- ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Save/restore scene?
by Oliver Clarke 20 May '20

20 May '20

Hi ChimeraX-ers, Is there currently an equivalent of the "scene" command from Chimera? It was super helpful to be able to quickly switch between different (and often complex) representations of a molecule. I know the view command for saving and restoring orientations, and the "name" command for saving selections, but I can't find an equivalent of scene. I'm guessing it's not yet implemented, but count me as one vote for porting it over after 1.0 is out the door, it was super helpful in Chimera! Cheers Oli

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Feature suggestion - show color code in picker?
by Oliver Clarke 19 May '20

19 May '20

Hi, I love the color editor in ChimeraX, it is much nicer than the one in Chimera and is super useful! One minor suggestion - would it be possible to add a dynamically updated label showing in the editor the current color code? This sometimes shows up in the log but not always, and it is useful to have easily copy-able for use in scripts and aliases. Cheers Oli

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Cartoon smooth loops chimX
by Dominik Hrebík 19 May '20

19 May '20

Hi all! Is there any possibility to smooth loops in cartoon representation in ChimeraX? I can't find it in the user guide. Something similar to pymol's cartoon_smooth_loops,1: https://pymolwiki.org/index.php/Cartoon_smooth_loops Best, Dominik -- ################################## Dominik Hrebik Laboratory of Structural Virology CEITEC, Masaryk University Kamenice 5 / A35 Brno, 625 00, Czech Republic Phone: +420 549 49 7764 <%2B420%20549%2049%207756> ##################################

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Turntable rotation
by Scott, Brandon L. 16 May '20

16 May '20

I would like to create an animation where the camera is spun around at a constant azimuthal angle so the object appears to spin on a tabletop. Currently, when I use roll, when it spins to the backside I see underneath the model rather than remaining on top. Any help is greatly appreciated. -Brandon ____________________ Brandon Scott, PhD CZI Imaging Scientist, Research Assistant Professor SDSMT, Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

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Re: [chimerax-users] transition from Chimera
by Tom Goddard 15 May '20

15 May '20

Hi Jerome, Putting that "open instructions,html" in your startup preferences is a nice way to show an HTML interface that could have links that execute commands in ChimeraX. I had not thought of that use. Tom > On May 15, 2020, at 1:37 AM, MUTTERER Jerome (IBMP) <jerome.mutterer(a)ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr> wrote: > > Hi Tom, > Thank you very much for your answers. > I didn't try the drag and drop emulation approach, but I confirm the "remotecontrol rest" option at startup works nicely. > I added the following 2 lines to the Favorites>Settings...>Startup tab > > remote rest start port xxxxx > open instructions.html > > and it makes it easy to operate. > Thanks a lot! > > Jerome > > > De: "Tom Goddard" <goddard(a)sonic.net> > À: "MUTTERER Jerome, IBMP" <jerome.mutterer(a)ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr> > Cc: chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > Envoyé: Mardi 12 Mai 2020 20:14:39 > Objet: Re: [chimerax-users] transition from Chimera > > Hi Jerome, > > We don't have the chimerax --send option to open files in an already running ChimeraX, although we plan on adding it. > > I have two ideas for how to do this in current ChimeraX. One is to use the remotecontrol command to tell ChimeraX to accept commands via http. In ChimeraX I enable this with command > > remote rest start port 58123 > > Then http requests can run commands in ChimeraX. The http url can be entered in a web browser or from a script. From a script you could use curl or wget programs, for example, > > curl http://localhost:58123/run?command=open+/Users/goddard/Downloads/ChimeraX/P… <http://localhost:58123/run?command=open+/Users/goddard/Downloads/ChimeraX/P…>.cif > > You could make ChimeraX alway enable http requests by putting the "remote..." command in ChimeraX Settings/Preferences under the Startup tab "Execute these commands at startup". > > The other idea I have is simpler but did not work in my test. ChimeraX accepts files dragged and dropped on the application. On macOS (and probably Linux and Windows) I should be able to run a shell command that says drop this file on ChimeraX. On Mac the shell command looks like > > % open -a /Applications/ChimeraX.app ~/Downloads/ChimeraX/PDB/1a0m.cif > > That worked for starting ChimeraX and showing the first file. But when I run it again to open a different it merely raised ChimeraX and did not open the new file. That is a bug. I've made a bug report for it. I don't know the equivalent commands on Linux and Windows and whether the would work. > > Tom > > > On May 12, 2020, at 1:50 AM, Jerome Mutterer <jerome.mutterer(a)ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr <mailto:jerome.mutterer@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr>> wrote: > > Dear all, > I'm trying to transition from Chimera to ChimeraX, but my workflow relies on passing scripts to an open, with GUI, instance of Chimera using --send > https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/options.html#send <https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/options.html#send> > > I see that this is not described here: > https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/apps/ChimeraX/ChimeraX.html <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/apps/ChimeraX/ChimeraX.html> > > Is that still available somehow in ChimeraX? > Thanks for any input. > Sincerely, > Jerome. > > -- > Jerome Mutterer > CNRS - Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes > 12, rue du Général Zimmer > 67084 Strasbourg Cedex > www.ibmp.cnrs.fr <http://www.ibmp.cnrs.fr/> > > _______________________________________________ > ChimeraX-users mailing list > ChimeraX-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu <mailto:ChimeraX-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> > Manage subscription: > https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users

