[chimerax-users] Ribbon Thicken

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Cameron,
My suggestions were ChimeraX commands, so you wouldn't "see" them in the menus, if that's what you mean.  You would type commands into the command line area near the bottom of the ChimeraX window.

Type command "help cartoon style"  or "help struts" to see the documentation in your downloaded version, or see copies on our website here:

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

There are examples of both commands in those help links, which I sent before.  However, here are even more examples.  The default ribbon fattening from the "struts" command is reasonable for some 3D printing jobs but it all depends on the scale of the 3D model, size of protein, etc., so you can specify exact values according to your judgment with "ribbon style" as in the examples below.

struts @ca fattenRibbon true
cartoon style strand xsection oval
cartoon style protein thickness 0.8 
cartoon style helix width 1.5
cartoon style strand width 1.5

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


> On Jan 25, 2022, at 1:51 PM, Cameron Larson via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> 
> could you provide a screenshot of where you can access "cartoon style" and directly change with and height of protein features?
> I have the most recent version of chimeraX and I do not see this feature.
> 
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2022 at 9:03 AM Elaine Meng <meng at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> Hi Cameron,
> Of course! To thicken ribbons, you can use:
> 
> (1) "cartoon style" (aka "ribbon style") to change width and height directly, 
> <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/cartoon.html#style>
> 
> or (2) the  "struts" command which not only thickens the ribbons,  but also adds rods to strengthen the overall structure specifically for 3D printing.  This is probably easier (fewer steps and reasonable thickness values chosen for you), so take a look at this method first.
> <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/struts.html>
> <https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/features.html#struts>
> 
> Example:
> open 2mnr
> hide
> struts @ca
> 
> I hope this helps,
> Elaine
> -----
> Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D.                       
> UCSF Chimera(X) team
> Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
> University of California, San Francisco
> 
> 
> > On Jan 23, 2022, at 9:28 PM, Cameron Larson via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> > 
> > Hello,
> > Is there a way to thicken ribbons so I can 3d print a structure? 
> > What do you recommend for 3d printing a structure?
> > -Cameron Larson