Pradhan 10 Sep '15

10 Sep '15

Dear Chimera users, I am using the Volume Viewer application in Chimera to visualize the solvent density around protein at a threshold value of 2.5 times of the bulk solvent density. My understanding is that the iso value corresponding to the bulk solvent density is marked by the peak in the plot of the volume viewer. I am then multiplying the iso value of the peak by 2.5Is this the right way of identifying regions in protein that have a solvent density of 2.5 times of the bulk solvent density? Kindly suggest. Thanks,Mohan

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Question regarding 3D surface coordinates
by Guirguis, Christopher Amin 10 Sep '15

10 Sep '15

Hello, A quick question: is there any output file type where coordinates of the surfaces are typed rather than just the center of the individual atoms? I want to insert my molecules into a modeling software like Maya to create an .obj file for viewing on mobile devices. Thank you for your time. Best, Chris Guirguis

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question
by A G Szabo 09 Sep '15

09 Sep '15

I go to tools and open the sequence of the protein that I am interested in. The minimum number of amino acids in a row that I can select is 2. I am interested in visualizing a selected number of amino acids that are not in linked to one another. Eg. A specific Lys residue in a helical sequence. I have found a work around. I highlight two adjacent residues, and visualize the two of them as sticks. I then select the amino acid I do not wish to highlight together with the amino acid on the other side of the one that I am interested in. I can that way eventually deselect and not highlight the amino acid I am not interested in. There has to be a simpler way. Thanks for your assistance. Arthur G. Szabo Professor Emeritus Chemistry Wilfrid Laurier University.

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on mrc map
by Smith Liu 09 Sep '15

09 Sep '15

Dear All, Suppose I have a mcr map for a protein of 4 subunits. Will you please introduce to me how to split the whole map to 4 different maps, with each map corresponding to the part of each subunit in the whole map, without loosing any data in the spitted map in comparison to that specific subunit part of the whole map? Best regards. Smith

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Help needed urgently
by Clare Nattress 08 Sep '15

08 Sep '15

Hello there, I have just sent this file to a 3D printers and sadly it has disintegrated when post printed and the model has been bathed and washed. Attached is the link to the STL. file https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2nytyw6989h0v2l/AADiXrhb8mUfi53J95co-Bvja?dl=0 I was wondering how I could perhaps make the structure 3D print safe. Would you be able to help me join the bonds and also make them a lot thicker? Any help would be most appreciated as this is meant to be in an exhibition come Friday. Best Wishes, Clare Nattress Artist/Writer www.clare-nattress.com LinkedIn - Clare Nattress @ClareNattress

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Align and average intensity images in Chimera
by 許紹君 07 Sep '15

07 Sep '15

To whom it may concern, I am willing to use Chimera for aligning several images from the structure illumination microscope (SIM). Here is the surface maps generated by Chimera from two images. cid:image005.jpg@01D0E986.2CF5F370 After alignment by the tool “Fit in Map”, they are aligned very well. cid:image006.jpg@01D0E986.2CF5F370 My next step is to average the intensity from two aligned images and generate a new map which will be used to fit other images. Can anyone tell me how to do it in Chimera? By the way, please also tell me what the values mean in the reply log. cid:image007.jpg@01D0E986.2CF5F370 It helps me to use another software to complete the mission, if I can get the rotation, voxel shift, or even scaling values from the alignment. Thank you! All Best, Peggy Hsu, PhD Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica 128 Academia Rd Sec 2, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan Tel: 886-2-2787-1531 (O) email: peggyschsu(a)gate.sinica.edu.tw

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Distance in pi-interactions
by George Tzotzos 03 Sep '15

03 Sep '15

I’m trying to work out the distance between two arene rings involved in pi-interactions. Is there a way of measuring the distance centre-to-centre of each arene ring? Or any other sensible way? I’m attaching a snapshot for easy reference. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Regards George

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make a movie showing the process from an ASU model to the complete model of virus
by 李智海 02 Sep '15

02 Sep '15

Hi, I just obtained an atomic model of the asymmetric unit of an icosahedral T=7 virus capsid , and I want to make a movie to play the whole process from the ASU model to the full capsid model by imposing its icosahedral symmetry. Please show me some examples of the command lines to generate such kind of movies. Thanks! Best regards! Zhihai Li

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chimera visualization
by Valerio Chiarini 02 Sep '15

02 Sep '15

Dear Elaine, I would like to produce images from chimera showing an NMR bundle structure (backbone only) with stick-represented residues each one belonging to different single structures. I know it´s possible to do it with pymol but unfortunately the structures superimposition is not as good as in chimera. Would it be possible? Thank you in advance, Valerio

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Rapid residue identification near ligands
by Korbin West 01 Sep '15