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Stuck on one XML-RPC command
by Mungo Carstairs (Staff) 14 May '20

14 May '20

Any XML-RPC fans who can help me with this please? This label command works in the PyMOL command line: label 4zho//A/36/CA 4zho//B/36/CA, "hello world" How do I format an equivalent XML-RPC request? I've tried <methodCall> <methodName>label</methodName> <params> <parameter> <value>4zho//A/36/CA 4zho//B/36/CA</value> </parameter> <parameter> <value>"hello world"</value> </parameter> </params> </methodCall> but get back a fault response XML message with <class 'SyntaxError'>:invalid syntax (<string>, line 1) I have also tried encoding the " as %22, or omitting the quotes, same result. Any ideas please? Thanks, Mungo [University of Dundee shield logo]<http://uod.ac.uk/sig-home> Mungo Carstairs Jalview Computational Scientist The Barton Group Division of Computational Biology School of Life Sciences University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK www.jalview.org<http://www.jalview.org> www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk<http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk> g.m.carstairs(a)dundee.ac.uk<mailto:g.m.carstairs@dundee.ac.uk> [University of Dundee Facebook]<http://uod.ac.uk/sig-fb> [University of Dundee Twitter] <http://uod.ac.uk/sig-tw> [University of Dundee LinkedIn] <http://uod.ac.uk/sig-li> [University of Dundee YouTube] <http://uod.ac.uk/sig-yt> [University of Dundee Instagram] <http://uod.ac.uk/sig-ig> [University of Dundee Snapchat] <http://uod.ac.uk/sig-sc> We're Scottish University of the Year again!<http://uod.ac.uk/sig-strapline> The Times / Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016 and 2017 The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096

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Stereo and VR support
by Gökhan Tolun 13 May '20

13 May '20

Hi, Would it be possible to make the graphics window undockable, too, Like the other ones? This would allow the use of stereo monitors with SBS and tb support, which does not work currently with menus, etc. surrounding the graphics window. Also, will you implement DTI stereo as in Chimera? By the way, if theres a way of making ISOLDE work in VR, thatd be great! Thanks, Gökhan

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pyqtchart
by Anthony James Schaefer 13 May '20

13 May '20

Hello, I'm interesting in using pyqtchart (https://pypi.org/project/PyQtChart/) as an alternative to matplotlib for some plots in my bundle (I like the default style better, it resizes better - small things like that). If I list pyqtchart as a dependency in my bundle_info.xml like ... <Dependencies> <Dependency name="pyqtchart"/> </Dependencies> ... a new version of PyQt5 gets installed in the directory where bundles get installed. The QChart module from pyqtchart gets installed in this new PyQt5 package. I can't use the QChart module because it's not in the PyQt5 that ChimeraX uses. Is there anything I can do with my bundle to get it to install a usable pyqtchart? Thanks, Tony

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wrong version in download
by Christine Gee 13 May '20

13 May '20

Dear ChimeraX I downloaded what was supposed to be chimeraX 0.5 from your site, and 0.1 instead. I have an older mac with an older OS (10.11.6) and would like the last version that was developed for it. Can you please let me know where I can download 0.5? Also does it work with isolde? Regards Christine Dr Christine Gee Research Specialist Kuriyan Lab HHMI/Molecular and Cell Biology/QB3 527 Stanley Hall MC 3220 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-3220 Lab Phone: 510 643 0164 Cell: 510 230 7891 Email: christinelgee(a)berkeley.edu <mailto:christinelgee@berkeley.edu>

