[chimerax-users] [chimeraX-users] to display cylinder and helical ribbon of one chain

[Elaine Meng]

Dear Yingyi,
The "cartoon style" settings like tube helices (cylinders) apply only to the whole model. 

<http://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/cartoon.html#style>

However, you can do what you want by  opening your structure twice. In one copy, use the tube helix style, and show only cartoon for the parts you want as cylinders (hide the cartoon of the rest of the chain).  In the other copy, use the ribbon helix style, and hide the cartoon for the part that is shown in the first copy.

To make the ribbons of the two copies connect smoothly, it seems that you need to extend at least 2 residues beyond the ends of a helix in the model shown as tubes, as detailed in in this previous thread:
<http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimerax-users/2020-April/001068.html>

I hope this helps,
Elaine
-----
Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D.                       
UCSF Chimera(X) team
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California, San Francisco

> On Jul 8, 2020, at 2:22 AM, Yingyi Zhang <yingyizhangg at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear ChimeraX Team,
> 
> I have one model (pdb format), which contains multiple chains. Each chain (chain A for instance) consists of several helices.
> 
> Is it possible to display ChainA in this manner - first two helices as cylinders but the others as ribbons?
> 
> I tried to specify the residues, but it always changed the entire presence of the model, including the un-selected ones. Could you help me with this? I am still not very familiar with chimeraX.
> 
> Thank you very much.
> Best regards,
> 
> Yingyi