Hi Vamsee, Chimera can report the volume enclosed in any surface using menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Measure Volume and Area The hard part is getting a surface for your situation. I don't know how you plan on defining the part that is just nucleic acid and water. For icosahedral viruses you could fit an icosahedral/spherical inside the density map creating it with the Icosahedron Surface dialog (Tools / Higher-Order Structure) and moving it to the right place using the Model Panel "active" buttons. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#icosfit http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#measure... Tom vamsee wrote:

Hello All,

I am working on a virus and I am trying to figure out its volume. I would want to find out the volume of the nucleic acid and the water inside the virus capsid. That way, if I am thinking right, that should give me the total internal volume of the virus. This volume would be a constant even with the movement of water in and out. Is it possible to use chimera to calculate any of such data, with no prior information about how the nucleic acid is packed inside?

Thanks in advance,

Vamsee Graduate Student Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry Montana State University Bozeman, MT - 59715

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