01 Sep '15

Greetings all, We need to be able to easily assign ligands to a chain (or chains) and to rapidly ID the residues in contact with it. I believe Chimera processes the structures and immediately displays ligands and maybe contacts, so it "knows" this information somehow. Does anyone know of a way to identify these easily and quickly so we can analyze large numbers of files? Also, if the output could be in the form of a text file or such that would be beneficial as well. Thank you all for your help. Best, Korbin West Wabash College

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make a movie showing the process from an ASU model to the complete model of virus
by 李智海 01 Sep '15

01 Sep '15

Hi, I just obtained an atomic model of the asymmetric unit of an icosahedral T=7 virus capsid , and I want to make a movie to play the whole process from the ASU model to the full capsid model by imposing its icosahedral symmetry. Please show me some examples of the command lines to generate such kind of movies. Thanks! Best regards! Zhihai

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Hydrogen bonding calculation issues with PDB2PQR/AMBER/CHIMERA
by Fenton Heirtzler 31 Aug '15

31 Aug '15

Hello- I’m trying to use CHIMERA to model the hexameric hydrogen bonding of isophthalic acid. I’m just an organic chemist, not a computational chemist. The PDB2PQR subroutine is returning the reply “Error encountered: No heavy atoms found!”. Here is sequentially what I have done: 1. A pdb file of isophthalic acid hexamer was imported. 2. The covalent bond lengths and angles were set to realistic ones. 3. The names of the concerned atoms were defined in the Build Structure/Modify Structure/Change Modified Residue’s name box, as described in the User Guide (i.e., Cac, O2, O3 and H) 4. The default limits of 3.4 Å and 30° were used 5. The AMBER force field was chosen. Thanks very much Fenton (PS – I’m a private person, not associated with either academia nor industry) -- Dr. Fenton Heirtzler Phone: +1-301-312-5145 On LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/fentonhorgchem/> Skype: fentonheirtzler Supporter of the International Day of Climate Action <http://www.350.org/> *********

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Query related to chimera
by Akhilesh Verma 31 Aug '15

31 Aug '15

Dear Manager, Is it possible to do Protein protein docking using chimera program? Your response will be highly appreciated. Thanking you. -- Sincerely yours, *Akalesh Kumar Verma* *Morehouse School of Medicine* *Microbiology, Biochemistry & Immunology* Atlanta, Georgia, USA Pin / Zip: 30329 *Mobile: +1 (678) 497-6404* *http://www.msm.edu/ <http://www.msm.edu/>* _______________________ ______________ *Personal Disclaimer:--* *Any information contained in this e-mail and/or any attachments is confidential and only intended for reception and use by the specified person. If you are not the intended recipient, please return the email to the sender and delete it afterwards. In this case any copying, forwarding, printing, disclosure and use are strictly prohibited.* *_________________* *__________*

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How can I can calculate or know Gibbs free energy from UCSF Chimera
by Awah.Chidiebere.U＠mh-hannover.de 28 Aug '15

28 Aug '15

Dear Colleagues, Thanks for developing such wonderful tools as Chimera for molecular dynamics analysis of structure. Please I have two questions: 1. Is it possible to calculate Gibbs free energy from complexes on UCSF Chimera, for examples when complexes are solvated? 2. On building structures , is it possible to simulate how a given complex could bind DNA oligos , for example when one makes changes in single nucleotides and ask a given DNA binding TF structure to bind it on Chimera? I would look forward to your response to these questions. I would also be very happy if I could speak by phone with the administrators. Thanks. Best wishes, Chidiebere U Awah MD Msc PhD student , Molecular Medicine Hannover Medical School , Germany.

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Re: [Chimera-users] a question relate to Chimera
by Elaine Meng 27 Aug '15

27 Aug '15

On Aug 26, 2015, at 6:27 PM, Smith Liu <smith_liu123(a)163.com> wrote: > Dear Elaine, > Thanks for the reply. > > Here let us consider the first question on "a particle has a diameter of 100 pixels ", which I think may be done by Chimera with your help. From http://www.imagescience.de/fsc/index.htm, we can download a software which can be used to calculate the resolution of the map by FSC. When we use that software for calculation, we need to input "Filling degree" D/L, where the value of object size D in voxels, and the L, the linear ssize of the 3D volume (x, y,z). A typical value of "Filling degree" D/L would be 0.66, indicating that 2/3 of the linear width of the 3D volume is filled by the object. > > Thus will you please show me by Chimera how can we know "the value of object size D in voxels"? > > I am looking forward to getting your reply. > > Best regards. > Smith Dear Smith, Please send Chimera questions to chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu (instead of to me directly). Others may be able to answer your questions better than I can, for example in this case where I don’t know the answer. For linear size of the whole volume (the map), we already discussed that you can see the number of grid units (voxels) in X,Y,Z to the right of the dataset name in the Volume Viewer dialog, and see angstroms per grid unit in the Features: Coordinates section of Volume Viewer. You could multiply the values to get the size of the map in angstroms. <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2015-August/011437.html> <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2015-August/011433.html> However, I don’t know how you could measure the voxel size of the object in Chimera. As far as I know you could only estimate it by eye, or by measuring angstrom dimensions, converting to grid units, and then multiplying them to roughly estimate the area of the object in voxels. It would only be an estimate, assuming your object is not a perfect circle or square. See previous posts on measuring angstrom dimensions in a map: <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2015-January/010609.html> <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2014-January/009503.html> My guess is that people would normally get this information from the software used in the original data collection, not by doing measurements in Chimera. 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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Re: [Chimera-users] Icosahedral net from PDB
by Tom Goddard 27 Aug '15

