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Tool: Surface Zone

Surface Zone limits the display of a volume data (map) surface to a zone around specified atoms or markers. It is also implemented as the command surface zone (with more options than shown in this tool). See also: Volume Viewer, Color Zone, Hide Dust, Map icon , volume zone

Surface Zone can be started from the Volume Data section of the Tools menu. The tool window can be moved, resized, etc.

The surface to zone should be chosen from the list of available map models, and the atoms to use specified as selected atoms (the current selection) or chosen from the list of available atomic models. All atoms of a chosen model will be used, including ligand, solvent, etc., even if they are not displayed. To use only the biopolymer portion of a model, either the remaining atoms should be deleted, or only those atoms selected and designated as selected atoms instead.

Clicking Zone limits the display of the chosen surface to areas within a specified distance (Radius) of any of the atoms. Surfaces are composed of triangles; only triangles with all three vertices in the zone will be shown.

The Radius can be adjusted by moving the slider or by typing in a new value. The slider is logarithmic to cover a wide range of values. There is no way to use different radii for different atoms. If the set of atoms is changed or an atom is moved relative to the surface, Zone must be clicked again to update the zone.

Clicking No Zone stops limiting surface display to the zone.

Clicking Help shows this page in the Help Viewer.


UCSF Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics / February 2021