August 2023 - ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Structure Comparison->Morph conformations
by Revan Katte 01 Sep '23

01 Sep '23

Hello, For morphing my structures, I'm using ChimeraX 1.6.1, but I cannot find structure comparison and morph conformations in the tool menu. Could you please assist me with this? Thank you! Revan -- Revan Katte, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate, Prof. Maolin Lu Laboratory, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Tyler, Texas 75708, USA. E-mail: *Revansiddha.Katte(a)uthct.edu <Revansiddha.Katte(a)uthct.edu>* Professional Website: Google Scholar <https://scholar.google.com.tw/citations?user=phuOXjgAAAAJ&hl=en> LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-revan-katte-3b53a788/>

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More shades in color byattribute
by Enrico Martinez 01 Sep '23

01 Sep '23

Dear Chimera-X users ! I am using ChimeraX to color pdb file according to its structural flexibility determined in the b-factor column color byattribute bfactor palette rainbow range 2,100 This info is taken directly from the rmsf calculations of short MD trajectory and stored in a single pdb structure in the b-factor column. Technically It works very well, however in the case of flexible systems, the most of the structures is colored in "red". I enclose a screenshot of an example image along with the corresponded rmsf chart. Would it be possible to define the gradient of the coloring in more accurate fashion in order that the red zones could have more shades ? I believe this could be fine-tuned via the "range 2, 100 " attribute and / or switching to other palettes e.g. 'Paired-12' , which naturally has more shades compared to 'rainbow' .. I would be grateful for any further suggestions ! Yours with thanks, Enrico

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Render by attribute - custom rmsd
by Dominik Sordyl 31 Aug '23

31 Aug '23

Hi, I am developing the custom plugin for sequence alignment and structure superposition, that will have it's own sequence viewer. I would like to use 'Render by attribute" feature of ChimeraX 1.16. But without using 'matchmaker ... show True' I do not have such option. Is there a way to pass the rmsd values for superimposed structures' residues to be available for 'render by attribute'? While looking through the ChimeraX source code, I have noticed that it uses Sequence Viewer headers to store rmsd, but I can not figure out how can I add such thing to my plugin. Best, Dominik

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Trouble installing plugin
by BARRY E DEZONIA 30 Aug '23

30 Aug '23

I am having trouble installing a plugin I am developing. It works on one system I am using at work and fails on my system at home. The home system has the latest daily build on it. The work system has an earlier daily build on it. This is what I try to do inside chimerax: devel install ~/dev/bphon/chimerax-plugin/tut_tool_qt And this is the installation error: open /usr/lib/ucsf-chimerax-daily/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/__pip-runner__.pyTraceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/ucsf-chimerax-daily/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/__pip-runner__.py", line 49, in <module> assert __name__ == "__main__", "Cannot run __pip-runner__.py as a non-main module" AssertionError: Cannot run __pip-runner__.py as a non-main module Error opening python file /usr/lib/ucsf-chimerax-daily/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/__pip-runner__.py Any idea what is happening? I may have run into this problem some time ago on the work computer and fixed it but I honestly don't know. Please forward this to the bugs email list of it should go there instead. Thanks. Sorry for yet another question. You guy seems very busy with mail recently.

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Coloring by Ca-RMSD
by Abhilash Padvannil 30 Aug '23

30 Aug '23

Hello, I am working with a multi-subunit protein. I aligned current structure with a previously determined structure using mm command. I am trying to color my protein using RMSD. Chimerax is however, coloring only one-subunit by RMSD, the other chains have default colors. Is there a way to color the whole molecule with RMSD attribute. Thanks Abhilash.

