Hi Jeff, The Axis class in share/StructMeasure/Axes.py does this since it builds its axes depictions using BILD objects. Basically, it uses a StringIO object to emulate a file that it can then hand off to chimera.openModels.open(). Here is the pertinent code: from StringIO import StringIO if isinstance(color, basestring): colorPart = ".color " + color else: if hasattr(color, "rgba"): rgb = color.rgba()[:3] else: rgb = color[:3] colorPart = ".color %g %g %g" % tuple(rgb) end1 = center + vec * ext1 end2 = center + vec * ext2 bild = StringIO("%s\n.cylinder %g %g %g %g %g %g %g\n" % (colorPart, end1[0], end1[1], end1 [2], end2[0], end2[1], end2[2], radius)) self.model = chimera.openModels.open(bild, type="Bild", sameAs=sameAs, hidden=True, identifyAs=name)[0] # allow balloon help to give informative string... self.model.oslIdent = lambda *args: self.name --Eric On Mar 20, 2008, at 12:59 PM, William Jeffrey Triffo wrote:

hello,

I have been writing simple .bild files for BILD objects (arrows, spheres) that I then load into Chimera.

what would the commands be in a python script to generate a BILD model within the current session, so that I don't have to keep hand-writing and re-loading the .bild file (the contents of the .bild file are often outputted coordinates from such a script, that I then copy into a text file and load)?

thanks,

-Jeff _______________________________________________ Chimera-users mailing list Chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users