- ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Deleting lipid molecules
by Moradkhan, Tiglath A 04 Jan '21

04 Jan '21

Hi Elaine Thank you for the help. I figured out what I was doing wrong. I wasn't using the proper syntax to delete the lipid molecules. Thanks Tiglath

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Bottleneck Large Surfaces
by Anderson, Jacob 04 Jan '21

04 Jan '21

With large colored surfaces of maps ~2.4GB, I experience a lag/delay of several seconds during rotation and translation. Is it obvious where the bottleneck might be that causes the lag? I am running ChimeraX on a 3090 gpu w/ 128gb ram, & 12 core CPU. Might there be ways to change other graphics settings to make the manipulations have a less observable delay? ~jacob

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Sequence viewer Background color
by Y. Mutum 02 Jan '21

02 Jan '21

Hi This is a quick question, which I couldn't find online. I'm using ChimeraX-0.93 and was looking at the sequence of a protein chain. The background of the sequence viewer is black (picture attached) - is there any way to change it to some light color, as I can barely see the letters? I tried background color -but that changes for the molecule in display not the sequence. I also checked settings for the sequence viewer but there doesn't seem to be a setting specifically for the background sequence viewer either. Thanks Yaikhomba

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Computing protein cavities
by Y. Mutum 29 Dec '20

29 Dec '20

Hi This question is on calculating empty cavities of large protein complexes (~2 MDa) For example, the pdb-id: 6J5K. I have tried a few webservers and they are ignoring to calculate such large protein-pdb files as a whole. Does ChimeraX have tools that can be installed from the 'More-Tools' or an inbuilt one to calculate protein cavities in ChimeraX? If you could suggest external programs for computing cavities, that are reliable for such large protein-inputs, it would be also of a great help. The cavities need not be sealed by proteins all around - they can still be open to the bulk solvent. Thanks Yaikhomba

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ChimeraX "color by conservation" tutorial
by Elaine Meng 29 Dec '20

29 Dec '20

In case anyone is interested, there's a new tutorial on coloring by sequence conservation using ChimeraX (requires version 1.1 or newer). It has click-to-execute links if you view it in the ChimeraX built-in browser. <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/data/conservation-coloring/conservation-…> Happy holidays! Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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setting up mousemode - translate z - set pivot
by Helge Paternoga 22 Dec '20

22 Dec '20

Hi Elaine and Tom, Thanks for the explanations, that was very helpful. The build-in shift functionality indeed explains the translate/rotate behaviour! For me the shift button + "reversed" translate/rotate functions work perfectly, so I guess I will keep it that way. Is there anything else that speaks against it? For fitting, I am dealing with ribosomes and I have come to align the map I am fitting into in a way that makes the features clearly distinguishable (i. e. the straight solvent side of the large subunit viewed from the side), then I just move in my new map rotate to align the features and dump it using the z translate until it is in the other map, followed by fit in map. I was contemplating on how much I should stick to my old habits vs. trying new behaviours that might be more effcient in the long run. It is clear that ChimeraX offers many new opportunities for improving the workflow, but for now I like to keep my old logic (which cleary comes from using Chimera for a long time). I like to have three separate keys for rotating - xy translating - z translate that can be modified for the selected model (or dragged, will look into that). Therefore, I came up with the following setup: mousemode shift leftMode 'translate selected models' mousemode shift middleMode 'rotate selected models' mousemode shift wheel contour mousemode setting contour speed 0.1 mousemode control wheel 'translate selected models' mousemode setting zoom speed -1 fun F1 cofr sel camera ortho set bgColor grey lighting soft This actually leaves the right mouse button completely free and I was already wondering what could be a good function to map here! An unrelated observation that I had was that with grey background the selection rectangle while holding control is not visible on the background anymore (It works with white and black). Helge

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setting up mousemode - translate z - set pivot
by Helge Paternoga 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

