- ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

chimerax-users mailing list should be working
by Greg Couch 24 May '23

24 May '23

But the web interface to look at old messages will take some time to get to work. -- Greg

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chimerax-users mailing list will be down temporarily
by Greg Couch 23 May '23

23 May '23

We're upgrading the mailing list software. Should be back "soon".

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ChimeraX 1.5 Issue - Observations
by Ethan Crofut 23 May '23

23 May '23

Hello, I am Ethan Crofut, an undergraduate at UCLA and member of Professor Hong Zhou's lab. I wanted to comment on an issue brought up at the Stanford-SLAC Image Processing Workshop. I am using ChimeraX 1.5, but I have also experienced the issue where scrolling, panning, and zooming stop working in the middle of my session. In my experience, this issue is specific to Apple Macbook trackpads (as someone else commented, I haven't seen the same issue on Linux desktops). Here are my observations on the issue: - The problem can always be resolved by clicking on the ChimeraX window in which the 3D structures are being viewed. - A scroll, pan, and zoom functions are lost if I click on a separate ChimeraX window, such as the Log, an ISOLDE window, etc., but as stated above, I can rescue this by clicking on the main window again. This also occurs for windows that are embedded into the main window, as the Log usually is. - The scroll, pan, and zoom features are more likely to break right after I use a multi-fingered gesture on the trackpad, especially three fingered gestures. I think this may have to do with the Mac's three-fingered swipe shortcut. - Sometimes, some functions are lost but others are retained. I almost always retain the ability to rotate the model using the regular left click, but multi-fingered gestures, such as the zoom and panning options, break more frequently. I am not very technologically savvy, but my guess is that it is very easy for Macs to lose track of the main ChimeraX window being the currently active window, which causes the controls to stop working. For me, this is usually caused by using multi-fingered gestures or toggling between multiple different ChimeraX windows. Best, Ethan

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symmetry axis
by Tianyang Liu (Staff) 23 May '23

23 May '23

Dear ChimeraX team, I have attached my cryo-EM map with C2 symmetry. The symmetry axis is shown with a yellow rod, not along the z-axis. How can I save a new map in ChimeraX with the symmetry axis along z? Many thanks, T

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interfnal error toolshed
by steffen＠sthomas.de 19 May '23

19 May '23

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Support pages are not reachable
by Lars Hangartner 18 May '23

18 May '23

To whom it may concern: There seems to be issues with your web servers, as several pages cannot be reached, e.g. <https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Workshops/UCSF-Fall-2005/09-ScriptDemo/Sc…> cgl.ucsf.edu<https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Workshops/UCSF-Fall-2005/09-ScriptDemo/Sc…> [X]<https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/Workshops/UCSF-Fall-2005/09-ScriptDemo/Sc…> Best, Lars –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Lars Hangartner, PhD Associate Professor The Scripps Research Institute Department of Immunology & Microbiology - IMM2 10550 North Torrey Pines Road La Jolla CA, 92037 U.S.A. Phone: +1 (858) 784 9876 Cell: +1 (858) 952 2282

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UCSF website
by Raneem Akel 18 May '23

18 May '23

Hello, I was trying to download ChimeraX but I’m getting an error saying that the website cannot be reached. Could you please advise. Thanks, Raneem

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Re: [chimerax-users] [Chimera-users] 3D_printing
by Elaine Meng 18 May '23

18 May '23

Dear François-Hugues Porée, In ChimeraX, there is no GUI tool but you can use the "cartoon style" command to increase ribbon (cartoon) width and thickness to specific angstrom values. For details see the help: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/cartoon.html#style> However, ChimeraX also has a "struts" command that will automatically increase ribbon thickness in addition to adding some stick pseudobonds specifically to make a 3D model stronger. So you may want to use "struts" instead : <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/struts.html> Another thing to consider for 3D printing is the number of triangles of the object, which you can adjust with "graphics quality": <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/graphics.html#quality> For ChimeraX questions in the future, you may want to use the other address chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu (CC'd here) -- since the answers are different for the two programs, we try to not confuse people between them. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco P.S. you may also be interested in the NIH 3D website: <https://3d.nih.gov/> > On May 15, 2023, at 6:58 AM, Francois-Hugues Poree via Chimera-users <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > > Dear Chimera Team, > first of all, I would like to thank you for providing a sotfware solution to molecular visualization and by the way 3D-printing. > > I send you this message concerning the UCSF Chimera X version. We usually are preparing our 3D-printing files from data collected from the pdb and to ensure the rigidity of the system, we thick the ribbon size and also add some H-bonds (mainly for helices). However, we are not able to find the way to do it in this version. > In the previous version (1.17), the command line was : Tools-depiction-ribbon style editor > > Could you explain us the new procedure to make this ? > > > We also noticed that the opportunity to save the file in a stl extension was not allowed in the 1.17 version. This option is running in the X version. > > Thank you very much for your reply > > Best regards. > > > fhporee > > François-Hugues Porée > Professeur de Chimie Thérapeutique > Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes UMR CNRS 6226 > Faculté de Pharmacie - Université de Rennes > 2 Avenue du Pr Léon Bernard > F-35043 Rennes > France > Tel.02 23 23 41 87

