[chimerax-users] Editing preset for initial colors

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Niels,
Sorry, I don't know of a way to change the initial model colors currently.  Hopefully in the future we could have something like the new-molecule preferences that were in Chimera.  For now, maybe one of the other developers can advise where you can edit the hard-wired settings.

Initial model colors:
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/colortables.html#autocolors>

Initial model colors are only a small part of the automatic styling that occurs based on the size, number of chains, etc. in an atomic structure:
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/autostyle.html>

You can circumvent automatic styling entirely by using "open" with "autostyle false" ... however, it will just show all the atoms as white spheres, which is probably not what you want:

open 2gbp autostyle false

One can define custom presets (see "Startup" preferences),
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/preferences.html#startup>

... but in our parlance, a "preset" is a script applied to structures after they are opened, rather than rules defined before their opening.  So you would always have to invoke the preset after opening the structure(s).

Sorry about this limitation,
Elaine
-----
Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D.                       
UCSF Chimera(X) team
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California, San Francisco


> On Feb 20, 2022, at 9:03 AM, Niels Bradshaw via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Elaine,
> 
> Is there a way in chimera X to change the initial colors preset for new models? 
> 
> I’m not into the default tan color, so I end up changing the color immediately every time I open a new model. 
> 
> In previous versions of Chimera, I had disabled color by model and set all new models to open with grey. In pymol, I defined the colors for the first 10 models I open in the startup script, which is even more convenient. Having the option to have the default to color by chain could also be nice if that is possible. I tried some workarounds like redefining the tan color, but it appears that is not allowed.
> 
> Thanks,
> Niels
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