- ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

show stands' arrows a little werid
by Meinan Lyu 14 Oct '19

14 Oct '19

Dear Dr., The attached is a picture I saved which the stands' arrows are so wide when using chimeraX to draw some figures, could you please tell me how to make it normal? The problem showed after I put into these two command(not quite sure yet):1. zone #3:Lig residueDistance 5 label false 2. cartoon #3/b suppressBackboneDisplay true. Thank you very much！ Best regards, Meinan CWRU

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Soft lighting changes when additional model is displayed
by Gabor PAPAI 14 Oct '19

14 Oct '19

Dear ChimeraX team, If I open a second model in ChimeraX (0.91) the ambient occlusion in soft lighting mode on the first model disappears or becomes diminished. How can I revert this effect? I attach an image to illustrate this phenomenon. The only change between the two displays that I opened a model of DNA and placed close to the first model. Best regards, Gabor [cid:6AAD58A0-1B6C-4362-8C29-57D033327EBF@igbmc.u-strasbg.fr] --- Gabor Papai IGBMC Integrated Structural Biology 1, rue Laurent Fries, Bp 10142 67404 Illkirch, France Tel: +33-3-69485288

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issues with rotamers tool
by Llorente, Alejandro 09 Oct '19

09 Oct '19

Hi, I am new PhD student using ChimeraX and I am very interested in learning how to work with this program. I am trying to introduce some mutations in my protein in some specific amino acids that I have selected. When I introduce an Alanine in my position of interest (using dunbrack) I have no issues, but when I try any other amino acids (as Phe or Thy) the program has no problem giving me the prediction for the rotamers, but I have some issues. After select some of the most probable rotamers, all the amino acids of my protein change to that kind of amino acid (not just the specific one that I have selected). Another problem is that I have is that when I select a specific atom of an amino acid, the program also select similar atoms but in all the others amino acids of my protein. I really hope that someone can help me with these issues. Thank You very much Alejandro Llorente. Lab of Dr. Nancy Carrasco. Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Vanderbilt University. 2215 Garland Ave Nashville, TN 37232-0615, room 711. Mobile phone: +34 626586236

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Unable to use Viewdockx
by Abhijeet Kumar 07 Oct '19

07 Oct '19

hi, I am a college student and I am working on a project on protein docking visualization and came across ChimeraX. I am not able to use Viewdockx and the user guide for viewdockx gives a 404 page not found error. So, can you help me with this? Thank you.

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Cuved helix tubes
by Ernesto Arias Palomo 02 Oct '19

02 Oct '19

Good morning, We are using the modeHelix tube to represent the secondary structure. However, our structure contains some long and curved helices, and the representation does not follow their shape with enough precision. Is there any option to increase the fit of the tube to the overall shape of long helices? Thank you very much for your help. Kind regards, Ernesto. -- Ernesto Arias Palomo, PhD Group Leader Biological Research Center (CIB-CSIC) Ramiro de Maeztu, 9. 28040. Madrid. Spain earias(a)cib.csic.es +34 91 837 31 12 ext 4446

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Calculation of polar and apolar surface area
by Gorman, Scott Daniel 02 Oct '19

02 Oct '19

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone has a preferred way of calculating the polar and apolar surface areas for a macromolecule with ChimeraX? I've tried deleting all of the solvent and then using the command "measure sasa @N @O @S" for the polar surface area and then "measure sasa @C" for the apolar surface area, but the calculation for either comes up with a number too close to the total surface area, i.e. apolarSASA + polarSASA > totalSASA. So clearly I'm not approaching this problem correctly. Scott Gorman PhD Candidate Boehr Lab PSU Chemistry

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GUI not properly visualized
by Pascal Albanese UU 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

Hi Chimera staff, i just changed PC ad now i have huge visualization problems of the GUI, when opening is fine but when i open any pdb file or session all buttons and commands in the window disappear. Command line actually works but all i see is this: [image: image.png] do you have any explanation? i tried different releases (0.9 official, daily builds) I'm using W10 enterprise, 64bit, intel i9 9900, UHD graphics 630. Thanks for the support, best regards, -- Pascal Albanese Ph.D PostDoc Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences Utrecht University Padualaan 8 3584 CH, Utrecht The Netherlands Telephone: +31 30 253 6805 https://www.hecklab.com/