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Manual segmentation in ChimeraX
by Pattana Jaroenlak (Michael) 13 May '20

13 May '20

Hello, I saw the twitter post from ChimeraX on segmentation of EM serial images ( https://twitter.com/ucsfchimerax/status/1260425173238415360?s=12) It was very beautiful. I have serial section EM images. I am wondering that can I do manual segmentation on ChimeraX? Some cellular features on my images can not be picked up by thresholding or watersheding. Thank you PJ -- *Pattana (Michael) Jaroenlak, PhD* Bhabha & Ekiert Labs Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine New York University School of Medicine *Email: pattana.jaroenlak(a)nyulangone.org <pattana.jaroenlak(a)nyumc.org>, p.jaroenlak(a)gmail.com <p.jaroenlak(a)gmail.com>*

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Renaming chain IDs
by Fahrenkamp, Dirk 12 May '20

12 May '20

Hi ChimeraX team. I am happily using chimeraX along with ISOLDE for modelling. Lately, I am running into issues with complexes having too many chains to be handled by the standard .pdb format which is why I am using .cif now. Is there a smooth way/command to rename chain IDs and change _entity.pdbx_description _struct_asym.entity_id accordingly? Thanks! Kind regards, Dirk -- Dr. rer. nat. Dirk Fahrenkamp UKE Hamburg Zentrum für experimentelle Medizin Institut für Struktur- und Systembiologie/ CSSB Centre for Structural Systems Biology c/o Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY Notkestraße 85, Building 15 3.OG D-22607 Hamburg Telefon:+49 (0) 40 8998-87657 Dirk.Fahrenkamp(a)cssb-Hamburg.de www.cssb-hamburg.de

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transition from Chimera
by Jerome Mutterer 12 May '20

12 May '20

Dear all, I'm trying to transition from Chimera to ChimeraX, but my workflow relies on passing scripts to an open, with GUI, instance of Chimera using --send https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/options.html#send I see that this is not described here: https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/apps/ChimeraX/ChimeraX.html Is that still available somehow in ChimeraX? Thanks for any input. Sincerely, Jerome. -- Jerome Mutterer CNRS - Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes 12, rue du Général Zimmer 67084 Strasbourg Cedex www.ibmp.cnrs.fr

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Map "Blobs" tool - Generate objects?
by Christophe Leterrier 11 May '20

11 May '20

Hi, I started using ChimeraX for visualization and quantification of 3D microscopy images. The "blob" tool is particularly impressive to semi-automatically segment objects of interest and measure their characteristics. However, I could not find a way to generate an independent object from the picked blobs. This makes the quantification process unreproducible as it is not possible to store the blobs in the session or automatically measure all the picked blobs. Am I wrong in the intent of the tool, or is there a way to do this? Thank you, -- Christophe Leterrier NeuroCyto lab INP CNRS UMR 7051 Aix Marseille University, France

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ChimeraX on Twitter
by Tom Goddard 08 May '20

08 May '20

For ChimeraX news, tips, tricks and special features meet us on Twitter @UCSFChimeraX. https://twitter.com/UCSFChimeraX <https://twitter.com/UCSFChimeraX> Tom, Eric, Elaine, Greg, Conrad, Scooter, Tom -- the UCSF ChimeraX team.

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How to display crystal packing?
by Guillaume Gaullier 08 May '20

08 May '20

Hello, Today I was trying to display a crystal packing from a PDB entry in ChimeraX, but could not find how to do this. I read the documentation for the sym command https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/sym.html ; but either I didn’t get it, or this is not the adequate command for what I am trying to do. What I want to do is the equivalent of PyMOL’s "Action / generate / symmetry mates / +/- one unit cell and within… Å", which is different from the biological assembly the sym command can generate from the PDB annotation. When working with crystallographic data, ISOLDE displays molecules related to the working model by crystallographic symmetry, so displaying the crystal packing seems doable in ChimeraX. Or is it one of ISOLDE’s additions? It would be wonderful if someone could help me with this (it is one of the last few things I need on a regular basis, that I still don’t know how to do in ChimeraX). Thank you in advance, Guillaume

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preview ChimeraX 1.0!
by Elaine Meng 07 May '20

07 May '20

The ChimeraX 1.0 (!!) release candidate is now available: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/download.html> Please, please try it out and report any issues that you find, as we plan to make the production release by the end of the month. To report issues, use the ChimeraX menu: Help... Report a Bug <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/contact.html> For what's new, see the Change Log: <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/trac/ChimeraX/wiki/ChangeLog> Thanks! Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco

