[chimerax-users] Mesh resolution/smoothness

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Saren,
As far as I know the STL has the same mesh resolution (same triangulation) as the surface had in ChimeraX, although the surface in ChimeraX may look smoother because of the surface normals and how the lighting is done.

How to use smaller triangles in the surface in ChimeraX depends on the type of surface:

(A) If it is a molecular surface you can control it with the "gridSpacing" option of the "surface" command.
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/surface.html>

(B) If it is a volume surface (e.g. density map isosurface) there are several options of the "volume" command having to do with surface subdivision and smoothing, and whether square mesh is shown, see:
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/volume.html#dispsurf>
You would also want to use "step 1" for the full resolution of the map data:
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/volume.html#sampling>

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


> On Jun 15, 2021, at 3:48 AM, Saren Tasciyan via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to generate STL files out of protein models. Often the problem is that the mesh doesn't as smooth as the models (see pics below). I wonder if this is an artifact of rendering in ChimeraX or the mesh is actually hard coded to have certain resolution, which makes it look like this? I tried to find out why and ended up in custom_x3d function but didn't notice anything. Post-export smoothing is an option but I wonder, if that's the optimal approach?
> 
> Perhaps, smoothing can create collisions between 2 STL models, where a higher resolution export may avoid this.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Saren
> 
> <ffmmfhbpapbfadmd.png>
> 
> <bfamkfhfkccijeli.png>
> 
> -- 
> 
> Saren Tasciyan
> PhD Student / Sixt Group
> Institute of Science and Technology Austria
> Am Campus 1
> 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria