Hi Esther, A GPU with 32 GB should not get that 3D texture error. That probably means ChimeraX is not using your Nvidia driver, and is instead using Mesa software rendering. Use ChimeraX Report a Bug when the 3D texture error happens and I can look at it to see if that is the problem. Tom
On Feb 11, 2026, at 1:56 PM, Bullitt, Esther via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hi Tom,
This solution does not work -- the computer has 4 NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 (32GB memory each); I would think that should be sufficient.
thanks, Esther
From: Tom Goddard <goddard@sonic.net> Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 4:15 PM To: Bullitt, Esther <bullitt@bu.edu> Cc: chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] ArtiaX memory issue
You don't often get email from goddard@sonic.net. Learn why this is important <https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> Hi Esther,
You can also try rendering at full resolution as a stack of 2D plane (using 2D textures)
volume #1 projectionMode 2d-z
While this will take the same amount of GPU memory, graphics drivers handle 2D textures better than 3D textures which are rare in video games. If that works you can tell ChimeraX to use the 2D textures by default using command
volume default projectionMode 2d-z save true
The other solution is to get a graphics card with more memory.
Tom
On Feb 11, 2026, at 12:59 PM, Bullitt, Esther <bullitt@bu.edu> wrote:
Hi Tom,
I don't love it, but yes your workaround works.
Thank you! Sincerely, Esther
From: Tom Goddard <goddard@sonic.net> Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 3:42 PM To: Bullitt, Esther <bullitt@bu.edu> Cc: chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] ArtiaX memory issue
You don't often get email from goddard@sonic.net. Learn why this is important <https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> Hi Esther,
This is a bug in the ArtiaX ChimeraX extension. It has been reported several times over the past few years. Developer of ArtiaX Utz Ermel would need to fix it. If you use the Report Bug button when you get this error we will assign it to Utz and it may help get him to make a fix.
The error message means your graphics does not have enough memory to allocate a 3D texture to show the tomogram at full 1440 x 1023 x 512 resolution. The problem is insufficient GPU memory, not CPU memory. I believe ArtiaX always tries to show it at full resolution, which is reasonable, but ArtiaX needs to detect if this is beyond the memory limits of your GPU, and in that case show it at step 2 (subsampled), or possibly use 2D textures.
You can probably work around the error in a cumbersome way by switching the tomogram step size to 2 using the Volume Viewer panel or command "volume #1 step 2" and then typing command "graphics restart" to tell ChimeraX to continue rendering the models.
Tom
On Feb 11, 2026, at 7:30 AM, Bullitt, Esther via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
hi,
I am able to open a tomogram in ChimeraX, but when I launch ArtiaX and try to open the same tomogram: 1440, 1023, 512, I get the error below. Is there somewhere I can increase the memory it is allowed to use? How much does it need?
thank you for any assistance. Sincerely, Esther
An error occurred in drawing the scene. Redrawing graphics is now stopped to avoid a continuous stream of error messages. To restart graphics use the command "graphics restart" after changing the settings that caused the error.
GLError( err = 1285, description = b'out of memory', baseOperation = glTexImage3D, pyArgs = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ), cArgs = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ), cArguments = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ) )
Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/core/updateloop.py", line 84, in draw_new_frame view.draw(check_for_changes = False) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/view.py", line 188, in draw self._draw_scene(camera, drawings) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/view.py", line 259, in _draw_scene draw_opaque(r, opaque_drawings) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/drawing.py", line 1559, in draw_opaque _draw_multiple(drawings, renderer, Drawing.OPAQUE_DRAW_PASS) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/drawing.py", line 1572, in _draw_multiple d.draw(renderer, draw_pass) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 936, in draw drawing = self._update_view_axis(renderer) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 662, in _update_view_axis pd = self._update_3d_texture_planes(view_dir) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 714, in _update_3d_texture_planes pd = self._texture_3d_planes() ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 724, in _texture_3d_planes pd = Texture3dPlanes(self) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 1551, in __init__ self._fill_textures() File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/map/image3d.py", line 1668, in _fill_textures t.reload_texture(td, now=True) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/opengl.py", line 3210, in reload_texture self.fill_opengl_texture() File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/opengl.py", line 3220, in fill_opengl_texture self.initialize_texture(size, format, iformat, tdtype, ncomp, data) File "/usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/lib/python3.11/site-packages/chimerax/graphics/opengl.py", line 3100, in initialize_texture GL.glTexImage3D(gl_target, 0, iformat, size[0], size[1], size[2], File "src/latebind.pyx", line 40, in OpenGL_accelerate.latebind.LateBind.__call__ File "src/wrapper.pyx", line 319, in OpenGL_accelerate.wrapper.Wrapper.__call__ File "src/wrapper.pyx", line 312, in OpenGL_accelerate.wrapper.Wrapper.__call__ File "src/errorchecker.pyx", line 59, in OpenGL_accelerate.errorchecker._ErrorChecker.glCheckError OpenGL.error.GLError: GLError( err = 1285, description = b'out of memory', baseOperation = glTexImage3D, pyArgs = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ), cArgs = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ), cArguments = ( GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_R32F, 1440, 1023, 512, 0, GL_RED, GL_FLOAT, array([[[ 1.5736278e+00, 5.7081121e-01, 6.6328174e-01, ..., -1.9499358e+00, -1.1798207e+00, -3.7762100e-01..., ) )
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