A question abount "define axis"

Dear Chimera list, I'm Interested in finding and showing the distance of N-terminal and C-terminal between two proteins. As I can't download GUI so I use "chimera --nogui" to compute them. That's my command: open protein.pdb sel:1.Ln; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 1; sel:1.S2; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 2; sel:390.Lz; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 3; sel:44.LH; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 4; distance #1 #3; define axis name Ln_N_Lz_C #1 #3; distance #1 #4; define axis name Ln_N_LH_C #1 #4; distance #2 #3; define axis name S2_N_Lz_C #2 #3; distance #2 #4; define axis name S2_N_LH_C #2 #4; stop But I found that when I input "distance" and "define axis" the terminal shows that "Must specifiy at least two atoms/centroids to define an axis". I am puzzle because I can see the #1,#2,#3,#4 in the list. Can you give me some guidance? Thanks in advance

What do you mean "can't download GUI"? When you download Chimera, it comes with the GUI. The exception is the headless Linux version, but you could download the regular Linux version in that case. -- Greg On 2/6/2023 8:11 PM, squirrel via Chimera-users wrote:
As I can't download GUI so I use "chimera --nogui" to compute them

Hello, My only guess is that maybe you used the same model id more than once and you have multiple markers in that model. For example if you do this command 2 times measure center :1.A mark true model 1 ...then you will have 2 markers (atoms) in #1. So you have to make sure that first you close all the previously created marker models and then make only one marker in each one. Also you don't need an extra selection step, you can just say what you want to measure center in the command directly, as in my example above. These commands work fine for me: open 4hhb measure center :1.A mark true model 1 measure center :1.B mark true model 2 measure center :141.A mark true model 3 measure center :146.B mark true model 4 dist #1 #2 dist #1 #4 dist #1 #3 define axis name my_axis #2 #4 [... etc ...] I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Feb 6, 2023, at 8:11 PM, squirrel via Chimera-users <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear Chimera list, I'm Interested in finding and showing the distance of N-terminal and C-terminal between two proteins. As I can't download GUI so I use "chimera --nogui" to compute them. That's my command: open protein.pdb sel:1.Ln; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 1;
sel:1.S2;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 2;
sel:390.Lz;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 3;
sel:44.LH;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 4;
distance #1 #3;
define axis name Ln_N_Lz_C #1 #3;
distance #1 #4;
define axis name Ln_N_LH_C #1 #4;
distance #2 #3;
define axis name S2_N_Lz_C #2 #3;
distance #2 #4;
define axis name S2_N_LH_C #2 #4;
stop
But I found that when I input "distance" and "define axis" the terminal shows that "Must specifiy at least two atoms/centroids to define an axis". <1675742867493.png>
I am puzzle because I can see the #1,#2,#3,#4 in the list. <1.png>
Can you give me some guidance?
Thanks in advance _______________________________________________ Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users

Your error message "Must specifiy at least two atoms/centroids to define an axis" comes from the define axis command and means your define axis command specified 1 or 0 atoms. Based on your other commands I would guess that means that at least one of your select commands did not select anything. Tom
On Feb 7, 2023, at 9:13 AM, Elaine Meng via Chimera-users <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hello, My only guess is that maybe you used the same model id more than once and you have multiple markers in that model. For example if you do this command 2 times
measure center :1.A mark true model 1
...then you will have 2 markers (atoms) in #1. So you have to make sure that first you close all the previously created marker models and then make only one marker in each one.
Also you don't need an extra selection step, you can just say what you want to measure center in the command directly, as in my example above.
These commands work fine for me:
open 4hhb measure center :1.A mark true model 1 measure center :1.B mark true model 2 measure center :141.A mark true model 3 measure center :146.B mark true model 4 dist #1 #2 dist #1 #4 dist #1 #3 define axis name my_axis #2 #4 [... etc ...]
I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Feb 6, 2023, at 8:11 PM, squirrel via Chimera-users <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear Chimera list, I'm Interested in finding and showing the distance of N-terminal and C-terminal between two proteins. As I can't download GUI so I use "chimera --nogui" to compute them. That's my command: open protein.pdb sel:1.Ln; measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 1;
sel:1.S2;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 2;
sel:390.Lz;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 3;
sel:44.LH;
measure center sel mark True radius 0.3 color cyan modelId 4;
distance #1 #3;
define axis name Ln_N_Lz_C #1 #3;
distance #1 #4;
define axis name Ln_N_LH_C #1 #4;
distance #2 #3;
define axis name S2_N_Lz_C #2 #3;
distance #2 #4;
define axis name S2_N_LH_C #2 #4;
stop
But I found that when I input "distance" and "define axis" the terminal shows that "Must specifiy at least two atoms/centroids to define an axis". <1675742867493.png>
I am puzzle because I can see the #1,#2,#3,#4 in the list. <1.png>
Can you give me some guidance?
Thanks in advance _______________________________________________ Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users
_______________________________________________ Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users
participants (4)
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Elaine Meng
-
Greg Couch
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squirrel
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Tom Goddard