[Chimera-users] vrml 2.0 export of pdb representation

[Greg Couch]

We currently only support VRML export of volume isosurfaces and multiscale
surfaces.  So the answer is no, not yet.

Exporting to a 3D graphics file format is definately something we would 
like to do.  However, it is unclear what format would be best to generate. 
VRML 2.0 will never support transparency like chimera does.  VRML's 
successor, X3D, looks promising, but there aren't many users yet.  Other 
possiblities include the Renderman format, popular with animation studios; 
the .3DS format, popular on PCs; and many others.

So, a question for everyone reading this, if you had to pick one format, 
would it be VRML97?  And if so, why?  And if not, why not?  We are leaning
torwards outputing X3D, but would appreciate comments from people who 
would actually be using the output.

 	Greg Couch
 	UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
 	gregc at cgl.ucsf.edu


On Fri, 21 May 2004, Pattanayek, Sabuj wrote:

> Is there anyway to export a pdb model into vrml once I have it just the way I
> want it (ribbon & atom sizes, colors, etc)? I tried a pdb2vrml converter from
> http://www.pc.chemie.tu-darmstadt.de/research/vrml/pdb2vrml_right.shtml but
> freewrl crashes when loading the output (I think pdb2vrml might be outputting
> vrml 1.0), it's also not very versatile as far as what I want to display into
> vrml from the pdb.