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Problems with making movie in chimerax
by Nandish Kumar Khanra 07 May '20

07 May '20

Hello all, I want to make a movie of a multi-domain protein between two functional states using Chimerax. One domain undergoes drastic conformational change while there is virtually no structural change in another domain. I did the following steps to make the movie. * Aligned two models using matchmaker, mm #1 to #2 pair ss ss false * make morph morph #1,2 frames 100 play false cartesian true * make movie movie record size 1000,1000 coordset #3 wait 100 movie encode output ~/Desktop/movie1.mp4 quality higher framerate 25 roundTrip true The stationary domain of two functional states aligned perfectly after structural alignment, but I do see motions in that domain in the movie. Am I doing anything wrong? Is there a way to overcome this? Thanks, Nandish

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Script to color zone a map according to the underlying model
by Caroline Stone 07 May '20

07 May '20

Dear All, As an exercise in scripting, I am trying to write a script to imitate the appearance a published figure (from Toropova et al 2017). I would like to display a semi-transparent map which has been color zoned to match the underlying model in surface view. ChimeraX does everything in the script apart from the last two commands, in which I color zone the map, and then make it transparent. I don't get any errors in the log to give me a clue what to change. If I omit these last two commands from the script and then make them manually from the command line after the script is finished, it works. Is there something I can change that would allow me to include the final two commands in the script? Any pointers would be much appreciated. # ChimeraX script to imitate dynein 2 tail Toropova et al 2017 figure style # Adds custom colours to the ChimeraX session # Open model and set camera view and model rotation open 6RLB windowsize 775 775 view matrix camera -0.30533,0.56038,0.76991,623.53,0.82837,-0.24247,0.50499,467.83,0.46967,0.79195,-0.39016,-7.3434 models #1,1,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,0 # Work with model representation surface #1 set bgColor white lighting soft graphics silhouettes true # Define custom colours color name midblue #6b80b5 color name midgreen #a0c497 color name midyellow #f9ef87 color name midtomato #f97054 color name midmagenta #a4449b # Recolour model using custom colours defined above select #1/A; color sel midblue select #1/B; color sel skyblue select #1/C; color sel midtomato select #1/D; color sel midmagenta select #1/E/F; color sel midgreen select #1/G/H; color sel lightpink select #1/I-N; color sel midyellow select clear # Open map and modify color and transparency open emdb:4918 volume #2 step 1 volume #2 level 0.0172 surface dust #2 size 10 color zone #2 near #1 distance 15 volume #2 transparency 0.75 Best wishes, Caroline

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Silhouettes cause fill
by Daniel Asarnow 06 May '20

06 May '20

Hi, Is there any way to avoid this effect where silhouettes lead to an apparent flood fill? The helix in the upper left of this clip shows what I mean: [image: image.png] I was able to work around it a bit by making the silhouettes thinner than I'd like, and aggressively supersampling. It seems severe with any silhouette width greater than 1. Thanks and best, -da

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Re: [chimerax-users] Chimera X -showing electrostatic potential
by Elaine Meng 06 May '20

06 May '20

Dear Yi Shi, The structure is nice work, and worth showing off! We are fine so far... I hope you are well too. To color a surface by electrostatic potential in ChimeraX, currently you need to use a separate program to generate the electrostatic potential map, for example the APBS web server or the DelPhi web server mentioned/linked to the Chimera tutorial here: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/tutorials/surfprop.html#es…> After you generate the map (e.g. a .dx file, .phi file, or .cube file) <http://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/open.html#volume> ... then you can open it in ChimeraX and use it for coloring the protein molecular surface with the ChimeraX "color electrostatic" command: <http://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/color.html#map> If you open a .cube file it will automatically show as isosurfaces. However, you can hide the isosurfaces such as by clicking the "eye" icon in the Volume Viewer panel, and then carry on with using the coloring command as mentioned above. Of course, you need to open the protein structure and then display the protein's molecular surface first, e.g. with the "surface" command, Actions menu, or Molecule Display icon. <http://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/surface.html> 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 5, 2020, at 7:14 PM, Yi Shi <yi.shi(a)pitt.edu> wrote: > > Dear Elaine, > > Hope this finds you, your family and colleagues safe and well. > > We have a question about Chimera X software that you and your colleagues developed. Do you know how to show the electrostatic potential using Chimera X? Do we need some external software to do this? > > BTW, the software that you developed was amazing that we really enjoy it. And thanks a million for using our Nup84 hybrid structure for the cover of your paper in Protein Science. Absolutely beautiful work! > > Thanks in advance. > Yi > > Yi Shi Ph.D. > Assistant Professor > Department of Cell Biology > Program for Integrative Systems Biology > Pitt/ CMU Program in Computational Biology > University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine > BST3 9049 > 3500 5th Avenue > Pittsburgh PA 15213 > 412-383-3242 (office) > 412-383-3243 (lab) > www.shi-lab.org