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'Tunnel' hydrophobic colouring
by Kelly May Frain 16 May '23

16 May '23

Hello, Previously you were super quick and helping when answering my ‘tunnel’ question, so I thought I could try another question for chimeraX. I have a protein which via Caver I have found a tunnel which runs through. This tunnel has been exported as a pdb and using your help and python, the tunnel now changes diameter perfectly as it weaves through the structure. I had this idea to colour the tunnel according its surrounding residues and their hydrophobicity. So in chimeraX I can colour my model ‘hydrophobically’ from cyan to gold. Then I wanted to 'zone’ these colours into my tunnel pdb. But when I use color zone #2 near #1 distance 20 for example, the tunnel is coloured in red and blue patches? Even though the model is cyan and gold. Is there a way to achieve my goal please? Best wishes, Kelly

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Duplicate the model
by tim smith 16 May '23

16 May '23

Hello everybody, I would like to create copy of the model in the same session but with a different model number. Please, could you suggest how to do that. Thank you. Best Tim

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rendering of bond making/breaking along a trajectory
by Hassan, Sergio (NIH/NIAID) [E] 16 May '23

16 May '23

Hi, I am not sure whether this is a bug or something not yet implemented or else. I performed QM/MM simulations of a proton translocating along a water chain. This involves the breaking of a bond and the making of a new bond. The visualization of the trajectory does not show this process; instead, the original definition of bond is retained, without being updated at each timeframe. Is there a way to tell ChimeraX to automatically check covalent bonds at each snapshot and update the bond accordingly? A simple distance criterion will do. This is only for rendering purpose. In case further clarifications are needed: D—H.......A (with -- indicating the covalent bond between proton and domor and .... indicating the proximal acceptor) must be transformed to D.......H—A. Instead, it is rendered as D-------H..A (with an artificially elongated DH bond and no new HA bond) thanks s _____________________________________ Sergio A. Hassan https://bioinformatics.niaid.nih.gov/cmm/ BCBB/NIAID/NIH/DHHS 301 761 7221 (office) 301 741 5579 (mobile)

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Trajectory smoothing
by Shubham Devesh Ramgoolam 16 May '23

16 May '23

Hi all, Does chimeraX has a command for trajectory smoothing? Based on previous similar questions, I know a script was written for trajectory smoothing in chimera/chimeraX. However, I cannot not access this script because it is not found on the server anymore. Shubham Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows

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REMINDER: ChimeraX website downtime
by Elaine Meng 15 May '23

15 May '23

REMINDER: Due to a scheduled power outage at UCSF followed by server upgrades, the ChimeraX website and web services will be unavailable -- the estimated downtime is from Tuesday May 16 8pm PDT through Wednesday May 17 8pm PDT. Please pardon any inconvenience, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Re: [chimerax-users] Measuring distance between two atoms in a single protein
by Cheng, Jiaxuan (NIH/VRC) [F] 14 May '23

14 May '23

Hi Elaine, I met a problem when measuring the distance between two atoms. I entered “distance #1.16/B:94 at CA #1.35/B:94 at CA” , but the ChimeraX reports “expected a keyword”. Could you let me know how to solve it? Thanks! Jiaxuan [cid:image001.png@01D98530.82126BB0]

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Scrolling wheel feature request
by vincent Chaptal 12 May '23

12 May '23

Dear ChimeraX team, a very useful feature in Pymol is the use of the scrolling wheel on the mouse to clip the view plane and add depthcue. After centering on one element, it is very convenient to focus on some areas and remove things from the view, for both viewing and article figures. I haven't find a similar feature in ChimeraX, would it be possible to implement it? I've tried to play with the depthcue command, but it I find it much harder to get to what I would like. lighting depthcue true depthCueStart 0.3 depthCueEnd 0.5 If the view with the clipping can be saved with the "view matrix" command, it would be extremely useful. Thank you. Vincent -- Vincent Chaptal, PhD Director of GdR APPICOM Drug Resistance and Membrane Proteins Lab MMSB -UMR5086 7 passage du Vercors 69007 LYON FRANCE +33 4 37 65 29 01 http://www.appicom.cnrs.fr http://mmsb.cnrs.fr/en/