Dear ChimeraX users, I am currently using the homeoffice time to finally get into ChimeraX, coming from Chimera. I just discovered "mousemode" and am trying to set up the controls to my liking. My goal is to make the fitting process of models and volumes into cryo-EM maps as smooth as possible. Currently, I use the following commands which are entered in the "execute these commands at startup" option in the settings => Is this the best way to permanently change the key-mapping? I could not find an .ini file, yet. mousemode shift leftMode 'translate selected models' mousemode shift middleMode 'rotate selected models' mousemode rightMode zoom mousemode shift wheel contour mousemode setting contour speed 0.1 My idea is to have the following set up: left mouse - turn all models (default) middle mouse - translate xy (default) right mouse - zoom shift left mouse - turn selected model shift middle mouse - translate xy selected model shift right mouse - translate z selected model scroll wheel - contour volume control right mouse - set pivot on selected model Turning and translating the models works well, also while holding shift for the selected model. As a side note, 'translate selected models' rotates the selected models in place whereas 'rotate selected models' translates in xy, is this intentional? => I would like to move the selected model in the z direction with the right mouse button while holding shift, is there an option for "translate z" ? => I am often re-setting the pivot point, therefore I would like to bind this function ("Set Pivot") to the mouse as well, does this option exist? I tried "pivot" but it did not work for cryo-EM volumes. Many thanks for reading, Helge

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Showing waters changes lighting
by Daniel Asarnow 18 Dec '20

18 Dec '20

Hi all, I have a few maps and models loaded, which have a couple hundred water molecules. When I display all the waters using 'show :HOH' the lighting changes. It makes "soft" look like "flat" and creates what looks like more ambient reflection in "full" or "simple." I embedded some screenshots below. My guess is something about a depth or lighting calculation is affected by all the waters, does anyone recognize what setting would need to change to correct this? Soft, shadows false: [image: image.png] Same after show :HOH [image: image.png] Full, shadows false [image: image.png] Same after show :HOH [image: image.png] Best, -da

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Holiday greetings from the ChimeraX team!
by Elaine Meng 18 Dec '20

18 Dec '20

The Chimera(X) team at the UCSF RBVI wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! Our holiday card is virtual this year: =-=-=-=-=-= Atoms of Apoferritin At a miraculous 1.22 Å resolution, the electron microscopy map of mouse apoferritin (right, EMDB 11638) can be mistaken for an atomic model (left, PDB 7a4m), with each atom standing out. The map from Nakane et al. (2020 Nature 587:152-156) shows glimpses of the lightest atoms, hydrogen, directly revealing the hydrogen-bonding network. Ferritin stores iron, as many as 4500 ions (Fe3+), as crystallites within its shell of 24 proteins. Apoferritin, ferritin without its iron cargo, has rock-like stability, making it ideal for divining the limits of electron microscope resolution. The images were made with UCSF ChimeraX, using ambient-occlusion lighting, coloring to delineate trimeric subunits within the dodecahedral shell, and curved helix tubes. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2021! Conrad, Greg, Elaine, Tristan, Tom, Scooter, Eric and Tom =-=-=-=-=-= Full-resolution image: <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/Outreach/card-gallery/2020-apoferritin/2020a.png <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/Outreach/card-gallery/2020-apoferritin/2020a.png>> Gallery of previous cards back to 1985: <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/Outreach/card-gallery/index.html <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/Outreach/card-gallery/index.html>>

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inaccurate color box in the Models panel
by Daniel Larsson 17 Dec '20

17 Dec '20

Hi all, I'm trying to color multiple models in the same color using the color column in the Models panel. When I use the eye-droppper in the macOS colors panel, which pops up when I click on the color box, and then sample the middle of another color box, it gives me a slightly different RGB value. For example, if I start out with (209,35,16), what I get is (206,31,0). Another way of saying it is, if I sample the same color box with the eye-dropper repeatedly, the color changes. I can start out with a bright red color and then repeatedly sample the same box over and over and the color becomes a dark brown. What's up with this? Is it the macOS doing something with the colors of the boxes? Related, is there a way of getting the current RGB color of a model (or all models)? Thanks in advance! Regards, Daniel När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post så innebär det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att läsa mer om hur vi gör det kan du läsa här: http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/ E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your personal data. For more information on how this is performed, please read here: http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy

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Extract TIFF images from a density map
by Andrea Dallapè 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

Hi all, I really hope that you all are healthy and safe. I would like to ask you if there is a method/command script to extract TIFF images from a density map. Basically, I used the "plane" option in Volume Viewer to see all the planes contained in the map. Now I would like to extract all the planes in TIFF images. Is this possible? Could you suggest to me how to deal with it? Thank you for your kind attention. Have a great day, Andrea

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Batch save the image of each chain
by Yong Liu 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

