Hello,

It is quite baffling to me why it does this. I am going to add different sessions to show you what I see. I have included each session to try and separate to explain myself and not confuse. Three of the sessions do not include the copies true command: (sym_2n3, sym_2n5, sym_both). The one with both (sym_2n3 and sym_2n5) gives me the niosome I am quite interested in with an aqueous and lipophilic compartment. I want to do a simple measure of the volume inside the large compartment, but would like to minimize the niosome as a whole first, hence needing a pdb file. However, I have done the same with the next three sessions, but adding copies true command and it is not coming up with the same result for sym_both_copiestrue.

I hope this helps to try and understand what I am looking for, and maybe you have an answer as to why there are different results for Sym_both and Sym_both_copiestrue.

Thank you,

Heather Noriega
PhD-Pharmaceutical Science student 
Howard University
520-203-1883


On Fri, Jun 21, 2024 at 2:33 PM Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hi Heather,

I don't really  understand why you needed two sym commands instead of one (must be something specific about your structure(s)), but whenever you want to actually save the PDB of any parts that "sym" adds you would need to include "copies true" when you add them.

You could just do the experiment with and without it yourself and see what you get.  Or save two separate PDB files, one from each command, to make sure you aren't getting duplicates of the same atoms exactly on top of each other from using sym twice.

Elaine

> On Jun 21, 2024, at 9:45 AM, Noriega, Heather via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I do not want to save the shape of a sphere. I was using that for something else while creating the nano.
>
> Ok, that is what I did wrong. I did not include the copies true command. I have a question. I used the commands:
>
> Sym #1 i,2n3 center 20,20,20 and Sym #1 2n5 center 20,20,20 to create the sphere. Would I have to add copies true to both commands?
>
> sym#1 i,2n3 center 20,20,20 copies true
> sym#1 i,2n5 center 20,20,20 copies true
>
> And then continue with the saving process for PDB
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Heather Noriega
> PhD-Pharmaceutical Science student
> Howard University
> heather.noriega@bison.howard.edu
> 520-203-1883
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 21, 2024 at 12:37 PM Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> Hi Heather,
> I can't tell what you are trying to save exactly but here are two issues:
>
> (1) when you used "sym" the Log said it was making graphical clones. (The log contents are included in the session file.)  If you want full atomic copies instead of graphical clones you have to use "copies true" as explained in the help:
> <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/sym.html#copies>
>
> (2) The big sphere seems to be a surface model, and you can't save a surface model as PDB format. Maybe you used the "shape" command, which creates surface models.  But I can't tell from your message whether you are trying to save that in the file or not.
>
> 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 Jun 21, 2024, at 9:16 AM, Noriega, Heather via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a question. I created this sphere nanoparticle and have been trying to save it as a PDB (the whole sphere). But when I save "selected atoms, " I try to re-open the PDB file. It only shows the original single Span-60 that was used. Is there a way to save the copies and nanoparticles as a whole so I can minimize them altogether?
> >
> > I attached the session below for your reference.
> >
> > Thanks, Happy Friday!
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Heather Noriega
> > PhD-Pharmaceutical Science student
> > Howard University
> > heather.noriega@bison.howard.edu
> > 520-203-1883
> > <nano_span_60.cxs>