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Re: [chimerax-users] unifold
by Tom Goddard 11 May '23

11 May '23

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coloring a clipped surface cap by property
by Elaine Meng 10 May '23

10 May '23

Hi Noam, Glad you like ChimeraX! (A) The way to color a clipped surface cap by the molecular liphilicity potential (MLP) or Coulombic electrostatic potential (ESP) is covered in this tutorial section: <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tutorials/binding-sites.html#c…> (B) The way to color a clipped surface cap by an atomic or residue attribute is to: 1) color the underlying atoms by the atom or residue attribute (with command "color byattribute" or the Render by Attribute tool) 2) use command "color zone" on the surface cap model to make it match the atoms. You may need to use the disclosure triangles in the Models panel to figure out the model number of the surface cap model. Example: color zone #1.1.1 near #1 distance 3 <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/color.html#zone> Since "N" heads are better than one, we generally recommend sending questions to chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu (CC'd here) unless you are including data or figures that should remain private. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco > On May 10, 2023, at 7:40 AM, Noam Prywes <noam.prywes(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Dr. Meng, > > I'm a postdoc at berkeley and I'm trying to make a figure where I slice a surface structure and color the clipped surface based on an attribute that I defined (example from a paper attached). I can get clipped surfaces to display the electrostatic potential but not my defined attribute (that I fed in using a .defattr file with a number for each residue). I also can't get the surface to color by lipophilicity. > > Do I need to make a .defattr file that colors by atom instead? > > Thanks for your help and the amazing service that is chimeraX. > > Best wishes, > Noam

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Hiding distance labels during trajectory playback
by Lewandowski, Jozef 10 May '23

10 May '23

Hi, Is there an easy way to hide distance labels during the playback of an MD trajectory? Even if I delete or hide the labels in one frame they get generated when next frame is loaded. I tried to include hiding/deleting the labels command in perframe but they flash on before they are removed. Ultimately, I would like to record a movie where only the pseudobonds are shown but not the labels. Thank you, Józef

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ChimeraX 1.6.1 release
by Eric Pettersen 10 May '23

10 May '23

UCSF ChimeraX version 1.6.1 has been released! ChimeraX includes user documentation and is free for noncommercial use. Download for Windows, Linux, and MacOS from: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/download.html <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/download.html> Updates since version 1.5 (Nov 2022) include: - ESMFold protein structure prediction and residue-residue error plot - Add Charge GUI - Dock Prep GUI to repair side chains, add hydrogens, etc. - Render by Attribute GUI for coloring by atomic or residue values - swapna command to mutate nucleic acid residues - invert chiral center - read SwissDock docking results - Blast Protein query sequence can be pasted in or specified by UniProt ID - browse/fetch medical images from The Cancer Imaging Archive - read medical images in NIfTI (.nii) and NRRD (.nnrd) formats For details, please see the ChimeraX change log: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/wiki/ChangeLog <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/wiki/ChangeLog> For those of you who downloaded plain 1.6 while it was briefly available, please upgrade to 1.6.1. It has several bug fixes that 1.6 should have had but didn't. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab

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Clipped surface coloring
by Noam Prywes 10 May '23

10 May '23

Hi all, I'm trying to make a figure where I slice a surface structure and color the clipped surface based on an attribute that I defined (example from a paper attached). I can get clipped surfaces to display the electrostatic potential but not my defined attribute (that I fed in using a .defattr file with a number for each residue). I also can't get the surface to color by lipophilicity. Do I need to make a .defattr file that colors by atom instead? Best wishes, Noam [image: Screenshot 2023-05-10 at 7.42.14 AM.png]

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Question in using ChimeraX ----mesh parameters
by Wang, Shuhui 10 May '23

10 May '23

Hello developers, I have a question in using ChimeraX. May I ask how can I change the density of grids and line size of the mesh for a volume? Best, Shuhui

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Re: [chimerax-users] [Chimera-users] Utilizing Chimera in Web-Based Workflows
by Tom Goddard 10 May '23