Hi All, I would like to save the image of each chain in one command. I have wrote following python code, but it is not working. Is anybody know how to fix it? # save the image of each chain def batchSave(session): chainID_list = info chains for x in chainID_list: chainID = chainID_list.split() ID = chainID[-1] save "Desktop/ID.png" width 4000 height 4000 transparentBackground true def register_command(session): from chimerax.core.commands import CmdDesc, register desc = CmdDesc() register('batchSave', desc, batchSave, logger=session.logger) register_command(session) Best, Yong Liu

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Superimpose overall structure
by Zheng, Fengwei 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

Dear ChimeraX developers, Thank a bunch for developing this so gracious and powerful software for our community! May I ask how to superimpose the overall structures of two analogues? e.g., the E. coli sliding clamp beta is a ring-shaped homodimer (two chains), while the yeast sliding clamp PCNA is a ring-shaped homotrimer (three chains), and their overall structures are quite similar, but when I use the matchmaker to superimpose them, it seems always only use the chain A, but not the all chains, pls see figures below~ Stay safe and warm, Many thanks! [cid:d0647b0e-e6db-459b-9f0b-72ee21eb06c7] Best, Fengwei

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Saving models in ChimeraX
by Moradkhan, Tiglath A 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Hi I have a question about saving homology models in ChimeraX. Does the save command allow saving homology models as pdb files? If so then how is it possible to specify which folder to save homology models? Thanks Tiglath

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Handling gltf file
by Suzanne Duce (Staff) 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Hi, When I import a .glb gltf file that I generated in ChimeraX into Blender to reduce its file size. The colouring seems to be lost. Is there a way to reduce the .glb file size in ChimeraX (or using another program)? Or not to lose the colours when importing it into Blender? Regards, Suzanne The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096

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Change AltGr
by Daniel Esteban Palma Igor 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

Hi, pressing AltGr takes the cursor to the command line, is there any way to change this key? I can't write some characters when the ipython shell is docked. Regards, Daniel Palma Igor

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Move model from position
by Lara Koehler 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

Dear chimeras users and developers, I would like to translate and rotate a model according to the rotation and translation matrix given by a fitmap. More precisely : I fit model #2 in map #1 and save the corresponding translation and rotation matrix with the save command. Then, I want to turn and move a model #3 so that it has the same position and rotation as model #2 (each correspond to the same pdb file). However, I want to do this automatically, so I need to do it from the matrix that is saved in a .positions file, and not from the (axis, axis point, rotation angle and shift along axis) values given by fitmap, but from the Matrix rotation and translation values. So far, - I compute the axis of rotation and the angle from the rotation matrix given by fitmap models #2 inMap #1 - I turn #3 around this axis and angle, in coordinateSystems #1 - I apply the translation also measured by fitmap models #2 inMap #1 to #3 (with three calls of the move command, for each axis x,y,z) However, there is a small gap between model #2 and model #3, whereas both should be at the exact same position. Maybe this has to do with the rotation center that is used in fitMap, but it cannot be saved in a .positions file, and I don't know how to recover it from the matrix rotation and translation given by fitmap. Do you have any idea of what I'm doing wrong, or how I could place model #3 at the same exact position as model #2 from the .positions file of model #2, and by moving and rotating model #3 ? (What I want to do then is re-apply this same transformation to build a chain of the same protein) Thanks, Lar Lara KOEHLER Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques Bureau L123 - Bâtiment 530 - Rue André Rivière 91400 Orsay [ http://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/ | www.universite-paris-saclay.fr ]

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multiple isosurfaces for one map
by Daniel Larsson 07 Dec '20

07 Dec '20

Is it possible to visualize two surfaces for the same model? I was thinking for example for the purpose of showing two different levels of a map with the lower one as a semi-transparent surface. The work-around is to load the same map twice into two different models, but that will take up more memory and is more cumbersome. Regards, Daniel När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post så innebär det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att läsa mer om hur vi gör det kan du läsa här: http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/ E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your personal data. For more information on how this is performed, please read here: http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy

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downtime on Monday, December 7, 2020
by Elaine Meng 03 Dec '20

03 Dec '20

Dear Chimera and ChimeraX users, We will be doing some system maintenance on Monday, December 7. During this downtime, which we expect to last one day, the Chimera and ChimeraX websites, downloads, e-mailing lists, and several web services accessed by the programs will not be available. Apologies for any inconviences this may cause, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Plugin developers switch from PyQt5 to PySide2
by Tom Goddard 02 Dec '20