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Scroll threshold step size
by Daniel Asarnow 04 May '20

04 May '20

Hi, Is it possible to adjust the step size when using alt + scrollwheel to change the contour level? I'd like to make it coarser for RSI reasons. Thanks, -da

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ubuntu 20.04
by Hua tiger 03 May '20

03 May '20

Please create a download and install package for ubuntu 20.04 Thank you very much. John

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Chimera-Animation equivalent utility/command
by Ray Y.-R. Wang 01 May '20

01 May '20

Dear all, I have been searching for the equivalent function in ChimeraX for the Animation functionality (under Tools/Utilities) in Chimera, where we can save many checkpoints as "scenes" in one Chimera session. I am wondering whether there's a command-line equivalent thing in ChimeraX I can adapt. Thanks so much! Best, Ray

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Missing segments
by Daniel Asarnow 01 May '20

01 May '20

Hi all, When I save a CIF from ChimeraX, the missing segment pseudobonds are replaced by real (super unphysical) bonds. Can I do something about it, or is this a bug? Thanks and best, -da

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morph movie with secondary structure and dssp
by Joel Meyerson 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

Hi, I am making a morph between two PDB models representing two states of the same protein, and the overall secondary structure does not change much between the models. However, there is a region where the secondary structure does change. I would like to capture the secondary structure change in the morph and have a couple questions. 1. It seems the morph uses the secondary structure from PDB #1. Is there a way to use the two different secondary structure headers from the two PDBs to define the secondary structure endpoints on the morph? 2. If the above is not possible, is there a way to restrict DSSP to update only the region of interest (i.e. a residue range), and not change secondary structure throughout the molecule? Thanks, Joel

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addh and phenix
by Daniel Asarnow 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

Hi, Seems like with NAG glycans the addh result is incompatible with phenix real space refinement. It's easy enough to fix by deleting HD2 - the offending hydrogen - manually. I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about this, before I report a phenix bug. Error looks like: Number of atoms with unknown nonbonded energy type symbols: 5 "ATOM 2629 HD2 ASN A 362 .*. H " (4 more similar lines). Best, -da

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How to hide dashed lines?
by Steve Chou 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

Dear ChimeraX developers and users, I see a dashed line between an ion and a side chain when I display the side chain. Is there a way to hide the dashed line, either in command line or GUI? How to select all the atoms in residues (e.g., /A:10-100) except n, c, and o atoms? Many thanks, Steve -- Steve Chou

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displaying ribbon and tube simultaneously
by Joel Meyerson 23 Apr '20

23 Apr '20

Hi, I would like to display a model as a ribbon, but then specify a single helix to show as a tube. So far I’ve only been able to show the model either entirely as a ribbon, or entirely as tubes. Is there syntax I can use to blend the two helix styles? Thanks, Joel

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Molecular Docking problem
by Estela Fernandes e Silva 23 Apr '20

23 Apr '20

Dears, Good night! I'm starting to use SwissDock to investigate new drugs. I'm having trouble viewing “the best result” through Chimera for Web (the browser cannot be configured) In the option “Download your predictions file” I can open all the ligands through ChimeraX (my computer's desktop) at the same time. But I would like to see only one ligand at a time. Would it be possible? Best regards Estela

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deleting sidechain in ChimeraX
by Joel Meyerson 22 Apr '20

22 Apr '20

Hi, What is the command or sequence of commands which can be used to delete the sidechain on an amino acid or range of amino acids? I reviewed the ChimeraX atom spec page but could not find a way to do this. Thanks, Joel

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Problem with showing 4 Fe-4S in pdb with chimerax
by Meinan Lyu 22 Apr '20