10 May '23

Hi Rafi, You could have a Google Colab notebook install ChimeraX and then you could run ChimeraX command in nogui mode or python code through the ChimeraX REST facility, and possibly save images of the graphics to show in the notebook. But I don’t grasp the value of it since ChimeraX is all about interactive visualization where you can rotate and inspect structures. One issue you will face is that ChimeraX cannot be installed without agreeing to a license when dowloading - not sure how you might handle that in a notebook. But I suggest figuring out the valuable use case first. Tom > On Apr 21, 2023, at 5:28 AM, Zach Pearson via Chimera-users <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > > Hi Rafi, > > We are working hard to fully deprecate Chimera, and haven’t made its source code accessible for use or extension outside of the desktop application. I would caution against looking for it; the compilation process is complex and depends on resources that may not even be available anymore. Chimera was also written in Python 2.7, a language the computing community is working hard to put to rest — Colab doesn’t support it anymore! > > We do have plans to release a substantial part of ChimeraX on PyPi this year as a public beta, and I’ll make a note to send you an email when that release happens. Then you should be able to use it in Colab like any other PyPi package. Let me know if I can answer any other questions you may have. > > ------------------- > Zach Pearson > Programmer, ChimeraX Team > UCSF RBVI > zjp(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > > > >> On Apr 20, 2023, at 13:44, Rafi Brent via Chimera-users <chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: >> >> To whom it may concern, >> I'm wondering if there's any way to access Chimera without having the GUI downloaded on a local computer. Specifically, I'd like to run chimera as part of a public Google Colab (.ipynb) notebook, which would allow users to access the chimera functionality through either installing a PyPi package or calls to a web-accessible API. Do you know of any tool like this, or have any other ideas for how Chimera could be used in Colab notebook? Thanks so much for any advice you may have. >> >> Sincerely, >> Rafi Brent >> _______________________________________________ >> Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu >> Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users > > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-users mailing list: Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Manage subscription: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users

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request for an example command line
by James Raymond 09 May '23

09 May '23

I am having trouble understanding the manual. I wish to show the side chain for a particular amino acid in my protein. What is the command line to do this? thank you James Raymond

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Failing to complete dimer prediction
by Tal Jeffrey 09 May '23

09 May '23

Dear all, I am trying to use ChimeraX to predict the structure of a dimer as part of my Master’s thesis. I was able to produce a model of the monomeric structure without issue have not been able to do the same for the dimer. I am currently subscribed to Colab Pro so had assumed that the 15.0GB GPU RAM would be sufficient. The structure is 1361 amino acids long but AlphaFold2 is still able to produce the first two models successfully. However, I have not been able to produce any iterations past this stage. Any guidance on how to complete the model would be much appreciated! Alternatively, I would also be glad to extract the output of the first two models (e.g. .pdb files, plDDT plots, PAE plots, MSA heatmaps) but because the prediction does not run to completion I don’t know how to access/extract these. I have really enjoyed using the program and hope to include the structure of the dimer in my thesis before I submit in three weeks’ time. Many thanks, Tal

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Map Comparisons vs Model Comparisons: Which represents differences more accurately?
by Kevin Felt 09 May '23

09 May '23

Dear Chimerax Developers, There is a debate in my lab about the best way to compare two PDBs of the same protein bound to different ligands; the goal is to identify subtle differences in the binding pocket between the ligand-bound conditions. One method of comparison is to fit the two density maps together using the FitMap function, and then fit each PDB into their respective maps which have been aligned. Another way is to simply align the two PDBs (such as the align function in Pymol). Using these two methods results in slightly different alignments of the PDBs and thus give slightly different positional differences of the binding pocket and ligands. The resolution of these density maps range from 2.4 - 3.5 angstroms. Which way would be the more accurate way to look at the differences between two similar models? Thank you! Sincerely, -- Kevin C. Felt PhD Candidate - Chakrapani Lab Department of Physiology and Biophysics School of Medicine Case Western Reserve University

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pae plot
by John Maximos [Pharma] 09 May '23

09 May '23

Dear Chimerax Team, I have a problem that the pae plot color is not adjusted like the green one. How to solve this problem? I attached here a screenshot from my laptop. Best Regards, John Maximos [cid:image003.png@01D9827F.FEF05100] www.evapharma.com<https://www.evapharma.com/>

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making movie of helical Assembly
by mailman-bounces＠cgl.ucsf.edu 08 May '23

08 May '23

From: "Sen, Anindito" <andysen(a)tamu.edu <mailto:andysen@tamu.edu>> Subject: making movie of helical Assembly Date: May 7, 2023 at 11:53:16 PM PDT To: ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users-bounces(a)cgl.ucsf.edu <mailto:chimerax-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu>> Dear All, I am trying to make a movie where I can show the atomic model of the subunits appearing one after another following the helical pattern forming the filament. How can I do that? Stay safe & Regards Anindito Sen. Ph.D <>

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cannot open chimerax with structureviz (using ChimeraX 1.5 and cytoscape 3.9.1)
by ora.furman-schueler＠mail.huji.ac.il 08 May '23