27 Aug '15

Hi James, There are a few Chimera commands that let you show a icosahedral cage around a virus PDB model. Basically you use the sym command to make the virus capsid from the PDB asymmetric unit, then use the shape command to make the cage, then optionally use the meshmol command to show the cage with cylinders instead of lines. For example, open 2bbv sym #0 surf true shape icos radius 200 lattice 1,1 meshmol #2 3 color gold #3 There’s also a video showing how to make the cage for an electron microscopy map http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/videodoc/cage/index.html <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/videodoc/cage/index.html> Here is the command documentation for more info about sym, shape, meshmol commands: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/current/docs/UsersGuide/framecommand.html <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/current/docs/UsersGuide/framecommand.html> Tom > On Aug 27, 2015, at 5:11 AM, Geraets, James A > Hi Tom, > > A colleague of mine has told me that you have previously made available a script for displaying icosahedrally-symmetric pdb files on an icosahedron net. Would you happen to still have it? I can’t find any sign of it online… > > Cheers (and thanks for your continued work on Chimera) > > James > > ---------- > > James Geraets > EU Marie Curie Actions Fellow > AIROPico Project > > Institute of Biotechnology > PL 56 > FI-00014 University of Helsinki > Finland

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addgrp command
by UCSF-xiaobowan 26 Aug '15

26 Aug '15

Hi all, I am Xiaobo Wan, a postdoc at UCSF. I would like to learn how to add chemical groups (such as methyl) or change chemical atoms (Fluorine to Nitrogen) using the command in Chimera because I have thousands of compounds to do the same modification. I know the Build Structure in the Graphic interface can do this. I am not sure whether the addgrp command was supported by chimera now. Best, Xiaobo

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color suggestion
by Dougherty, Matthew T 26 Aug '15

26 Aug '15

1) button on the model panel to bring up the color editor that will edit the model selected. 2) very short pulldown menu on the color editor of the primary & secondary colors, along with black, white and gray50. Matthew Dougherty National Center for Macromolecular Imaging Baylor College of Medicine ===========================================================================

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Re: [Chimera-users] a question relate to Chimera
by Elaine Meng 26 Aug '15

26 Aug '15

On Aug 25, 2015, at 6:16 PM, Smith Liu <smith_liu123(a)163.com> wrote: > Dear Elaine, > Here there is a sentence "a particle has a diameter of 100 pixels and the width of the reconstruction box is 256 pixels". Will you please tell me by Chimera how can I know the diameter of the particle and the width of the reconstruction box, as described in the cited sentence? > > I am looking forward to getting a reply from you. > Best regards. > Smith Dear Smith, It is recommended to send Chimera questions to chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu (CC’d here) instead of to me directly. I don’t know where that sentence came from, so I’m not even sure it is a Chimera question. By “pixels” maybe the authors mean grid units. They probably just knew this about their own data without trying to get it from Chimera, but at least for the width of the box, you can see the grid dimensions just to the right of the dataset name in the Volume Viewer dialog. <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/volumeviewer/fram…> 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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on point-group symmetry used for the 3-D calculation
by Smith Liu 25 Aug '15

25 Aug '15

Dear All, By chimera, can we know the point-group symmetry used for the 3-D calculation? Best regards. Smith

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on voxel size measured in angstroms
by Smith Liu 25 Aug '15

25 Aug '15

Dear All, Will you please tell me by Chimera how can we know the voxel size measured in angstroms? Smith

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is the connection present?
by Dmitry 25 Aug '15

25 Aug '15

Dear Colleagues, I have 3d tetramer volume density where I fitted known x-ray structure of monomer (to each unit of tetramer). I want to check the inter-monomeric space, whether there is connections between 2 monomers. Is there a command or script that checks the presence of contacts between bounds of 2 structures? Thank you Sincerely, Dmitry

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Electrostatic Potential Visualization
by Chun, Minju 25 Aug '15

