Hi Daniel, Not exactly what you asked, but see the "minimize" mouse mode to jiggle the clicked residue and nearby residues while the assigned button is held down: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/mousemodes.html#top> <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/mousemodes.html#openmm> It's sort of a quick-n-dirty, but consider that this short local molecular dynamics may be more effective in surmounting small energy barriers than minimization. Still, they're both quite limited in exploring conformational space. 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 May 12, 2026, at 12:57 PM, Daniel David Richman via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:

Hi folks,

In Maestro there’s a “minimize” feature where only the selected atoms are allowed to move. It’s very helpful when I make a mutation that I want to locally relax and I want to be sure that the rest of the system won't change. Does ChimeraX support anything like this, or is it on the horizon?

Thanks, Daniel