Hi all, There is a new snapshot release (1.2251) available, with a potpourri of new features, listed below. The release is for all platforms, but on Mac we had a little difficulty getting things to work for OS X 10.3, so this release is 10.4 only, but the next production release will include 10.3 support. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett@cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu --- 1.2251 release (changes since 1.2199 release) GENERAL: Session files are smaller, use less memory, and start faster. CIF/mmCIF files can be read (or fetched by ID from RCSB) Electron density maps can be fetched by PDB ID from Electron Density Server Virus Particle Explorer (VIPER) files can be fetched by ID VIPER input automatically starts Multiscale Models and constructs viral capsid Thinner default ribbons Files opened by scripts (either Python or Chimera commands) are now searched for relative to the script location, not Chimera's startup location. Can switch to sequential stereo mid-session without having used --stereo at startup (except on certain Windows systems) New stereo mode: anaglyph (offset red/cyan-tinged views, like 3D movies) NEW TOOLS: Add Charge (Structure Editing) - assigns partial charges to atoms; Amber (Cornell et al. 1995) charges used for standard residues, Amber's Antechamber module (now included with Chimera) used to calculate charges for nonstandard residues Build Structure (Structure Editing) - under construction but basic functions work; not much documentation ReadStdin (Utilities) - allows communication with Chimera through standard input/output TOOL CHANGES: AddH (Structure Editing) - new options including how to treat histidines Adjust Torsions (Structure Editing) - interface reorganized to show atoms defining a torsion in order 1-2-3-4 - options added to control decimal places and show degree symbol in angle labels Dock Prep (moved to Structure Editing) - option added to delete alternate locations of atoms - hydrogen addition and charge addition details split off into separate tools called from Dock Prep (AddH and Add Charge, respectively) - terminal carboxylates/amines completed as appropriate Effects (Viewing Controls) - background transparency option added (previously only available as --bgopacity startup option) Minrms Plot (Structure Comparison) - Show Alignment option added MPOSE extension removed (Structure Comparison) Multalign Viewer (Structure Comparison) - .ali extension interpreted as PIR format - .pfam extension no longer indicates Stockholm format, instead indicates Pfam format ("Plain Pfam format" at the Sanger Institute Pfam site) - changed default residue letter/region colors for improved readability - improved editing response time - editing no longer pushes residues that are not in the active region - added control over whether a region depiction spans gaps - option to associate a structure chain with the best-matching sequence in the alignment (when criteria for automatic association are not met) - new Edit menu allowing sequence reordering and deletion, gap column addition and deletion COMMAND CHANGES: ribbonjr removed NEW COMMANDS: addcharge - assign partial charges to atoms (command-line implementation of new Add Charge tool) intersurf - generate and display interface surfaces (command-line implementation of Intersurf) setattr - set a new or existing attribute to a specified value surftransparency - adjust molecular surface transparency COMMAND CHANGES: longbond - now takes an atom or model specification to restrict the calculation to certain models TUTORIALS: figures added to Getting Started tutorials