25 Aug '15

Hello, I am an intern working with Chimera, and I was wondering if I was missing a plug-in that calculated electrostatic potential. I attempted to load a dx and cube file to emulate electrostatic potential, but there seemed to be a problem finding/reading the files(perhaps I'm doing this wrong too). I thought that if I calculated electrostatic potential directly with Chimera, I could see electrostatic potential. It says on your website that Chimera can calculate the electrostatic potential with APBS: "electrostatic potential calculated with Adaptive Poisson-Boltzmann Solver<http://www.poissonboltzmann.org/apbs/> (APBS); the APBS<http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/apbs/apbs.html> tool in Chimera runs this program via web service provided by the NBCR<http://nbcr.ucsd.edu/>" Do you have a tutorial that goes in more detail in how to calculate potential with APBS? Thank you, Minju Chun

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Flattening of coloured icosahedron
by R.I.Koning＠lumc.nl 24 Aug '15

24 Aug '15

Is it possible to flatten a coloured icosahedron surface? I have an electron density of a virus, and using shape icosahedron and colour icosahedron surface and surface colour I can colour it according to this density. I would really like to generate a flattened icosahedron (compared to the flatten icosahedron command) from the coloured icosahedron surface. In order to get a 2D map of the colours. Is this possible somehow in Chimera? Is it otherwise possible to export the icosahedron with the coloured surfaces and try in another program (like Maya of Cinema4D?). Best regards, Roman Koning

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layering problem
by Joseph Atherton 20 Aug '15

20 Aug '15

Hi! I'm trying to make videos at the moment but I have a problem with layering, as in the model seems to be 'hiding' behind the density even when the density is transparent. This occurs when I set transparency also in the model, even at low transparency (e.g command #19:transparency 5,a,r #0:259-271). See the example attached- the left hand most part of the model, and the ADP is hidden when their transparency is non-zero. Can I prevent this? Cheers, Joe

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Re: [Chimera-users] [chimera-dev] distance measurements
by Elaine Meng 19 Aug '15

19 Aug '15

Hi Feixia! Yes, you could use Chimera to measure all lysine CA-CA distances in many structures, but it would require some scripting to loop through the structures, find the lysines, and do the measurements. There is some information on looping through structures and running Chimera commands here: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ProgrammersGuide/basicPrimer.html> Now, for each structure, you might imagine the script should first find all the lysines and then use the “distance" command on each pairwise combination, substituting in the proper residue numbers. However, there is an easier way with the “findclash” command. You can use it for multiple distance measurement in a single command. For example: open 2gbp findclash :lys@ca test self overlap -1000 log true … will measure all distances among lysine CA atoms in structure 2gbp and list results in the Reply Log (open from Favorites menu). The -1000 in the command says to measure the distance even if the atoms are “overlapping” by -1000 (more than 1000 angstroms apart). The last column in the results is the atom-atom distance, and they are given in order of increasing distance, in this case: 464 contacts atom1 atom2 overlap distance LYS 191.A CA LYS 189.A CA -1.802 5.562 LYS 227.A CA LYS 223.A CA -2.137 5.897 LYS 300.A CA LYS 246.A CA -2.800 6.560 LYS 169.A CA LYS 164.A CA -4.676 8.436 LYS 270.A CA LYS 276.A CA -4.677 8.437 [… several lines removed …] LYS 276.A CA LYS 203.A CA -53.705 57.465 LYS 276.A CA LYS 137.A CA -56.756 60.516 LYS 61.A CA LYS 137.A CA -56.829 60.589 LYS 58.A CA LYS 137.A CA -59.598 63.358 464 contacts The log contents can be saved to a text file, for example see <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2008-October/003184.html> However, your log would have a huge amount of results for all structures and it might be hard to tell which results go with which structures, so another possibility would be to save a separate file of results for each structure, and in that case your script would need to substitute in an output filename, e.g. findclash :lys@ca test self overlap -1000 saveFile ~/Desktop/2gbp.log See findclash documentation for all the options. Then you can embed the command in the python looping script as described in the first link above. <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/findclash.html> 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 On Aug 18, 2015, at 8:36 AM, Feixia <feixia.chu(a)unh.edu> wrote: > Hi there, > I am interested in retrieving distance information from large dataset in an automatic fashion. For instance, can we use Chimera to get the distances between lysine alpha-carbons of current PDB entries. Presumably, we can download all PDB structures on our local desktop, and just call functions one structure at a time. I wonder if we can do that with Chimera. Your advice will be highly appreciated. > Best, > Feixia

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measure the vertical distance between aromatic planes
by Wang, Bing 19 Aug '15

19 Aug '15

Hi Chimera, Is there a way to measure the vertical distance of two planes in the structure? I do know how to measure the angle between two planes or one line and one plane by the Axes/Planes/Centroids in Chimera. I don't need the distance of two centroid of two planes. I do need the vertical distance of two planes. Could you please show me in detail? Thanks a lot! Bing Wang

