Hi Kate, If you do plan on removing ~/Downloads/ChimeraX be aware that that directory includes electron microscopy maps fetched from EMDB. When you save a ChimeraX session file (*.cxs) the session does not contain the map files because they are often very large, the session only contains a path to where the map file is on disk (e.g. in ~/Downloads/ChimeraX/EMDB. If you try to load ChimeraX sessions that references a EMDB map file and that file is gone then ChimeraX will show a file browser dialog to relocate the file. In that scenario you would have to download the EMDB map to get it in the loaded session, or you could just not choose a replacement file and it will not appear in the loaded session. Tom
On Apr 23, 2025, at 5:50 PM, Eric Pettersen via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hi Kate, Removing cache files is, pretty much by definition, harmless. Cache files are kept for efficiency, e.g. to avoid fetching a large file from the web or redoing an expensive calculation -- they should never actually be required for the functioning of any software. That being said, I'm wondering what files/folders you are referring to when you're talking about "the ChimeraX cache". I'm not aware of any ChimeraX caches that are particularly large other than possibly ~/Downloads/ChimeraX. If you're referring to some other location, then removing it may possibly interfere with ChimeraX's operation. Perhaps you could be more specific about what you are thinking of removing?
--Eric
Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
On Apr 23, 2025, at 1:59 PM, Radford, Katelyn M. (Kate) via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hi there!
I'm in the throes of a memory-expensive project and my computer is running out of space. A little bit of googling led me to conclude that it would probably make sense for me to clear my system's cache, as my system files take up about a third of my disk space. ChimeraX cache files account for a substantial portion of that memory usage. As I make figures, I save .cxs files of each figure so that it's easy to go back and edit things that need to be changed. My ChimeraX also has a bunch of plug-ins installed (e.g. ISOLDE). I'm wondering: how much damage will I do to my installation and to my .cxs files if I delete the ChimeraX cache?
System and software details: ChimeraX version: 1.9 MacOS: Ventura 13.0 Chip: Apple M2 Max
Thank you all so much for the excellent work you do, Best wishes, Kate
Kate Radford (she/they) PhD candidate, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics California Institute of Technology 1200 E California Blvd Pasadena, CA 91125
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