RAsMol

RAsMol description is available at the Home Page address ftp://hpux.csc.liv.ac.uk/hpux/X11/Viewers/RasMol-2.5.1/RasMol-2.5.1.README.html

The program is also available from The Brookhaven National Laboratories web site.

RasMol 2.2
Molecular Graphics Visualisation tool

Roger Sayle
Biocomputing Research Unit
University of Edinburgh
October 1993

This posting is to announce the public release of RasMol 2.2 molecular graphics visualisation program. This package has been developed in the BRU over the last few years, and the latest version has a significant number of improvements over RasMol 2.1. These enhancements include protein ribbon diagrams, secondary structure assignment (based on Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm), better amino acid classification, DNA hydrogen bonding, DNA backbone representations, stick representations of hydrogen bonds and disulphide bridges (either between backbone or sidechains), the ability to write out selected atoms to a PDB file, support for Alchemy format files, colouring of hbonds by their type, compressed PostScript output, extended atom expression syntax, increased scroll bar functionality, and many more additions (and bug fixes) too numerous to mention. For a complete list of modifications (and acknowledgements), refer to the distribution ChangeLog.

RasMol is an X Window System tool intended for the visualisation of proteins and nucleic acids. It reads Brookhaven Protein Databank (PDB) files and interactively renders them in a variety of formats on either an 8bit or 24/32bit colour display. The complete source code and user documentation for both the UNIX/X11 version and the IBM PC/MS Windows 3.1 version may be obtained by anonymous ftp from ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk [129.215.160.5] in the directory /pub/rasmol. The UNIX/X11 source code is contained in the file RasMol2.tar.Z and the MS Windows source code and executable in the file raswin.zip. Both of these files include a slightly dated version of the PostScript user reference manual.

The program is intended for teaching and generating publication quality images. The program has both a menu system and a full featured command line interface. Different parts and representations of the molecule may be coloured or displayed in a number of formats independently. Currently supported formats include wireframe, ball and stick, backbone, space filling spheres and protein ribbon models. The space filling spheres may even be shadowed. The molecule may be manipulated using scroll bars, the interactive command line or from a dials box if attached. The resulting image may be saved at any point in PostScript, GIF, PPM, Sun rasterfile or Microsoft BMP formats. For more details see the RasMol user reference. It was claimed at a recent conference to be the fastest available uniprocessor program for drawing shadowed spacefilled molecules. On a SparcStation it can shadow a 10,000 atom protein in less than 10 seconds.

The current version of the program has been tested on sun3, sun4, sun386i, hp9000, sequent, DEC alpha, IBM RS/6000 and SGI, DEC and E&S mips based machines compiled under both gcc and the native compiler. The version for Microsoft Windows requires version 7 of the Microsoft Optimizing C Compiler and the Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK).

The source code is public domain and freely distributable provided that the original author is suitably acknowledged. Any comments, suggestions or questions about the package may be directed to "rasmol@dcs.ed.ac.uk".

Contact Address:

Roger Sayle,
Department of Computer Science
University of Edinburgh
The King's Buildings,
Mayfield Road,
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
SCOTLAND
Tel: (+44) 031 650 5163
EMail: ros@dcs.ed.ac.uk



NetSci, ISSN 1092-7360, is published by Network Science Corporation. Except where expressly stated, content at this site is copyright (© 1995 - 2010) by Network Science Corporation and is for your personal use only. No redistribution is allowed without written permission from Network Science Corporation. This web site is managed by:

Network Science Corporation
4411 Connecticut Avenue NW, STE 514
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: (828) 817-9811
E-mail: TheEditors@netsci.org
Website Hosted by Total Choice