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How to select a plane from the command line
by JUAN PABLO REYES VALVERDE 17 Aug '15

17 Aug '15

Dear UCSF Chimera Team: Please, I would much appreciate your advice on the following: First issue: Given a number of planes - calculated/created through the 'define' command - I would like to select one of them, with some command entered at the command line .... How can I do it? The reason why I want to select it through the command line, and not by directly by clicking at it at the axes/planes/centroids table, is because later I would like to use the command inside a runCommand statement, in a Python/IDLE script (with *.py extension) ... Second issue: By the way, do you think this piece of code could work? Assume that the desired plane is already selected .... I want to internally handle the plane as 'p1' in my Python code: p1= chimera.Plane() from chimera import selection p1= selection or perhaps this single instruction ..... p1= chimera.selection Let me try to explain: Within my Python code, I want to have a way to make reference to a plane created by the 'define' command ( should I call it a ' handle'? ... not sure whether it is the correct term ...). Well, I hope that I managed to make it sufficiently clear ... Thanks in advance for your kind attention. Cheers, Juan Dr. Juan Pablo Reyes Valverde Laboratorio de Neurobiología Molecular y Celular (D15) Instituto de Neurobiología UNAM Campus UNAM Juriquilla Boulevard Juriquilla 3001 Querétaro, QRO CP 76230 MÉXICO Tel +52 (442) 2381064

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Charges for PTR+DT
by Amali Guruge 17 Aug '15

17 Aug '15

Dear all, I have to prepare the pdb structure 1K4T to my study. When I do the dock prep process, it gives net charges as, PTR+DT -2 TGP +0 I added charges for standard resides by AMBER ff12SB. For other residues, I added charges by Gasteiger method. My problem is why PTR+DT gives -2 charge? I am not familiar with this one. <http://www.google.lk/intl/en/options/> Can anyone help me? Thank you.

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Modification of ribbon scaling to intersect guide atoms at termini and chain breaks?
by Oliver Clarke 14 Aug '15

14 Aug '15

Suggestion - would it be possible at some point in the future to add a new ribbon scaling option (I guess in Chimera 2.0 or later) so that all internal residues behave like the current “Bspline” scaling, but residues at termini or chain breaks behave like “cardinal” - where the ribbon path exactly intersects the guide atoms? The attached image illustrates the kind of situation this would address - where one wants to show secondary structure in cartoon, but pick out a loop or structural feature of interest in backbone or CA+sidechains, with no ugly discontinuities between the all-atom and ribbon representations. This would allow seamless mixing of nice looking cartoon representation and nice looking backbone or C-alpha+sidechains representation, which I don’t believe is possible at the moment. Cheers, Oliver. Also, in case anyone finds it useful, the following alias applied to a selection or model will generate the CA+sidechains representation depicted below: #Show CA trace with sidechains #Usage: ca_and_sidechains #model_id (or selection/atom-spec) alias ^ca_and_sidechains sel $1; namesel tmp; ~ribbon tmp; ~disp tmp; sel tmp&@CA&protein; repr stick sel; disp sel; setattr m stickScale 1.00 tmp; sel side chain/base.without CA/C1'&tmp; repr stick sel; disp sel; setattr b radius 0.1 sel; color orange tmp; color byhet tmp; sel @CAA |@CB; namesel tmp2; sel tmp&tmp2; repr stick sel; setattr b radius 0.1 sel; sel @CD,N&:pro&tmp; disp sel; repr stick sel; setattr b radius 0.. 1 sel; ~sel

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~select doesn't work on axes?
by Oliver Clarke 14 Aug '15

14 Aug '15

The command "~sel” does not unselect selected axes/planes/centroids - is this intended, and/or is there another way to unselect these objects from the command line? Also, is there a command to undisplay selected axes/planes/centroids? I can only figure out how to do so from the GUI but I would like to do this from the command line, as when you have many axes defined and only want to hide a few it would be easier to have an equivalent of “~disp sel” rather than hunting for the specific axes in the Axes/Planes/Centroids list. Cheers, Oliver.