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Camera Viewfinder
by Vytautas Raškevičius 29 Aug '23

29 Aug '23

Hi It would be nice to have camera viewfinder to make images. Like here: https://expertphotography.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Viewfinder-v… So it would be much easier to put something in center exactly and so. VR

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How to reduce subdivision of the mesh?
by HL F 29 Aug '23

29 Aug '23

Dear ChimeraX Development Team, I hope this email finds you well. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for developing such a powerful and invaluable tool like ChimeraX. Your dedication to providing the scientific community with a free and versatile platform is truly remarkable. I am writing to inquire about a technical aspect related to exporting 3D models in ChimeraX. I'm using ChimeraX-1.1.1 to export protein meshes(surface model) into Blender. I've got a problem that the mesh is too smooth which means it has too many vertices. And that makes my Blender run very slow. Is there a way to reduce the subdivision(resolution/vertex number) of the mesh in ChimeraX? Thank you very much! Looking forward to your reply. Regards, Hualing [image: image.png]

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updating session with new version of model
by Alexis Rohou 28 Aug '23

28 Aug '23

Hi there, I have a nice figure saved as a .cxs session file. But I've since had to change the PDB file to refine the model. I think myself and others have asked this in the past, and there isn't a way to substitute one PDB file for another in a ChimeraX session file. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Failing that, I have to recreate the same display style (colors, ribbon vs sticks vs balls, etc) with the new PDB file. What I was thinking of doing is to save a series of files containing attributes' values from the original model (with option ModelId set to false), and then open these files back and read the attribute values into the new model. Things like display, draw_mode, color, ribbon_display, ribbon_color, etc. In principle, do you think this approach should work? One stumbling block: I can't seem to save the display attribute. Specifically, the following command: > save browse format defattr attrName a:display models #1 modelId false Gives the following output in the log: > One or more attribute values aren't integer, floating-point, string or > None (e.g. False); skipping those > Saved attribute 'display' of 0 atoms using match mode: 1-to-1 to > <filename_redacted> This is with version 1.6.1 (2023-05-09). I have tried with other attributes (e.g. draw_mode), and they seemed to work. What is the correct way to save the atom display attribute to file? Cheers, Alexis

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How allow a plugin to save a startup setting
by BARRY E DEZONIA 28 Aug '23

28 Aug '23

Hello, I am developing a plugin. One attribute my plugin has is an output directory. I want to save that value somewhere so that if you exit chimerax, come back in, and reload my plugin the output directory value will default to what it was during the last run, I've read a bit about session data and preference data and I don't think they get at what I want. I might be able to make my app save a data file in the installed plugin directory (and read it on startup) but maybe there will be things like permissions issues trying to do something like this. Any suggestions on how to do what I want to do?

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Re: [Chimera-users] Atlocs
by Elaine Meng 28 Aug '23

28 Aug '23

Hi Hernando, ChimeraX has an Altloc Explorer tool (also implemented as "altlocs" command) that lists all the residues with alt locs and allows switching which ones are used: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/altlocexplorer.html> The rules that ChimeraX uses for deciding which ones to show initially are described in that link, namely: "For each contiguous (through-bond) set of atoms with alternate locations, the location used initially is that with the highest average atomic occupancy, then as a tie-breaker, the lowest average atomic B-factor, and if a tie-breaker is still needed, by alphabetical order of the alternate location ID." We found that altloc A is not always the most occupied! So yes, this is a new feature of ChimeraX, but we also added the tool to make it easy to switch if you want to use a different altloc than what is shown initially. By the way: You may be interested that there is a chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu list (CC'd here) specifically for asking questions about ChimeraX. Since ChimeraX and Chimera are two different programs with different behaviors, we try to somewhat separate the questions so that people won't get too confused! I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco > On Aug 28, 2023, at 12:38 PM, Hernando J Sosa via Chimera-users <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > > Dear ChimeraX, > > I have an atomic model with several chains that have residues with alternate locations A and B. I noticed that > while Chimera by default displays alternate locations A. ChimeraX for some chains display alternate locations A and for other chains alternate locations B. Why is this behavior different in Chimera and ChimeraX? Is this a novel feature of ChimeraX? I this is the case how ChimeraX decides which of the two alternate locations A or B to display? > > Thanks > > Hernando

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ChimeraX-users August 2023