08 May '23

Dear Support team We are teaching a network course and would like to show an example of analysis of proteins as networks. I have tried to follow the structureviz2 tutorial but I cannot get past the very first step of linking ChimeraX to cytoscape. I did define the Chimera location path /Applications/ChimeraX-1.5.app/Contents/MacOS What am I doing wrong? This is the error message that I get in cytocape. Launching Chimera  Launching Chimera ...  UCSF Chimera could not be launched. Make sure that the correct path to Chimera is set in structureViz -> Settings… thank you for your help! Ora Prof. Ora Schueler-Furman Dept. of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, IMRIC Jacob Epstein Chair in Bacteriology Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School POB 12272, Jerusalem 91120 Israel Tel: 972-2-675-7094 FAX: 972-2-675-7308 Furman lab site: www.cs.huji.ac.il/~fora

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Question on Contacts and Distances Tools
by Haleh Shahbazi 05 May '23

05 May '23

Hello, I am using ChimeraX under “version 1.6rc202304182023 (2023-04-18)” and contacting you regarding contacts and distances tools I am working on analyzing biological assembly PDB files including two chains. Simply, I want to identify / calculate distance between residues within each chain and across two chains separately – In the other word, display interchain and intrachain residue distance. To get that done, I’ve already explored “Distances” and “Contacts” tools under “Structure Analysis” but I have difficulty with identifying interchain residue distances and also understanding all those features / options provided. Thanks in advance for your support! Haleh HALEH SHAHBAZI PHD STUDENT @GARTON LAB • she/her • [Personal/Lab LinkedIn] <https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleh-shahbazi> IBME, University of Toronto haleh.shahbazi(a)mail.utoronto.ca<mailto:haleh.shahbazi@mail.utoronto.ca> www.gartonlab.org<http://www.gartonlab.org/> • bme.utoronto.ca<https://bme.utoronto.ca> • [LinkedIn] <https://www.linkedin.com/school/bme-uoft> [Twitter] <https://twitter.com/bme_uoft> [Instagram] <https://www.instagram.com/bme_uoft/> [signature_283494549]<https://bme.utoronto.ca/>

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Web site downtime
by Eric Pettersen 04 May '23

04 May '23

Hi all, Due to a scheduled power outage at UCSF followed by server upgrades, the ChimeraX website and web services will be unavailable from Tuesday May 16 through most of Wednesday May 17. Please pardon any inconvenience, --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab

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Re: [chimerax-users] Merging and covalently joining two pdb's together in chimeraX
by Elaine Meng 04 May '23

04 May '23

Hi Rayees, For the best chance at getting a good answer, we recommend sending ChimeraX questions to the chimerax-users list (CC'd here) unless you are including private data. If the two models are already positioned appropriately to form the bond, you could first combine them into a single model and then add a bond (e.g. "bond" command or Build Structure tool, Adjust Bonds section). <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/bond.html> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/buildstructure.html#bonds> However, if you didn't necessarily put the models in the right place to form the bond, you can use "build join" which will include all of the following: moving one model to the appropriate position to form the bond, combining the models into one, and forming the bond. You cannot use "build join" if the models are already combined or if you don't want the models to move relative to each other. There is also a graphical interface to "build join," which is the Build Structure tool, Join Models section. <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/build.html#join> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/buildstructure.html#join> You can open the Build Structure from the menu under Tools... Structure Editing. <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/buildstructure.html> I don't know much about refinement, but sounds like you should take a look at the ISOLDE plugin for ChimeraX. <https://cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu/apps/chimeraxisolde> <https://isolde.cimr.cam.ac.uk/> I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco > On May 4, 2023, at 11:24 AM, Rayees Mattoo <rmattoo(a)stanford.edu> wrote: > > Hi Elaine, > I am trying to merge two models (say #1 and #2) and join the two models with a covalent bond at amino acid residue number say 240 (#1)and 241 (#2). I first combined the two models (#1 and #2) using combine command. However, when I use build join command it does not seem to work. Is there a better way to covalently join two models in chimeraX? > > Also, is there a way to refine models in chimeraX like Real Space refine in Coot? > > Thanks > > Rayees

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Info on ChimeraX
by Fabrizio Fierro 04 May '23

04 May '23

Hi, I work for a startup called Protai and I am interested in ChimeraX. 1) Are all the functions available in Chimera implemented also in ChimeraX? 2) Specifically, with Chimera it was easy to load, visualize and work with cryoEM maps. Does ChimeraX work in the same way? 3) Would it be possible to get a free trial period for ChimeraX? Thanks, Fabrizio Fierro.

