Hi Michael, First make sure of which program you are using: ChimeraX and Chimera are two different programs. While they have many similarities, the answer would be different depending which one you are using (and you can ask about Chimera on the other address, chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu <mailto:chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> ). I will answer for ChimeraX because we are using the ChimeraX address. In that case, you can save your current work including biopolymer (protein or nucleic acid) ribbons and their coloring as a ChimeraX session file (.cxs). See: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/save.html#session> Multiple sessions can be combined by opening one .cxs file, and then opening another .cxs file using the "open" command with the "combine true" option. See: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/open.html#local> <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/open.html#combine> However, this will simply open the contents of both sessions. For example, if each session had one model, you would have two models. It will not combine the colorings into fewer models than the total from both sessions, because there is no way to say which part would get coloring from which session. I suppose you could try hiding (or making 100% transparent) different parts from the two sessions, but the result may not look the way that you want. The .cmm files are for markers (something like fake atoms) which would not be shown as biopolymer ribbons. If you just opened PDB files of atomic structures, you probably didn't have any markers. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Sep 7, 2025, at 11:37 AM, Михаил Егорочкин via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hello, my name is Michael. While using ChimeraX, I encountered a problem with transferring colored models. I created a session in Chimera where I loaded several PDB files, applied custom coloring to them, and now I want to combine the colorings from two different sessions. However, I cannot manage to do this. I tried using the .ccm format, but any session save results in a 0-byte file, and I haven’t found a solution yet. Do you have any idea how this issue can be resolved?
Best regards, Michael.