UCSF Chimera is a program for the interactive visualization and analysis of molecular structures and related data, including density maps, trajectories, and sequence alignments. It is available free of charge for noncommercial use. Commercial users, please see Chimera commercial licensing.

We encourage Chimera users to try ChimeraX for much better performance with large structures, as well as other major advantages and completely new features. ChimeraX includes a significant subset of Chimera features (with more to come, see the missing features list) and is under active development. Users may choose to use both programs, and it is fine to have both installed.

Chimera is no longer under active development, and is only updated for critical maintenance. Chimera development was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (P41-GM103311) that ended in 2018.

Feature Highlight

Morphing Density Maps

Related density maps can be compared by morphing from one to the other. Several intermediate maps are generated by interpolating between the starting and ending maps. The morph can be viewed interactively and recorded as a movie. The contour level can be adjusted automatically to keep the enclosed volume constant throughout the morph, and other aspects of map display can be adjusted with Volume Viewer.

(More features...)

---

Gallery Sample

G Protein Interface Surface

Heterotrimeric G protein (Protein Data Bank entry 1gg2) with the alpha subunit shown in green, the beta subunit in light blue, and the gamma subunit in brown. The Intersurf tool was used to show the interface between the alpha and beta subunits. The interface surface is colored to show the distance between atoms across the interface (red for closer together, blue for farther apart). (More samples...)