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Installing other python packages in chimeraX
by Shubham Devesh Ramgoolam 03 May '23

03 May '23

Dear ChimeraX team, I have some python scripts for performing computation using chimeraX in the nogui mode. Those scripts rely on packages not available in the python environment of chimeraX and I installed them using: ChimeraX-console.exe -m pip install add_package --user I intend to distribute my scripts to other users and they will also need to install these packages. As such, I have written another python script to automate the installation of these packages (the path to ChimeraX-console.exe (if Windows) or ChimeraX.exe (if Mac) must be supplied in a text file for this to work). The heart of the automation script is as follows: for item in list_packages: subprocess.call([path_chimeraX, '-m', 'pip', 'install', item, '--user']) Is this approach of installing python modules in chimeraX valid, considering that different users may have a different environment for their chimeraX? (I am worried that pip install might not work on some setups.) Regards, Shubham Ramgoolam Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows

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Question about viewing chain pdb in ChimeraX
by Thu Nguyen 02 May '23

02 May '23

Hello, I am using ChimeraX to save the .pdb file of chains in a protein. Here are my commands: +) open 7oci +) select #1/E + save /.../E.pdb model #1 selectedOnly true Then I opened that E.pdb model in ChimeraX and saw that chain E only contains helices. However, when I checked the .pdb file of chain E in a text editor, I saw that it contains sheets as well. The number of sheets are even larger (Number of helices: 52, sheets: 76). Do you know the reason why I don't see the sheets of chain E in ChimeraX? Am I missing something? I have attached the screenshots and the pdb of chain E. I took this chain from the pdb ID 7oci. Thank you very much. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Thu

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Virtual Crash Course - Understanding PDBx/mmCIF | Tomorrow, May 3rd | REGISTER NOW!
by Brian Hudson 02 May '23

02 May '23

Virtual Crash Course The RCSB Protein Data Bank will provide a course, "Use PDB data to their full extent: Understanding PDBx/mmCIF" on Wednesday, May 3rd 2023 from 1:00-3:00 EDT Understand the basics of PDBx/mmCIF data dictionary and file format that underpin archiving of more than 200,000 experimentally determined three-dimensional biostructures in the PDB. Learn about software tools for generating and working with PDBx/mmCIF files, and programmatic access for harvesting PDB data. The program: https://iqb.rutgers.edu/sites/iqb.rutgers.edu/files/crashcourses/mmCIF-cras… Free registration: https://go.rutgers.edu/u3vpwjet If you have questions, please contact Michelle Sanghera: msanghera(a)iqb.rutgers.edu

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Plugin development: how to install python packages
by BARRY E DEZONIA 01 May '23

01 May '23

Hello, I am developing a chimerax plugin. My code will have some interaction with mdtraj. I need mdtraj to be installed in the python that ships with chimerax. I tried "chimerax -m pip install mdtraj" but I get all kinds of error dialogs popping up in the chimerax instance that gets launched during the installation. I terminate all the error dialogs and then exit chimerax (as the python install seems frozen) and then it indeed says installation has failed and gives unusual error messages (like setuptools was less than version 48.0.0 while chimerax reports it to be 65.x.y and even 66.x.y after upgrading). Can someone tell me the correct syntax to use to install mdtraj in chimerax's python? Thank you.

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How to update the bonding status every frame when viewing a molecular dynamic trajectory?
by 洪冉 01 May '23

01 May '23

Dear users and developers of ChimeraX, Recently I want to produce some decent movies of a molecular dynamic trajectory, I loaded the pdb file and the trr file into ChimeraX. Everything goes well until some bond broken occurred, the display became very strange since the bond was stretched to an unreasonable length. I have been told a solution by using ~bond, bond #1 to fix the issues. However, it is impossible to do it at every frame when you have to record a movie and your trajectory was with thousands of frames. Thus, I ask for help, is there a solution to update the bonding status of every frame automatically? Yours, Ran

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How to install the "SEQCROW bundle" plug-in for xyz file in ChimeraX1.5?
by 洪冉 28 Apr '23

28 Apr '23

Dear ChimeraX Developers and Users, I want to view some quantum chemical results from ORCA calculation, and information popped up from ChimeraX telling me that I must install a plug-in called "SEQCROW bundle" for this purpose. However, due to some well-known reasons, I can not fetch this plug-in with the built-in method 'Tools-More Tools'. I think I have to do it in a manual way. Could anyone send me a related file to install this plug-in with a guide showing me how to do it in a manual way. Thanks in advance. Yours, Ran Apri 28 2023

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Python scripts while running MD
by Rafael Rocha 26 Apr '23

26 Apr '23

Dear chimera users! During a molecular dynamics simulation, I would like to run a python script that triggers a specific command once the simulation has reached a certain number of steps or a specific amount of time. I was able to programmatically start, pause, continue and stop a simulation using a primary Isolde object. However, it appears that the script is not waiting until the maximum number of MD steps is reached before moving on to the next command. I've tried using the sleep() python command, but unfortunately, this causes chimeraX to get stuck and unresponsive until the script is finished sleeping. Do you have any suggestions for how I can achieve this without causing chimeraX to freeze up? Thank you for your help! -- Rafael E. O. Rocha, Ph. D. Department of Biological Sciences Federal University of Minas Gerais.