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ray tracing
by Ahel,Juraj 24 Sep '19

24 Sep '19

Dear all, pardon me if this has already been answered elsewhere, but I failed to find any information about this in the publication, webpage, or the mailing list archive. Is there a way to generate images of ray-traced maps in ChimeraX? I was often using it in Chimera but I can't find the option to do it in ChimeraX. Was it not included as a feature? Many thanks! Juraj

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Manually imposed symmetry
by Shahid Khan 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

Hello I am having difficulty in manually imposing symmetry on a map (*.mrc file) and then extracting the unit cell for the subsequent fitting of PDB structures with fitmap. (1) When I use the command "Volume symmetry #1, C33 axis z centerIndex 107.5" I get the error message "No placements for #1" that I do not understand. (2) I cannot figure out from the help documentation on how to save and display one of the created segments. Any ideas? Thanks Shahid -- Dr Shahid Khan Senior Scientist Molecular Biology Consortium Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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render buriedArea surface?
by Alexis Rohou 09 Sep '19

09 Sep '19

Hi all, I would like to depict the buried surface area between two chains. I have used "measure buriedarea" to measure it, and I can use "surface" to display the surfaces of either set of atoms, but I'd like to depict the surface of one of the chains, highlighting the region buried by the other chain. Is there a way to do this in ChimeraX? If not, does anyone have a recommendation as to how to achieve this? Perhaps by pre-computing the surfaces in another program? Thanks in advance! Cheers, Alexis

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vdw representation in chimeraX
by Elena Zehr 09 Sep '19

09 Sep '19

Hello, In chimera one can display dot van der Waals surfaces for atoms. *vdw* *atom-spec* <https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/frameatom_spec.html> What would be the equivalent command in ChimeraX? Thank you, Elena

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Open days EPFL - ChimeraX VR
by Krapp Lucien Fabrice 05 Sep '19

05 Sep '19

Hello, We are creating some small VR demos in ChimeraX for the EPFL open days in a few weeks (https://www.epfl.ch/campus/events/celebration-en/portes-ouvertes/) It is an event to show to a broader audience what the university is doing. The demos consists of small proteins up to density maps of bacteriophage with a few simple animations and menus to interact with the structures. Everything is almost done, I'm currently trying to fix the last issue but I didn't find a solution in the documentation. For two of the demos we would like the user to move a selection in VR with one of the VR controller right out of the box without having to go in the VR menu and click on the "move selected" button. I was able to make it work on Linux by loading the session though the remote API with the right part selected but it doesn't seem to work on Windows. The log shows a status change when clicking on the button "move selected" in VR but not the actual command to change the mode. Do you know if there is a way to change the mode of the VR controller without having to manually go through the menu in VR ? In the mean time, I will try different saved sessions and (remote) commands to try and solve the issue. If the demos are a success we will most likely make them available online so that anybody can try and improve them. Thank you in advance for your help. best, Lucien

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semitransparent volumes with ambient occlusion
by Sindelar, Charles 03 Sep '19

03 Sep '19

Dear Elaine, Eric, Tom, and team, I am happy to see ChimeraX is continuing to move forward! Here is a little request. For the figures that I am now making for publications, I have a special interest in showing semitransparent molecular maps together with the corresponding models, with ambient occlusion lighting on. I think ambient occlusion makes this kind of figure much easier to interpret and more beautiful. What I have noticed is ambient occlusion seems to get automatically turned off as soon as a map becomes less than 100% opaque. I always assumed this was due to some kind of rendering difficulty. But then, I noticed that sometimes I can “trick” an old version of ChimeraX to do exactly what I want! Below is an example. Basically, in ChimeraX 0.6 I can set up everything just the way I want with an opaque map, then turn down the map opacity and get a nice, pretty figure just the way I like it. But then, as soon as I show/hide anything in the Model Panel, the ambient feature gets turned off! I noticed that in the most recent daily build, this “trick” no longer works and I can’t seem to ever get the pretty combination of transparent maps and ambient occlusion lighting that I like. I sure would like to have this option! I guess there must be some reason it is disabled? Best, Chuck Sindelar Opaque map + PDB (ChimX v0.6) (pretty but the PDB is obscured) [cid:image001.png@01D55FF9.D8266CF0] After adjust to 80% map opacity (ChimX v0.6) (pretty!) [cid:image002.png@01D55FF9.D8266CF0] After unshow/show PDB model (ChimX v0.6) (argh!) [cid:image003.png@01D55FF9.D8266CF0]

