[Chimera-users] preferences - povray - keep input files doesn't

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Klaas,
Movie recording overrides the "wait for POV-Ray" and "keep POV-Ray  
input files" options, as mentioned here:

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/preferences.html#POV-Ray%20Options

Our thinking was probably to prevent users from accidentally filling  
their disks with an avalanche of the very large *.pov files.  However,  
obviously this prevents you from doing what you want.

I can't think of any current "user interface" way to specify saving  
the files or not actually rendering them during movie recording  
(although we should probably discuss them as possible developments). I  
am hoping one of the programmers can suggest how to modify the Chimera  
Python code to do those things.

If you are using the MD Movie tool, its per-frame script option can be  
used to export a file at each trajectory frame (more detail below).   
However, if there is not a 1-to-1 relationship between MD Movie  
trajectory frames and the frames you want in your movie, or if you are  
using Movie Recorder or the movie command (not MD Movie), I believe  
that modifying your copy of Chimera would be the more practical option.

What you would put in a MD Movie per-frame script:
The most recent versions of Chimera include an "export" command with a  
POV-Ray option (try the command "export list" just to see if your  
version has it, if not, get a newer daily build):
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/export.html
Older versions have a similar command "x3dsave" but it only saves the  
X3D format, which could subsequently be converted to povray files with  
"x3d2pov" - the latter program is included with Chimera, as mentioned  
here:
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/export.html

Best,
Elaine
-----
Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D.                          meng at cgl.ucsf.edu
UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California, San Francisco
                      http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

On Mar 15, 2008, at 8:01 AM, Klaas Decanniere wrote:
>
> For at least some versions of Chimera, the "keep pov-ray input files"
> option in the Favorites - Preferences- Pov-ray tab does not work  
> ( .pov
> files are deleted after rendering during animation)
>
> This is true e.g for build 2491 2008/02/11 (Platform: linux2 windowing
> system x11).
>
> Is there a way to force this option? I would like to do some post
> processing on the .pov files before rendering.
> An option to generate an animation series .pov files without doing the
> actual rendering would be even better - how can I do that?
>
> Thanks for the help and kind regards,
>
> Klaas Decanniere