Eye Line 1.0 ------------ REQUIREMENTS: VMD Version 1.1 or greater, use in orthographic mode DESCRIPTION: After an atom has been picked, call "eye_line". It generates a cylinder along the line joining the picked atom and the present eye position, assuming VMD is using an orthographic projection. It also prints the endpoints of the cylinder. eye_line takes no arguments. In the past this procedure has been useful for steering portions of proteins through surface holes. HOW IT WORKS: This example of a trace on the picked atom draws a line from the picked atom to the user's eye. It is a good example of how to use matrices in \VMD. The limitation to the following procedure is that it doesn't understand perspective viewing, so to make it work, use the orthographic mode. This was used to find the direction to pull a ligand from its bound position out of the protein. The molecule was rotated until the user could look straight down to the ligand. The user then picked an atom on the ligand, causing a line (actually, a cylinder) to be drawn from the atom past the eye location, and the start and end points of the cylinder were printed for later use. PROCEDURES: eye_line - be sure to pick an atom before calling this EXAMPLE OUTPUT Sample of eye_line being used to guide the retinal center of bacteriorhodopsin out through the membrane helices. This image has been rotated by 90 degrees to make the outward cylinder visible. DOWNLOAD THE FILE: eye_line.tcl AUTHOR: Andrew Dalke (dalke@ks.uiuc.edu)