22 Apr '20

Dear chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu, There is a 4 Fe-S in my structure, it shows a little bit funny when I open it with chimerax. It should only have links between Fe and S, but between 2Fe shows a link line two. Do you know how to show it normally like in pymol, or remove the links between 2Fe? I really want to draw some figures in chimerax. The attached are 4 Fe-S shown in chimrax,also shown in pymol. PDB id 2WDQ is also attached, which 4 Fe-S is in /B,F,J:303. Thanks very much. Be safe and Best, Meinan Postdoc from CWRU

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shape tool in ChimeraX
by Joel Meyerson 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

Hi, Chimera has a “shape” command that I find quite useful. Does ChimeraX have this feature? I could not find it in the online documentation. Thanks, Joel

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Re: [chimerax-users] [EXT] Re: passing arguments to python scripts with command runscript
by Philipp Milkereit 15 Apr '20

15 Apr '20

Hi Eric, thanks for your fast help, works now as expected! Philipp Von: Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 15. April 2020 22:19 An: Philipp Milkereit <philipp.milkereit(a)vkl.uni-regensburg.de> Cc: ChimeraX Users Help <chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> Betreff: [EXT] Re: [chimerax-users] passing arguments to python scripts with command runscript Hi Philipp, In ChimeraX, the arguments will be in sys.argv — namely sys.argv[1:] since sys.argv[0] will be the name of your script file. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab On Apr 15, 2020, at 12:47 PM, Philipp Milkereit <philipp.milkereit(a)vkl.uni-regensburg.de <mailto:philipp.milkereit@vkl.uni-regensburg.de> > wrote: Dear all, in Chimera 1 it was possible to pass arguments with runscript to python scripts which could be read out there by arguments[index]. In ChimeraX I am not anymore able to read passed values using arguments[index] in python scripts called by runscript. Was that feature dismissed or was there a change in the naming? Thanks for your help, Philipp _______________________________________________ ChimeraX-users mailing list <mailto:ChimeraX-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> ChimeraX-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu Manage subscription: <http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users> http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users

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passing arguments to python scripts with command runscript
by Philipp Milkereit 15 Apr '20

15 Apr '20

Dear all, in Chimera 1 it was possible to pass arguments with runscript to python scripts which could be read out there by arguments[index]. In ChimeraX I am not anymore able to read passed values using arguments[index] in python scripts called by runscript. Was that feature dismissed or was there a change in the naming? Thanks for your help, Philipp

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syntax on marker and marker link placement
by Joel Meyerson 12 Apr '20

12 Apr '20

Hi, I have a question about marker and marker link syntax. Suppose model #1 has chains A and B, and that chains A and B form a homodimer where each subunit has the same residue numbering. I would like to place a marker at the midpoint between alpha-carbons of position 10 on A and 10 on B. In turn, I'd like another marker at the midpoint between position 20 on each of the two subunits. I would then like to draw a linker between the two markers. I would expect the following syntax to work, but I get an error. marker #2 #1/a,b:10@CA color yellow radius 1 marker #2 #1/a,b:20@CA color yellow radius 1 marker link #2:1,2 color yellow radius 0.5 Gives the error: Missing or invalid "position" argument: Expected 3 floats or object specifier Any suggestions on how to fix the syntax, or is there an alternative approach? Thanks, Joel

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Move Z plane backside
by Aritz Roa Eguiara 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Dear ChimeraX team, I would like to ask if there is any command to move the Z plane but not the front, but the back one, while recording a movie. I am familiar with clipping, however when recording a movie it directly appears, is there any way to do the same move z but for the far plane? Thank you in advance and happy Easter, Aritz

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How to do repetitive task using Python or command line in ChimeraX?
by 이서원 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Hello, I think I'm good at dealing with the previous Chimera command line, and I'm learning Python coding and ChimeraX little by little. In Chimera, I was able to apply the Chimera command to a Python script using runCommand. So, I wrote some python scripts for Chimera, such as automatically coloring or cropping maps and/or models based on the target specification list in plain text. However, I think there's no python modules like runCommand, and I don't know how to repetitively input specifications by .cxc files. (Do I have to make as many .cxc files as many as the number of the variables?) Also I tried to understand the ChimeraX developer tutorial, but I failed to import color functions on chimeraX Python Shell. (I didn't understand how to import experimental API) Is there any fancy way to create a .cxc file that executes by sequentially inputting variables in the list? Or, How to import python modules such as color functions? (https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/core/commands/user_commands.ht…) Best regards, Seowon ______________________________________________________________________________________ 이 서 원 | Selcia Seowon Lee selcia20(a)snu.ac.kr Laboratory of Molecular Imaging , Ph.D. Candidate Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu Gwanak-ro 1, Bldg105 Rm109, Seoul 08826, Korea

