Dear Tom,

In the meantime I solved the issue by switching off the trackpad in ChimeraX: Preferences > Trackpad > Trackpad gestures to rotate and move > uncheck. The trackpad works for the rest of the Mac applications.


If it helps, my mouse is Logitech MX Master 3S.

I may have another question - as my mouse has two wheels (classic horizontal and a vertical on the thumb) and two additional side buttons (which is more common in modern mouses, I guess), I wonder if there is a relatively easy way to bind ChimeraX actions to those additional front and back buttons and the thumb wheel. A quick chat with GPT suggests a Python extension, as the Qt is supposedly able to distinguish between horizontal and vertical wheel [angleDelta().y() and angleDelta().x()] and front and back buttons. 

Do you have any experience/ideas regarding this feature?

Best,
Jan


From: Tom Goddard <goddard@sonic.net>
Date: Tuesday, 6. October 2026 at 22:42
To: Binovsky, Jan <binovsky@biochem.mpg.de>
Cc: chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu>
Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] Mouse wheel scroll not registered after two-finger drag on Mac touchpad

Hi Jan,

  You found my 2018 description of this problem that was fixed in ChimeraX 1.7.  It is unfortunate you are seeing the same problem with ChimeraX 1.12.  My best guess is the trouble is your mouse or mouse-driver appears to the Qt window toolkit used by ChimeraX as a trackpad, and so its scroll events are discarded.  They will only get discarded after you make a multi-touch event on a trackpad because that is when ChimeraX realizes you have a trackpad and it needs to block the trackpad generated scroll events from a 2-finger drag.

  So the question is exactly what kind of mouse with a mouse wheel do you have.

  I normally use a Apple Magic trackpad with my Mac and I just plugged in an ancient HP USB optical mouse with scroll wheel (model MSU0923) and the scroll wheel works even after I have used the trackpad in ChimeraX 1.12.

Tom


On Oct 6, 2026, at 7:09 AM, Binovsky, Jan via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:

Dear ChimeraX team,

I am experiencing the bug described below on Mac (Tahoe 26.6.) with ChimeraX version 1.12 (2026-06-12). When I open ChX, the wheel scroll works (bound to zoom function). Then, I perform a two-finger action on a touchpad and the wheel scroll is not registered in ChX anymore. Any recommendation on how to mitigate the loss of wheel function other than not to use the trackpad when ChX is open?

Best,
Jan

########################
Tom Goddard wrote:
> Hi Dale,
> 
> I'm guessing your on a Mac and this has something to do with ChimeraX Mac multitouch trackpad support.  There was a limitation in the Qt window toolkit where two finger drag on the touchpad produced scroll events even though ChimeraX was handling the two-finger drag to do a rotation.  But the scroll events looked exactly like mouse scroll events, so if you really did a mouse scroll and you also use the trackpad then it just ignored the scroll event.  I see this problem described in the ChimeraX 1.6 code here
> 
>     https://github.com/RBVI/ChimeraX/blob/6e2f12a093d52c317a4f8aaa1070334dcfe6f5...
> 
>         '''
>         macOS generates mouse wheel events in response to a two-finger drag on trackpad.
>         We discard those if we have multitouch trackpad support enabled so that 2-finger
>         drag should be rotation.  But we don't want to discard wheel events that come
>         from a non-trackpad device.  Unfortunately macOS and Qt5 provides no way to distinguish
>         magic mouse scroll from a trackpad scroll, both are reported as synthesized events
>         and there is no source device id available.  If there are any trackpad devices and
>         multitouch is enabled then the magic mouse wheel events are thrown away.  This
>         is ChimeraX bug #1474.  We used to instead see if we recently received a touch event
>         and in that case throw away any wheel event.  Unfortunately on macOS we sometimes
>         don't get touch events after clicking in the Log or other windows and then moving
>         back to the graphics window, until the second multitouch drag is done.
>         '''
> 
> The ChimeraX daily build and 1.7 release candidate changed this code using a newer Qt window toolkit capability to distinguish the two-finger drag from a mouse scroll wheel.  Mouse scroll is working for me in those newer ChimeraX version and it does not work after I use a two finger rotation on the trackpad with ChimeraX 1.6.  So use the newer ChimeraX.
> 
>     Tom
> > On Nov 8, 2023, at 7:28 PM, Dale Calleja via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am currently learning to use ChimeraX (v1.6.1) and I am having issues with my scroll wheel. I notice when I first open the software using the scroll wheel on my mouse will zoom in and out of the structure but, after some time it simply stops working and the scroll wheel does nothing.
> > Is this a button I am accidentally pressing or have I discovered a bug? It doesn’t seem to have any pattern, I am just clicking around changing the display of my protein.
> > Thanks!
> > Dale.
> > Dale Calleja
> > PhD Student, Komander Lab
> > Ubiquitin Signalling Division
> > WEHI
> > 1G Royal Parade
> > Parkville  VIC  3052
> > Australia
> > Email calleja.d@wehi.edu.au <mailto:calleja.d@wehi.edu.au>
> > Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
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########################
_______________________
Ján Bíňovský, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scientist 
Bacteriophages
 
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MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE
OF BIOCHEMISTRY 
 
Am Klopferspitz 18 | 82152 Martinsried | Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 8578 - 3049
 
binovsky@biochem.mpg.de
www.biochem.mpg.de
 
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