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silhouette of transparent density
by YAO HE 30 Aug '19

30 Aug '19

Hi, I am using ChimeraX now to show the overlay between atomic model and transparent EM densities. However, when I enable the silhouette feature, only the transparent EM densities are affected. I am wondering if it is possible to also silhouette the atomic model inside. Just like "setattr M silhouette true #3" in Chimera. Best, Yao

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silhouette of transparent density
by heyao 30 Aug '19

30 Aug '19

Hi, I am using ChimeraX now to show the overlay between atomic model and transparent EM densities. However, when I enable the silhouette feature, only the transparent EM densities are affected. I am wondering if it is possible to also silhouette the atomic model inside. Just like "setattr M silhouette true #3" in Chimera. Best, Yao

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Chimera X and the Oculus Quest
by Thomas Gluick 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

HI First please excuse my computer language ignorance. My question is: Is the Oculus Quest compatible with Chimera X; if it is, is software available to link the program to the Quest. I am aware already that the Rift can be connected and also certain phones. Thank you for you time. Best Tom Dr. Thomas Gluick Assistant Professor of Chemistry School of Science and Technology 770-842-5532

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Question about Calphas and line between them
by Yazan Abbas 21 Aug '19

21 Aug '19

Hi, While looking through the user guide, I came across an option to draw a line between consecutive Calphas that are displayed. I made a mental note to use that option in my figure, but I failed to bookmark it or write down what the command was. I've been through the user guide several times again, but can't seem to find it. Would appreciate it if someone could jog my memory. Thanks, Yazan

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discontinuous helices in tube mode
by Yazan Abbas 19 Aug '19

19 Aug '19

Hi, Is there a parameter that can be changed to control how "cartoon style modeH tube" draws a continuous helix? In my model, most of my helices are broken up into 2-4 discontinuous helices (especially the long, curved ones). In pymol (cylinders mode) and chimera (pipes and planks depiction), the same helices are drawn as a single, continuous helix, suggesting that my model is ok. I tried adding a HELIX definition in the pdb file, and also tried forcing chimeraX to draw a helix using the setattr command, but neither strategy has helped. I also tried playing with the dssp energyCutoff with no success. Thanks, Yazan

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Question about "color sample" command
by Sean Connell 19 Aug '19

19 Aug '19

Hello I have a question about the "color sample" command (Chimerax-daily version 0.91 2019-08-14) and its use in coloring a volume based on the values of a second volume (i.e. local resolution maps from relion) The command works great when I load the volumes in to chimerx but after I load them I want to transform them using matchmaker and the bring option so that all the volumes I want to view are in a common frame of reference. After I transform the volumes though if i re-issue the "color sample" command it seems to color the first volume according to the values in the un-transformed second volume I am guessing? Is this correct and expected or am I just doing something wrong? if this is what is happening is there a way to force color sample to read the transformed values or to re-sample the transformed maps so they are correctly read? Also the output of the color sample command reports the min,max and mean values, just to confirm this corresponds to the values of all the voxels displayed at the current threshold level right? Finally is there a way to show a key for the coloring in chimerax? Many thanks for any advice you can provide. Sean

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Fly function in ChimeraX - 2
by Gabor PAPAI 16 Aug '19

16 Aug '19

Dear developers, I’ve seen that two years ago the fly command from Chimera was not implemented in ChimeraX. Is it implemented now? Or does ChimeraX have a similar function? I tried the view command inside the perframe function, unfortunately this didn’t result in a smooth transition between two named views. The only option I have now is to translate, zoom and rotate the scene with the individual commands, however this is quite tedious to set. Best regards, Gabor --- Gabor Papai IGBMC Integrated Structural Biology 1, rue Laurent Fries, Bp 10142 67404 Illkirch, France Tel: +33-3-69485288