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How to do repetitive task using Python or command line in ChimeraX?
by 이서원 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Hello, I think I'm good at dealing with the previous Chimera command line, and I'm learning Python coding and ChimeraX little by little. In Chimera, I was able to apply the Chimera command to a Python script using runCommand. So, I wrote some python scripts for Chimera, such as automatically coloring or cropping maps and/or models based on the target specification list in plain text. However, I think there's no python modules like runCommand, and I don't know how to repetitively input specifications by .cxc files. (Do I have to make as many .cxc files as there are variables?) Also I tried to understand the ChimeraX developer tutorial, but I failed to import color functions on chimeraX Python Shell. (Experimental API Is there any fancy way to create a .cxc file that executes by sequentially inputting variables in the list? Or, How to import python modules such as color functions? (https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/core/commands/user_commands.ht…) Best regards, Seowon ______________________________________________________________________________________ 이 서 원 | Selcia Seowon Lee selcia20(a)snu.ac.kr Laboratory of Molecular Imaging , Ph.D. Candidate Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu Gwanak-ro 1, Bldg105 Rm109, Seoul 08826, Korea

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silhouette scaling and image dimension
by Joel Meyerson 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Hi, I noticed that when I save images in ChimeraX with silhouettes on, the apparent width of the silhouette in the output image seems to scale inversely with the image dimensions. For example, these three commands give slightly different silhouette thicknesses. Images attached. save ~/Desktop/image1.png width 500 height 500 save ~/Desktop/image2.png width 1000 height 1000 save ~/Desktop/image3.png width 2000 height 2000 Is there a way to have a fixed silhouette thickness in output images? I'd also be interested to know why this happens. Thanks, Joel

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Making New Bonds between Protein & Ligand
by Gupta, Arun 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Hi I followed similar " marker link " trick proposed by Tom for making new bonds between a selection of Serine residue of protein molecule with hydroxy group functionality of ligand molecule typing the below mentioned command in ChimeraX command line . marker link #1:54@OG #2:PNS@HOP1@SG radius 0.2 However, I am repeatedly getting following error. " TypeError: Cannot bond atoms in different molecules " Can you plz suggest the correct command or alternative way for making new bond between Protein & ligand molecules. Thanks Arun

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Making new bonds
by Mutum YAikhombA 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

Hi I was trying to make new disulphide bonds between a pair of cysteine residues (say residue numbers 142 and 157) using ChimeraX. The standard Chimera command - 'bond' doesn’t work in ChimeraX. I have gone through the structure editing tool and couldn’t find an equivalent tool. I found some command-line tools in this page (new-bond), but this seems to be not so straightforward to use - https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/bundles/atomic/src/atomic.htm… <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/bundles/atomic/src/atomic.htm…>. Could you please help? Thanks Yaikhomba

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cartoon highlight color?
by Joel Meyerson 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

Hi, Is there a way to customize the highlight color of helices and strands? For example, here is how it appears in Pymol. https://pymolwiki.org/index.php/Cartoon_highlight_color Thanks, Joel

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cxc script does not execute 'surface dust' command
by Joel Meyerson 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

Hi, I am observing inconsistent behavior in the ‘surface dust’ command. When I launch ChimeraX and execute the following commands one-by-one at the command line everything works as expected. However, if I place the commands in a cxc script, then double click the script ChimeraX launches and the script executes, but the ‘surface dust’ command does not hide the dust. In addition, within that same session I can then enter the ‘surface dust’ command manually and it works as expected. I’m running ChimeraX Daily 0.93 (2020-04-04) on Mac OS 10.15.1. Do you know why the command is not working inside a script? close all open map.mrc turn x 90 volume erase #1 center 175,160,314 radius 100 outside true surface dust #2 size 40 Thanks for the help. Joel

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Command "mlp"
by Cosmin Stefan Butnarasu 06 Apr '20