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odd chimera benchmark performance
by Dan Lin 13 Aug '15

13 Aug '15

Hello: I was wondering if anyone had any experience tracking down performance problems in chimera. I've noticed that I am getting really sluggish performance when managing a lot of atoms, even when everything is shown as backbone traces only. To take a look at the performance, I ran the benchmark and got the following numbers: Volume benchmark scores surface mesh contour solid recolor 981 1291 280 589 393 Null Wire Stick BStick Ribbon Sphere Ops 6249.5 158.7 1.5 0.9 27.4 0.4 89.3 compared to a benchmark posted on the website of the same graphics card: 2125 2026 302 512 491 213 492 452 3259 169 128 Apparently I'm getting awful benchmarks for most of the molecule benchmarks, while the volume performance is pretty comparable. I re-ran the molecule benchmarks to make sure they were reproducible and got pretty much the same numbers. Would anybody have any suggestions for figuring out what's going on? For reference, I'm running ubuntu 12.04 with up to date nvidia drivers for a GTX 560 Ti. Thanks, Dan

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axis-axis distance definition
by Oliver Clarke 13 Aug '15

13 Aug '15

Quick question - how is the distance between two axes (as reported by Axes/Planes/Centroids) calculated? Is it the minimum distance between two axes (I guess yes, because it does not seem to match the center to center distance)? And does it assume the axes are of infinite length, and calculate the displacement required for them to intersect, or does it measure the minimum distance between the axes with the length and end positions as displayed? Cheers, Oliver.

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place label at arbitrary position in 3D
by Oliver Clarke 13 Aug '15

13 Aug '15

In case it is useful to anyone else - I was trying to figure out a way to place a label at an arbitrary position in 3D, so that I can for example generate a chimera session of a protein with all helices labeled and annotated appropriately. I couldn’t figure out a way to easily do this with the built in tools (rlabel, labelopt etc all seem to require you to set an offset from an atom in the structure), so I made the following alias, which gets around this by placing an invisible marker atom at the center of rotation (which I mostly keep locked to the center of view), and attaching a label to that. Hope it is useful to somebody else too. #Place label here (at center of rotation). #Usage: label_here "label_text" (replace spaces in desired label text with _; they will be replaced by spaces in label) alias ^label_here ~sel; ac mc; color black sel; repr bs sel; vdwdefine 0.01 sel; setattr a label $1 sel; transparency 100,a sel; ~sel Cheers, Oliver.

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curved helices - cylinder representation?
by Oliver Clarke 12 Aug '15

12 Aug '15

Hi all, I’d like to have an extended version of the “Pipes and planks” representation, where helices are represented as cylinders, except as a regular, easily modifiable ribbon representation, and allowing for helix curvature rather than breaking up curved helices. I realize this is not currently implemented and is unlikely to be addressed until Chimera 2.0 due to the many other more important things on the drawing board, so I’m trying to figure out a way to hack something together that will generate acceptable results in the meantime. I figure that one way to do this might be to use a create a pdb file with guide atoms located on the helix axis, which one can approximate by placing a guide atom (P or CA) at the center of mass of a six residue sliding window of C-alpha atoms, and then use these guide atoms to create a thick, smoothed (with B-spline) licorice tube. This works quite well for an individual helix, as you can see in the attached pics, but I am a little at a loss as to how to automate this procedure across all the helices in a structure, or even for a given (selected) helix (and it’s only really the helices I care about - strands are fine as is, but having a curved cylinder representation for helices would be very handy). I guess I can do so using a python script of some sort, but if anyone has any pointers as to how to get started, they would be most appreciated. So I guess I need to loop through all the residues in a selection, calculating the center of mass in a sliding window and placing atoms as appropriate, then write out a pdb file with appropriate atom names. This shouldn’t be too hard, but if anyone can point me towards code that I can adapt for this purpose it would be most helpful. Cheers, Oliver.

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question
by A G Szabo 11 Aug '15

11 Aug '15

Today I was trying to Fetch a series of files from the PDB. Their accession codes are 3J7O, 3J7Q, 3J7R, and 3J7P. These are structures of the ribosome complexed with a trimeric translocon, Sec61. Each time Chimera responded with an error message indicating that there was no such file. The files come from a paper by R M Voorhees, (2014) Cell 157:1632. I went to the PDB website and was able to access each of the files. So they do exist. However, when I tried to visualize them using Protein Workshop the structure that appeared was a mixture of surfaces and ribbon structures. I was not able to do anything with any of the structures using Protein Workshop. I could not delete any of the several components, nor change them to ribbon structures. I have been able to fetch, using Chimera, other PDB files that have the entire ribosome complexed with proteins of interest. I sent a message to PDB relating what I have encountered and am waiting for a response. My question to Chimera is to determine if there is a work around to get at any of these files. Thank you Arthur G. Szabo Professor Emeritus Chemistry Wilfrid Laurier University

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is Chimera able to do spin albeling in silico
by Shu-Hao Liou 10 Aug '15

10 Aug '15

Hi, Thank you for reading this email. I'd like to have a rough protein structure with certain spin label on one of the cysteine. Is chimera be able to provide the reasonable structure for that? Sincerely, Shu-hao Liou UC Davis

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Attribute "distance" generated by shortcut "ac sd" not saved between sessions?
by Oliver Clarke 10 Aug '15

10 Aug '15

Hi all, I use the command “ac sd” to color dotted surfaces such as the attached by pore radius (I generate a molmap surface corresponding to the channel axis and then use "ac sd" to generate an attribute “distance", which in this case corresponds to the pore radius, which I can then use to color the dotted surface pdb using Render by Attribute). The dotted surface is generated using the program HOLE (http://www.smartsci.uk/hole/) along with the attached script to make it readable by chimera. This all works fine, however I have noted that the attribute generated by "ac sd” is not present when I reload the saved session, whereas other attributes (e.g. those created explicitly with defattr) are. I can just regenerate it of course, but it would be convenient if it were saved with the session, as it can take a while (~10 minutes) to calculate for large dotted surfaces. Cheers, Oliver.

