[Chimera-users] Just want atom distances

[Patricia LiWang]

Hello users group,
	
	I don't want anything complicated-- I just want to get some rough distances between atoms.  So I go to
Tools
Structure Analysis
Distances

A window comes up with an empty table.  (No instructions on how to pick atoms)
A search of the Chimera documentation tells me I have to Control-leftclick to pick two atoms
But no matter how often I click and click and click, it never gives me anything.  I can't get even one atom to show up in the panel, let alone two. The side chains are sitting right there, getting clicked away, with nothing happening in the table.

I am reading so many similar documentation pages, and apparently there is a difference between "selecting" and "picking"

So I figure I'll just use the command line.  But the instructions don't even bother to tell you how to use the command line to get the distance between two atoms.  There is documentation on how to get distances between something and a "plane".

Why do they make this so hard?  Surely this is the main "simple" thing people want to do with this program.  

Would someone please tell me how to Pick or Select or Whatever two amino acids (any atom in them would be fine) and get a distance?  

Or better yet, please tell me the exact command line command I can use to get the distance between 
Asparate 234 carboxyl oxygen and Aspartate 295 carboxyl oxygen, both from chain "G"?


Thanks!
Patti

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