Chimera versions are available for X windows and for native Aqua windows. We recommend the X windows version because of the many problems with the current port of the Aqua Tk window toolkit that Chimera uses.
Chimera runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.
To install Chimera, open the disk image file you downloaded. This will put the Chimera application on your desktop. This may have happened automatically when you downloaded.
If more than one person will be using Chimera, the Applications folder is a good place to put it. Moving it to that folder requires administrator privileges. If it is only for your use, putting it in your home Applications folder or leaving it on the desktop are reasonable choices.
Chimera is normally started by double clicking on its icon. If you want to start it from the command-line use the following executable
Chimera.app/Contents/MacOS/chimera
To deinstall Chimera, drag it to the trash.
Most of the following problems are caused by bugs in the Aqua port of the Tk window toolkit. They cause significant difficulties using the program. Tested with Chimera version 1.2524 and Tk 8.5 on June 3, 2008.
Unresponsive when Model Panel shown. When Model Panel is shown the CPU usage jumps to ~60% even when nothing is being done, and many tasks hang (quitting, opening volumes, running benchmarks, ...). This also occurs when several other dialogs which contain multicolumn tables (implemented with Tix ScrolledHList) are shown such as Axes, Rotamers, CASTp, and Modbase dialogs.
Click to focus. It takes two clicks to press a button or perform an action in a dialog that does not have the focus. This leads to frequent confusion about why nothing has happened. For example, ctrl click on an atom does nothing if the graphics window does not already have the focus.
Dialog menus appear at top of screen. Chimera has several dialogs that have their own menubars (multalign viewer, volume viewer, volume tracer, demo tool, IDLE python shell) in addition to the graphics window menubar. The menubar for the active window is shown at the top of the screen. This is confusing and tedious to use. Attempts to force the menubars to appear in the dialog (e.g. volume viewer) create menu buttons that look like option menu buttons.
Double clicking broken when Model Panel shown. Double clicking on any Chimera dialog does not work if Model Panel is showing. Closing the model panel makes double clicking work again. This is believed to be caused by Tk bug 684319.
Tool names do not appear in Preferences/Tools. The left column of Preferences / Tools shows blank fields where the tool names are supposed to appear. Also the headings for the checkbutton columns are not displayed.
Dragging PDB file onto icon does not open file. Apple event handling is disabled because it causes Chimera to crash. Apple events are only used for detecting files dropped on the Chimera icon.
Text in reply log cannot be selected. This prevents cutting and pasting text from the reply log.
Some tabbed panes don't look like tabbed panes. About a dozen dialogs use Pmw tabbed panes that have normal raised buttons representing the tabs. Appears that flat relief buttons are not supported by Aqua Tk. Example: Distances dialog.
Multi-column menus are not supported. Actions/Color menu has a second column with an entry at the bottom "all of above" which is confusing when the menu appears in a single column.
Colored background for menu entries appears not to be supported. Effects Actions/Color menu.
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