02 Dec '20

For those who develop ChimeraX plugins with graphical user interfaces, today we switched ChimeraX from using PyQt5 to using PySide2. These are nearly identical Python interfaces to the Qt window toolkit. In your code you will probably only need to change imports of PyQt5 to instead import PySide2. There are a few other small differences (e.g. pyqtSignal becomes Signal, and QAction callbacks may not have the same arguments) and more details about the differences are in this ChimeraX ticket <https://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/ticket/1635#comment:34>https://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/ticket/1635 <https://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/ticket/1635> We made the switch because PySide2 has a bigger community development team, part of the Qt project, and has less restrictive licensing. Tom

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Add Chain to AtomicStructure
by Daniel Esteban Palma Igor 02 Dec '20

02 Dec '20

Hi, is there a way to add a Chain object to an AtomicStructure? Regards, Daniel Palma Igor

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BUG - NotADirectoryError when start Chimerax
by 江文宏 01 Dec '20

01 Dec '20

Hi, I am a phD from Peking University, Beijing, China. And I downloaded the latest version(1.1) of Chimerax for Centos. And I installed the chimerax in the linux (centos7) by yum install ucsf-chimerax-1.1-1.el7.x86_64. And everything went well for the install/compiling process. However, when I started the chimerax in the terminal, the terminal returned this error: Do you have any idea about such errors? I also tried the older version(1.0), but I got the same error. BTW, I used python3.8. Thanks! All the best, Wenhong Jiang

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New color picker alpha channel and custom color
by Daniel Asarnow 30 Nov '20

30 Nov '20

I noticed in a recent ChimeraX build the color picker has been simplified: [image: image.png] It seems we can still set the alpha channel within the "custom" color dialog, but the default color there is some shade of red regardless of the currently selected color. Could the custom dialog start at the current color by default? Setting the alpha channel via the picker is the fewest number of clicks, and starting at the current color will make slight adjustments much easier as well. Best, -da

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Problem with C2 symmetric assemblies
by Y. Mutum 30 Nov '20

30 Nov '20

Hi I have a a C2-symmetric pdb: 1be3 and have created a symmetric assembly using the command. >>> sym #1 assembly 2 newModel false The idea is to superimpose Chain /C of 1be3 and its symmetry partner with that of 3cx5 (corresponding chains -C and N) to get of deviations b/w the chains. However, when I try to 'match #1/C with #2/C, then I am getting only half of the C2 symmetric assembly superimposed. Is there a way to superimpose both of the chains-C of 1be3 to 3cx5? I could open the model 1be3 twice and then superimpose to the equivalent subunits (chains C and N) of 3cx5, one at a time. But the resulting superimposed assembly 1be3 (from 2 different models) is not going to be the C2 symmetric. In short, for 1be3: pdb, is it possible to rename the symmetry mate with different chains and get the C2 symmetric assembly as a single model? Say, for this new 1be3 C2-symetric assembly, you rename the second symmetry partners chains - Chain C as C1, Chain B as B1 for example in that new model. The idea is to have a C2 symmetric model with different chains, so that it can be compared with other models easily. Thanks Yaikhomba

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User defined color values for each residue/position
by Niccolò Arecco 30 Nov '20

30 Nov '20

Hi, I’m using ChimeraX to visualise the structure of a complex of 4 proteins. I generated a sequence alignment of protein sequences of 1 of the 4 proteins and at each column (amino acid) of the multi protein alignment I assign a score from 0 to 1, where 0 represents no sequence conservation and 1 represent perfect sequence conservation. I’d like to colour-code these values on a publicly available structure. Can I do it with ChimeraX? I tried to google a bit and read the docs but couldn’t fine a way. The input “colouring” file could be something like this tab delimited file: #POS AA SCORE 1 M 0.2 2 V 0.5 …. n N 0.8 But I can reshape it in a better format if necessary. If this is not possible to do it with ChimeraX are you aware of any other tool / software that would allow me to do this? In the end I’d like to be able to do something like ConSurf (https://consurf.tau.ac.il <https://consurf.tau.ac.il/>) does but I’d like to avoid if possible always having to use the web interface as I’d like to semi-automatise this process for every protein in the complex at least. Thanks a lot! Best wishes Nicco

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