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Manual Averaging Enquiry
by Lenka Milojevic 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Hello! I'd appreciate it if you could detail how manual averaging of multiple .mrc maps can be done in ChimeraX. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Lenka

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Enquires about predicting protein interaction with chimeraX/AlphaFold
by Yiling Lan 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

Dear ChimeraX Developers, Hope this email finds you well. I'm currently trying to predict the interaction of 2 proteins after watching the videos on youtube (Running AlphaFold to Predict Protein Complexes from ChimeraX). after installing the CimeraX (UCSF ChimeraX version: 1.6rc202304140213 (2023-04-14) version) but I did not see the check box for "Is prokaryotes? used for predicting complex). May I ask if in newer version the check box for complex prediction is at somewhere else? If it does not bother too much, could you please let me know if there is anyway I can run complex prediction on 1.6rc? Thank you so much. Best Wishes Yiling Lan

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Tunnel visualisation
by Kelly May Frain 20 Apr '23

20 Apr '23

Hello, I am using ChimeraX to visualise a tunnel found in my membrane protein using caver. I can put together the protein pdb and tunnel pdb perfectly. However, crucial to the figure is how the tunnel has a different radius throughout. In PyMol I can see this, but when I set the tunnel to sphere in chimeraX, it’s continuously the same diameter. I can change the colouring to b-factor and here it acknowledges the atom b factor range of 0.8 - 4-8 but I want to visualise the differences. Please can someone help me with a command? BW, Kelly

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Hopefully simple plugin development question
by BARRY E DEZONIA 19 Apr '23

19 Apr '23

Hello, I am looking at writing a plugin for chimerax that takes a pdb and runs some python code that will calc some stuff hand stuff to other programs. I know how to do this. What I want to know is how to find the current model's name / associated pdb filename from my plugin. Imagine my plugin really is just a "Run" button that looks up the current model, generates the associated pdb filename, and passes that name to my python script. Can someone tell me how in a chimerax plugin I can make the call that will give me the pdb filename I want? I've read much of the developer docs and could not find what I was looking for.

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Unable to select individual glycans in ChimeraX
by Coillie, Julie van 19 Apr '23

19 Apr '23

Dear ChimeraX, Is there any way to select one individual glycan on a crystal structure? The crystal structures I'm working with have multiple domains, each with glycans. I want to annotate the glycan per domain (every domain & glycan in a specific color). However, I can't edit individual glycan structures. The glycans are grouped under Non-standard residues, e.g. MAN, NAG, ... However, when selecting e.g. MAN, all the MAN structures light up, which are found on all 3 domains. An alternative would be using the sequence and annotating each individual sugar by using "select". However, these Non-standard residues are not in the sequence (they are when uploading this in Pymol), so I don't know a position to select them on. Is there a way to find the "sequence" for non-standard residues or any other way to annotate an individual glycan. Thank you in advance, Julie Van Coillie ________________________________ Disclaimer: http://www.sanquin.nl/e-maildisclaimer ________________________________

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Command use
by Wojciech Witek 19 Apr '23

19 Apr '23

Dear ChimeraX Team, I am trying to change this mesh properites because it covers the ligand too much (attachment). I wanted to make the lines thinner or transparent or divided in different ways. I could not find anything in the GUI so I searched for commands but apparently I use them wrong. Could you please guide me on how to use commands, let's say like this one : surfaceSmoothing true | false? If I type "true", I see an error in the log file. Where can I find what arguments should be use with a specific function?I had the same struggle with depth cueing, ribbon style edition and many other functions. ChimeraX is a great software but using GUI is so much easier to get familiar with, learn and utilize changes, comparing to command line. See attached file containing ligand, mesh and a log full of errors from pasted commands. Please, keep it confident because it is unpublished yet. Regards, Wojciech Witek -- Logo *Wojciech Witek* *| PhD Student Department of Structural Biology of Eukaryotes* Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences Noskowskiego 12/14 | 61-704, Poznań *email:*wwitek@ibch.poznan.pl *tel.:*61 852 85 03 *int.:*1347 **** ** facebook <https://www.facebook.com/ICHBPAN> twitter <https://twitter.com/ICHBPAN> instagram <instagram.com/ichbpan> WWW <https://portal.ichb.pl/>

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deleting alternate locations
by Elaine Meng 18 Apr '23