06 Apr '20

Hello, Hope to find you doing well. I am a PhD student in Pharmaceutical and Biomolecular Sciences and I am writing this email because I would like to better understand the mlp command. First of all, I have to say that I am a very novice on ChimeraX, I discovered this software basically few days ago, so I will write concepts that maybe are not properly correct. I would like to calculate the surface hydrophobicity of a protein. I saw that the mlp command graphically displays the molecular lipophilicity potential, which I suppose is somehow close to the surface hydrophobicity. However, when mlp command is compute, in the Log panel are shown three values, a minimum, a mean and a maximum, which I have not completely understood what they are for (see the picture attached). I searched on ChimeraX manual and I found that the SES surface could stand for “solvent-excluded surface” but I’am not sure about this. If so, could the mean SES value be a measure of the surface hydrophobicity of the protein? If not, can you suggest me a method to obtain not only a graphical display but also a value of the overall molecular lipophilicity potential? Thank you in advance! Cosmin Stefan Butnarasu ********************************************************* Cosmin Stefan Butnarasu, PhD Student Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences University of Torino Via Gioacchino Quarello 15, 10135 email: cosminstefan.butnarasu(a)unito.it *********************************************************

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Questions about ChimeraX
by Yuhua Fang 06 Apr '20

06 Apr '20

Hi Recently I transferred to ChimeraX from the old version. I found: 1. Some SMILE strings copied directly from ChemDraw cannot be recognized by ChimeraX, such as O=C1NC2=C(/C1=C3NC4=CC=CC=C4C/3=C\O)C=CC(Br)=C2 2. Correct me if I am wrong but ChimeraX seems not able to do molecule docking/ligand minimization like the old version, right? Thank you Joshua Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10

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Show map only around certain selection
by Karim Rafie 02 Apr '20

02 Apr '20

Dear all, I was wondering how to show part of a map only surrounding certain residues, i.e. I have coordinates for a multiple-chain PDB but I only want to show the electron density surrounding one chain. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Best, Karim ############################################## Karim Rafie; PhD, AMRSC Postdoctoral Research Fellow Carlson Lab Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics Umeå University Umeå / Sweden

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ChimeraX equivalent to "Chimera web data"?
by Ben Webb 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

We have a number of web services and tools that generate web data (*.chimerax) files for legacy Chimera. (Typically they load in a PDB file and an alignment and apply some sort of custom view.) What would the equivalent be for ChimeraX? Ben -- ben(a)salilab.org https://salilab.org/~ben/ "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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bundle_info.xml API changes
by Eric Pettersen 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

Any non-developers feel free to skip this message. Even for developers, unless you are writing a toolshed bundle that uses the DataFormat, Open, Save, and/or Fetch tags in the bundle’s bundle_info.xml file, you could skip this message. For the two of you that are left, in anticipation of the the ChimeraX 1.0 release sometime this year we are changing some APIs we are unhappy with. Namely, the tags in the in bundle_info.xml that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. As they stand, they are not easily extensible and it is not obvious without looking at the documentation what the various fields do. On top of that, it is difficult to take the information in those tags and present interfaces for options in ChimeraX’s Open/Save file dialogs. Also, there is nothing preventing keywords added to the open command by one bundle from conflicting with keywords added by another bundle. We will be migrating those tags to use bundle_info’s Manager/Provider architecture (described here <https://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/tutorials/bundle_info.html>). Instead of fixed fields, you have keyword/value pairs, which is slightly more self-documenting. Also, a manager can ask a provider for various things, so in one case the manager can provide a partially processed “open” command along with the “rest of line” for the provider to handle its options, if any, and actually open the file, whereas in another the manager can ask for a widget containing options to show in an open or save dialog. In brief, the change allows us to solve some issues that looked pretty intractable with the old scheme. The exact details of the managers and providers supporting these functions are not detailed in that link (just the generic mechanism), but details will be added as implementations are completed. For convenience, there will some period of time when both the old scheme and new scheme will both work, but we anticipate dropping the old scheme before the 1.0 release. —Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab

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Keep coordinates and radii of atoms
by Aritz Roa Eguiara 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

Dear ChimeraX Team, I am trying to represent a channels in ChimeraX. The output of Mole 2.5 is a .py for Chimera and I am trying to manually transfer to ChimeraX. Is there any easy way to do that? I would need that the coordinates and the radii of each atom is respected, but if I save it from Chimera in PDB the radii is not saved and saving the different atoms manually and then adding a script to give the the proper radius is extremely time consuming. Any suggestion? All the best, Aritz

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upgrading ChimeraX Toolshed
by Greg Couch 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

We're modernizing the ChimeraX Toolshed code base. There is a chance that it won't be accessible for day or two. And there's a chance it will be fixed in the next hour. :-) -- Greg

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