[chimerax-users] drawing lines on images

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Andrea,
The way that the "clashes" tool and command do it are to draw straight lines between the pairs of atoms that clash.  
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/clashes.html>
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/clashes.html>

There is no way I can think of in ChimeraX to draw arbitrary squiggly lines.  The only related approaches that I can think of are to
- use a 2D Labels symbol like  a circle (you can use any size/color and drag it to wherever you want)
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/2dlabels.html>
 - use a 2D Labels arrow (you can use any size/color and control where the endpoints are)
- select some item (you can change the selectionoutline color from the default green to some other color) but then the outline will go all the way around that item
<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/graphics.html#selection>

However, there is no option to just draw a  line freehand on top of the image. However, most image-editing programs have a simple drawing tool to do it.

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

> On May 21, 2022, at 1:38 PM, Andrea Dallapè via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear ChimeraX Team,
> 
> I would like to ask you if there's a simple and easy method (without using external software) to label the steric clashes, as in the attached image (the red line between the ball densities).
> 
> Thank you for your help and attention!
> 
> Andrea
> 
> <image.png>