18 Apr '23

> On Apr 18, 2023, at 3:07 AM, Yu GUO 郭宇 <guoyu60(a)westlake.edu.cn> wrote: > > Dear, > > I am using Chimera/ChimeraX. I have 2 questions: > > I cannot open ChimeraX (win10 version) recently. Is there any problem in the server? > > I have a PDB file with two structural populations. In Chimera, how to delete the part with fewer population (say 40%)? I rememer it can be realized in the command line, but I forgot. > > Best wishes > Dear Sir, In the future, please use the following addresses (CC'd here) for general questions about the programs: chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu for ChimeraX questions chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu for Chimera questions (where you sent this question is for commercial licensing questions -- thanks) (1) after you download the program, it does not depend on our servers to start. The issue is something with your own setup. The most likely problem is that you need to update your graphics driver but we would need more information from you to say anything else. (2) if you mean atomic occupancy, - in Chimera you can use Dock Prep (menu: Tools... Structure Editing... Dock Prep) and turn on the option "If alternate locations, keep only highest occupancy". You can turn off all the other options if you want. <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/dockprep/dockpre…> - in ChimeraX, it is not currently in the Dock Prep GUI, but you can use the "altlocs clean" command which would delete all the altlocs that are not currently used. By default, the highest-occupancy ones are the ones that are used, so this would delete the lower-occupancy ones (e.g. your 40%). You can change which altlocs are used with "altlocs change" and show a list of them with "altlocs list" <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/altlocs.html#clean> If you need a PDB file then you can save PDB in a separate step, e.g. using File menu or a command. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Permission denied to "Spin Movie"
by Pam Cook 17 Apr '23

17 Apr '23

Hi, I just installed ChimeraX on macOS Catalina 10.15.7. During installation, it asked me to allow access to desktop files and I said NO. But now, when I try to create a SpinMovie file, I get the message: Permission denied reading directory "/Users/pam/Desktop" while trying to determine next unused file name movie#.mp4. I guess I should have said YES to the question above. How can I fix this? Thanks, Pam

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Question about using ChimeraX
by 韩磊 17 Apr '23

17 Apr '23

Dear Sir， I hope this mail finds you well. I am a professional researcher from Tianjin Medical University, China. I have encountered some difficulties in learning to use ChimeraX software. First, I would like to know if the software can be used to construct a graph of the process of channeling proteins from closed to open state (e.g., Appendix ). Second, we can currently only download and import a model of the closed state of a protein into the software, but it does not reflect its conformational changes, so I would like to know which option within the software can change the conformation of the protein. Sincerely yours, Lei Han, Ph.D. Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin 300052, China

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Could you please inform the best advice to solve a structure via colabfold when GPU is an issue? I tried some routes already.
by Josh Gutierrez 15 Apr '23

15 Apr '23

Hello, I recently submitted a job through ChimeriaX and used the "prediction" task for it to be solved via Alphafold2-- the sequence is about 1300 amino acids in length. However, the protein could not be solved by alphafold2 and the colabfold reports the GPU consumption is too high for the structure to be solved. To resolve the problem, I tried breaking the sequence into two to solve this expected bimodal protein individually (into two separate structural parts) and even in combination purchased "compute units" for more memory and storage to do this, but the structure can't be solved without high predicted error. Please let me know what you think may resolve this issue. Currently, I am working with an external professor who may be able to connect me with a collaborator on this issue at UCSF if there is a cluster or core we can use to expedite the process to solve this structure I am addressing. Please let me know your thoughts at your earliest convenience. Please also let me know if you need any more information! Many thanks, Josh Gutierrez

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Measure inertia and measure center on aligned density maps and models
by Kevin Felt 13 Apr '23

13 Apr '23

Dear developers, I am trying to compare the center of mass of multiple cryo-EM maps and models. The receptor is the same in all cases, just the ligand bound in the binding pocket varies. I want to show a directionality to how the ligands are binding in the pocket between the structures, so I have aligned the maps and models together and am attempting to run "measure center" and "measure inertia" to initiate this comparison. However, when I run these commands, the output markers and ellipsoids are not positioned in an aligned fashion as their parent objects, but rather in there initial positions before alignment, which is not useful for comparisons of the subtle movements between structures. Additionally, if I could get the measurements to work on the aligned structures, is there a tool in ChimeraX that would allow me to draw vectors from a reference point to the center of masses? Furthermore, is center of mass the correct parameter for comparison of densities that are variable in shape? (e.g. comparing the relative position of a long and flat density to a short a globular density?) Thank you! Sincerely, -- Kevin C. Felt PhD Candidate - Chakrapani Lab Department of Physiology and Biophysics School of Medicine Case Western Reserve University

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