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A video of 'view dock'
by Amali Guruge 10 Aug '15

10 Aug '15

Dear All, Can we save the movie play in 'view dock' option? Can anyone help me? Thank you.

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Re: [Chimera-users] PDB: 3NZ4 (Chimera vs Pmol Visualization)
by Elaine Meng 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

Hi Kevin, What you are seeing is weird-looking bonds between the ribbon and the residues named MDO. It is an artifact caused by the default smoothing of the ribbon path, the amino acid derivation of MDO, and the default hiding of “backbone” atoms in Chimera when the ribbon is displayed. More on that here, if anybody wants details... <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ribbonstyle/ribbo…> As you found, you could just show atoms without ribbons to solve the problem. However, if you really wanted to show ribbons at the same time, here are some choices as to what you could do in Chimera to make it look less deformed: (1) enable display of all atoms of the MDO at the same time as the ribbon, for example with command: ribbackbone .. however, side effects you may not like are that this will also show backbone atoms of the other residues that are displayed, and MDO and these other residues may be obviously detached (as if “floating” away) from the smoothed ribbon. You could try hiding the backbone atoms of the other residues with: ~disp @n,c,o & ~:mdo … or you could go back to the original behavior of disabling simultaneous backbone-atom and ribbon display with: ~ribbackbone (2) use a non-smoothed ribbon path that is forced to go through the CA atoms, for example with command: ribspline cardinal … however, this is still ugly because the ribbon makes a sharp turn near this derived residue, and the methyl group comes off of the ribbon at a strange angle. You can go back to the default ribbon path with: ribspline b Sorry, neither makes a beautiful picture. But I hope this helps to explain what is going on. 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 Pictures before and after using “ribbackbone” command:

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PDB: 3NZ4 (Chimera vs Pmol Visualization)
by Kevin D. Walker 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

A specialized prosthesis within the PDB 3NZ4 structure looks proper in Pmol but looks skewed in Chimera (my choice), and I wonder why the prosthesis is rendered as such in Chimera? Kevin ---------------------------------- Kevin D Walker Associate Professor Michigan State University Department of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 578 S Shaw Lane; Room 208 East Lansing, MI 48824 Phone: 517 355 9715 x 257 Fax: 517 353 1793 websites: 1) http://bmb.natsci.msu.edu/about/directory/faculty/kevin-d-walker/current-re…

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clipping and capping
by George Tzotzos 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

I’m a real novice in this kind of operation so I shall try in some detail what I’m trying to achieve. I’m dealing with a long serendipitous ligand that spans through a homodimer (2erb) (see screenshot1). I would like to generate something like the B-factor colouring feature (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/features.html <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/features.html>). I’ve opened the Depiction tool and tried surface clipping and capping to no avail. Reading the manual, I figured out that first I have to generate a volume and then use the sop clip command. If this is the routine, I’m seeking advice on how to generate the volume data and then pass it to the sop clip command. As always grateful for your kind help Regards George

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Changing license agreement email
by Flaherty, Daniel P 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

Hello, I am using the academic license agreement for Chimera from my previous position at the University of Kansas. However, I have now moved to Purdue and am starting my own laboratory. I would like to utilize Chimera in my lab. I sent an email earlier regarding generating spheres when preparing a protein for docking from my Purdue email and it told me I was not a registered user. I subsequently re-sent the email from my KU email since that is what I was licensed under. Long story short. How to I switch the license agreement to recognize my Purdue email as the registered user? Do I need to un-install Chimera and go through the steps to accept the academic licensing again using my new Purdue email account? Sorry for the confusing email. Thanks! Dan Daniel P. Flaherty, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Purdue University dflaher(a)purdue.edu Office - (765) 494-4761 [cid:8F36A2D2-6664-4FA0-B72D-D785C950B081]

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Placing markers in specific points of an EM map using command line
by Ana Lucia Alvarez Cabrera 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

Dear colleagues, I would like to know how can I place markers in specific points within an EM map, using commands (and not the Volume Tracer option in the graphic interface). I am doing a movie and I need to place markers in different regions of a map. By placing the markers first manually with the mouse (using the Volume Tracer option in the graphic interface) into the map and saving the respective marker set I can know the specific coordinates for each marker by reading the output marker file "suffix.cmm" (for example: <marker id="1" x="22.28" y="24.608" z="17.976" r="1" g="0.49804" b="0" radius="2"/> ), but I still don't know how to use this information when writing the command for placing the marker in that position. Thanks in advance, Ana-Lucia

