If Elaine did not give you enough options, here is one more.  You can write an XML Chimera marker file (suffix .cmm) that specifies sphere positions, radii and colors as described in the Chimera documentation that can be read in directly.

https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/volumepathtracer/volumepathtracer.html#markerfiles

  Tom

<marker_set name="my spheres">
<marker id="1" x="-6.1267" y="17.44" z="-3.1338"  radius="0.35217" r="0" g="1" b="1"/>
...
</marker_set>




On May 26, 2022, at 2:16 PM, Elaine Meng via Chimera-users <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:


On May 26, 2022, at 12:48 PM, Elaine Meng via Chimera-users <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:

[...] make a PDB file where the spheres are fake atoms [...]

However, this would not include your radius values, which would need to be set separately, e.g. with "setattr":
<https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/setattr.html>

Correction: a better/easier way than "setattr" to change atomic VDW radii in Chimera is with the "vdwdefine" command:

<https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/vdwdefine.html>

Best,
Elaine
_______________________________________________
Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu
Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users