[Chimera-users] gopenmol files in chimera?

[Eric Pettersen]

On Jul 8, 2005, at 3:27 PM, syma wrote:

> HI,
>
> I was just wondering if it is possible to import gopenmol plt files in
> chimera either directly or by going through a (freely available)  
> conversion
> code?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help,
>
> -Syma

Hi Syma,
     I nosed around the net a little and didn't find anything obvious  
for converting .plt files to a format that Chimera reads.  However,  
it is possible to add new file types to Chimera's Volume Viewer tool  
as documented here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ 
ContributedSoftware/volumeviewer/volumeviewer.html#newformats .  You  
would need to know the format of a .plt file, and know how to program  
in Python.  The format for .plt files is documented in Appendix 2 of  
gOpenMol's old user manual.  The format is reasonably simple.
     That said, it is probably easier for us to write the code to  
support the format than for you to write it, since we are already  
familiar with how to do it.  Unfortunately the true expert for that,  
Tom Goddard (who wrote Volume Viewer), is on vacation until July  
24th.  Do you need to be able to do this before then?  I have added  
one format myself and could give it a go if you needed something  
before then.  In either case, we would need an example .plt file and  
an image of what that example data should look like when correctly  
rendered.

                         Eric Pettersen
                         UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
                         pett at cgl.ucsf.edu
                         http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu