[chimerax-users] circular balls instead of residue

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Revan,
You can show any atom you want as a sphere.  You have to show the atom (not just ribbons) or else you won't be able to see that it is a sphere.  For example, commands to open 1gcn and show residue 10 as spheres:

open 1gcn
show :10
style sphere

But maybe you want to put a ball at the alpha-carbons of residues but these atoms are not shown because the ribbon is shown instead.  You would use the "suppress false" option of ribbons/cartoons if you want to show backbone atoms at the same time as the ribbon, for example to show 1zik chain A residues 2-12 alpha-carbon balls:

open 1zik
show /A:2-12 at ca
style @ca sphere
cartoon suppress false

You only need "cartoon suppress false" if you want to show both cartoon (ribbon) and backbone atoms at the same time.  You could also just hide the cartoon, for example command:

hide cartoon

I described commands because it is easier to do in email, but you can also do the same things with selections and the Actions menu and/or toolbar icons.   You may want to try some ChimeraX tutorials if you want to learn more:
<https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/quickstart/index.html>
<https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/tutorials.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 Mar 9, 2023, at 8:21 AM, Revan Katte via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users at cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hello sir/Madam,
> 
> I'm labeling (or marking) the residues of my protein structure with Chimerax.
> 
> So I want to use circular balls instead of residue, but he doesn't have that option.
> 
> Could you please assist me with this?
> 
> Thank you!
> Revan