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RESMAP output superposition.
by chimerax-announce-owner＠cgl.ucsf.edu 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

From: Shahid Khan <outlook_CD0472DE47DC92D6(a)outlook.com <mailto:outlook_CD0472DE47DC92D6@outlook.com>> Subject: RESMAP output superposition. Date: August 14, 2019 at 7:33:59 PM PDT Hello The python script for mapping the RESMAP local resolution output does not work in ChimeraX. Has anybody modified it so that it does? Or written a new script with the same purpose for ChimeraX. Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10

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Understanding the output of the align command
by Yazan Abbas 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

Hi, I am trying to make a movie to rotate density in a manner that follows rotation between two atomic coordinates. To do that, I am aligning the two models and using the reportMatrix output to inform turn and move commands in order to transform the density. However, I am encountering some difficulty, and I'm not sure if this is related to bugs or my lack of understanding. For example, if I want to move from the position of model #1 to model #2, "align #1/b toAtoms #2/b move nothing reportMatrix true" produces the following: *Axis 0.11 -0.018 0.99Axis point 166 190 0Rotation angle (degrees) 108Shift along axis -0.24* I would think my turn command should be *turn 0.11,-0.018,0.99 108 models #1 center 166,190,0* But that doesn't work. I can get it to work if I assume that the reported axis is x,z,y instead of the expected x,y,z. Also, I have to use a rotation angle of -108 instead of 108. I'm not sure if I am using the axis point value correctly though, is it correct to use that as my center of rotation? It's location (166, 190, 0) places at the top of the box, which seems unusual to me. And finally, would I use this same information in a move command (i.e. move axis distance(shift), as reported by the align command? Many thanks in advance, I hope explained this clearly. Best, Yazan

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Morphing atomic models and volumes in a single movie
by Yazan Abbas 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

Hi, I am trying to create a movie that is morphing between 3 atomic models while simultaneously morphing between the 3 corresponding volumes. The following is my script for recording this movie: *set max 25windowsize 1080 1080view frame1movie record supersample 3wait 1volume morph #12,13,14,15 frames 181 playStep 0.005524861878453038 constantVolume true modelId #16perframe "surface dust #16 size 40" frames 181coordset #10 1,181wait 181movie stopmovie encode test_full.mp4 quality high* There are 4 maps in my morph, but the fourth map is simply a copy of the first in order to mimic the *wrap true* option of the atomic model morph. I am encountering the following issue during the volume morph step: somewhere in between the morph between volume #14 and #15, the map disappears for a fraction of a second in the movie. I suspect its because of a calculation/waiting issue, because if I record the movie using filtered versions of the volumes (*volume guassian sDev 2*), I don't have the same issue. Am I correct in my interpretation of the issue? Is there a way to modify my recording script to avoid this? Thanks, Yazan

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pixel size
by Yazan Abbas 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

Hi, I am trying to create a scale bar using the following method: 1. camera is set to ortho 2. save image image.png width 4000 height 4000 transparentBackground true 3. check pixel size in chimeraX using the zoom command (which shows Pixel size at center of rotation is 0.178) 4. in imageJ, set the scale to be 0.178Å/pixel which turns into 5.618 pixels/Å 5. Show scale bar of desired in length in ImageJ However, the resulting scale bar looks unusually small given the dimensions of my particle. Have I misunderstood something about the pixelSize settings? The user guide doesn't say anything about pixelSize when one of or both of width and height are specified in the same image command, so I assumed the pixel size of the saved image would be the same as in the graphics window. Thanks, Yazan

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Runing multiple command lines in ChimeraX
by Marie Locard-Paulet 26 Jul '19

26 Jul '19

Hello, I am running ChimeraX version 0.9 (2019-02-16) on a Mac (macOS Mojave version 10.14.6). It works fine, and I can work by adding commandes in the command “box” in the bottom. But I would like to open a text file with multiple ChimeraX command lines (for reproducibility and gain of time). I saw the command “open” that should open a document with the suffix “.com” or “.cmd”. It doesn’t work in my hands. It says it does not recognise the suffix. Is there something I am missing? Could you please help? Kind regards, Marie. --------------------------- Marie Locard-Paulet NNF Center for Protein Research Faculty of Health Sciences University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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