Hi Moustafa, Icosahedral symmetry includes the 5-fold axis of the pentamer, so you can fix your problem by deleting chains B-E and just symmetrising chain A. Best, Tom On 25 Mar 2021, at 19:08, Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:meng@cgl.ucsf.edu>> wrote: External Sender: Use caution. Sorry no, those were all of my suggestions (I wouldn't hold out on you!). This is not my area of expertise, however. Maybe somebody who knows more about it can suggest something. Elaine On Mar 25, 2021, at 12:04 PM, Moustafa, Ibrahim M. <ria2@psu.edu<mailto:ria2@psu.edu>> wrote: Hi Elaine, I tried what you suggested and got the same result. I got 5 copies of icosahedron. At each vertex of the 5-fold copies of chains A-E generated. Difficult to manually delete unwanted copies at each vertex of the icosahedron! Any other suggestions? Thanks, Ibrahim From: Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:meng@cgl.ucsf.edu>> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2021 2:44 PM To: ChimeraX Users Help <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu>> Cc: Moustafa, Ibrahim M. <ria2@psu.edu<mailto:ria2@psu.edu>> Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] generating icosahedron from pentamer P.S. if you got 5 icosahedra before and any of them is correct, presumably you could just delete the others. However, you would need to look carefully to decide if it was correct. Elaine On Mar 25, 2021, at 11:40 AM, Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:meng@cgl.ucsf.edu>> wrote: Hi Ibrahim, I don't know what symmetry specification is needed to make one icosahedron from your pentamer. It depends on the specific coordinates of the pentamer, but is not easy to tell from those coordinates (as you can see). If #2 is a map of the whole icosahedron, maybe you could try using commands: measure symmetry #2 ...maybe with options, see the help: <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frbvi.ucsf.edu%2Fchimerax%2Fdocs%2Fuser%2Fcommands%2Fmeasure.html%23symmetry&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ce002fd8e7e7140dfe7d708d8efc1a166%7C4eed7807ebad415aa7a99170947f4eae%7C0%7C0%7C637522962217016760%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=uY7dJ228rpsIvVcxE48dF8D9QkaDy9UOTil2yb6oEX4%3D&reserved=0> ...followed by something like sym #1 symmetry #2 ... with other options, e.g. "center" like you used before, see the help: <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frbvi.ucsf.edu%2Fchimerax%2Fdocs%2Fuser%2Fcommands%2Fsym.html%23symmetry&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ce002fd8e7e7140dfe7d708d8efc1a166%7C4eed7807ebad415aa7a99170947f4eae%7C0%7C0%7C637522962217016760%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=2%2FkZcnNIW9FL14JJWAeurdIb4fAZeXaa6xIkk%2FYQOOM%3D&reserved=0> I don't know if this process would work, however; requires that "measure" is able to detect the needed symmetry from the map. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco On Mar 25, 2021, at 10:03 AM, Moustafa, Ibrahim M. <ria2@psu.edu<mailto:ria2@psu.edu>> wrote: Dear all, I want to generate icosahedral structure from a pentamer (chains A-E). When I use the command: sym #1 i,222 coordinateSystem #2 center #2 It generated 5 copies, icosahedron for each chain. What I'd like to build is just 12 copies of the pentamer in an icosahedral sym. How to do that in ChimeraX? Thanks, Ibrahim _______________________________________________ ChimeraX-users mailing list ChimeraX-users@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:ChimeraX-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> Manage subscription: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fplato.cgl.ucsf.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fchimerax-users&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ce002fd8e7e7140dfe7d708d8efc1a166%7C4eed7807ebad415aa7a99170947f4eae%7C0%7C0%7C637522962217016760%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=CYGpa1qTwduCNwLQvAdOi7cv76Kt6bZh3NGiYN5a4mE%3D&reserved=0 The Francis Crick Institute Limited is a registered charity in England and Wales no. 1140062 and a company registered in England and Wales no. 06885462, with its registered office at 1 Midland Road London NW1 1AT