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Re: [Chimera-users] Help Generating Spheres
by Repic Matej 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

Dear Daniel, The error you are getting only says that the sphgen program is not in your $PATH and therefore the shell cannot find the executable to run. Make sure you have installed DOCK6, which is not bundled with Chimera. You need to apply for the DOCK6 license (free for academia) and the "sphgen" program will be bundled with it. Apply here: http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/Online_Licensing/dock_license_application.html After you have made sure DOCK6 is properly installed by following the instructions below, you can follow all the tutorials available online. http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/dock6_manual.htm#Installation Best, Matej ------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Matej Repic Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Laboratory of Computational Chemistry and Biochemistry SB - ISIC – LCBC BCH 4108 CH - 1015 Lausanne ------------------------------------------------------ From: <chimera-users-bounces(a)cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:chimera-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu>> on behalf of "Flaherty, Daniel P" <dflaher(a)purdue.edu<mailto:dflaher@purdue.edu>> Date: Friday, August 7, 2015 at 04:38 To: "chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu>" <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu>> Subject: [Chimera-users] Help Generating Spheres Hello, I’m teaching myself to perform molecular modeling and docking using your tutorials. I am trying to prepare a protein for a vHTS and I have run into a snag during the sphere generation tutorial (http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/generating_…) In the section where it says,"To generate the spheres, simply use the command "sphgen" in the same folder that contains the INSPH and the rec.ms files. The output will be two files: rec.sph<http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/rec.sph>, which contains the spheres in clusters, and OUTSPH<http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/OUTSPH>, which contains general information about the calculation.” I am getting an error that says Unrecognized command: “sphgen”. I downloaded the INSPH text file but I have no idea what to do with it. I don’t know what “folder” the tutorial refers to when it says,”use the command ‘sphgen’ in the same folder that contains the INSPH and rec.ms files." Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Dan

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Help Generating Spheres
by Flaherty, Daniel P 06 Aug '15

06 Aug '15

Hello, I’m teaching myself to perform molecular modeling and docking using your tutorials. I am trying to prepare a protein for a vHTS and I have run into a snag during the sphere generation tutorial (http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/generating_…) In the section where it says,"To generate the spheres, simply use the command "sphgen" in the same folder that contains the INSPH and the rec.ms files. The output will be two files: rec.sph<http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/rec.sph>, which contains the spheres in clusters, and OUTSPH<http://dock.compbio.ucsf.edu/DOCK_6/tutorials/sphere_generation/OUTSPH>, which contains general information about the calculation.” I am getting an error that says Unrecognized command: “sphgen”. I downloaded the INSPH text file but I have no idea what to do with it. I don’t know what “folder” the tutorial refers to when it says,”use the command ‘sphgen’ in the same folder that contains the INSPH and rec.ms files." Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Dan

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Morphing with pipes and planks
by Tom Goddard 06 Aug '15

06 Aug '15

Hi Corey, Pipes and planks depictions don’t update when the molecule changes shape. It is also slow to compute so it wouldn’t work interactively. But if you want to make a movie it can be done with some trickery. The tricky part is that there is no command to make the pipes and planks depiction. But a few lines of Python (file updatepp.py attached) can update the pipes and planks. So after creating the morph and the initial pipes and planks I can record a movie with the following command sequence: movie record super 3 ; coordset #2 0,100 ; perframe "open /Users/goddard/ucsf/chimera/libs/PipesAndPlanks/updatepp.py" frames 100 ; wait 100 ; movie encode ~/Desktop/planks.mp4 Tom > On Aug 6, 2015, at 2:35 PM, Corey Dambacher wrote: > > Hi Tom, > > Gabe lander suggested I email you regarding morph maps between two models: > > Is there a way to do a morph using pipes and planks? I have a couple of models I would like to morph, and this works very well when in ribbon, but it doesn't seem to work when I have the pipes and planks depiction... > > Thanks for your time and consideration, > > Corey

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vop cover for maps from EDS server?
by Oliver Clarke 05 Aug '15

05 Aug '15

Hi all, I would like to use the command ‘vop cover’ (https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/vop.html#cover) with option fbox so that I can easily extend 2fo-fc maps downloaded from the EDS using ‘Fetch by ID’ to cover multiple unit cells. At the moment, this command does not seem to respect the lattice symmetry of the input map (see attached) - is there any way to make it do so? I have tried explicitly specifying the option ‘useSymmetry true’, but it shows the same behaviour. The example PDB ID I used for the attached screenshot was 3CH3. Cheers, Oliver.

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