What is a Demo?

A demo is a presentation within Chimera. A demo can include several panels, where a panel generally consists of:

A demo source file contains the instructions to Chimera for running a demo. A demo source file and any associated data files together contain all of the demo information. Simply opening the demo source file in Chimera will start the demo. Any data files opened by the demo should be in the same directory as the source file, unless the source file specifies otherwise. The demo source file type can be designated by the suffix .src (part of the filename) or the prefix demo: (not part of the filename).

The demo source file format is XML; however, it is not necessary to learn the details of the format because the Demo Editor provides a graphical interface for creating such files. An older (2004), non-XML source file format is also supported for the purposes of running a demo.

Running a Demo

A Chimera demo can be started by opening a demo source file or a Chimera web data file that has a demo embedded. Demos included with Chimera can be started from the Tools... Demos menu.

At each step in a demo, changes may occur within the main Chimera window and text may be shown in a separate demo dialog. Buttons on the dialog control the demo:

The models in the demo can be moved as desired; changes in position and scale are automatically corrected for by the demo mechanism.

Within a demo, text shown as a link may be a standard link to a web page (URL) or may connect to a set of commands or code that will execute when the text is clicked. Right-clicking on the link text brings up a context menu to:

In addition, a linked URL will be shown in a balloon when the cursor is hovered over the link text.

The demo dialog includes menus:

Creating a Demo Demo Editor icon

The tool for creating a demo can be opened by choosing Tools... Demos... Demo Editor from the menu. Other ways to start it include choosing File... Open in Editor from the menu of a demo that is running. A demo source file can be created from scratch or by modifying an existing source file.

The Demo Editor includes its own menus:

The Panels section of the Demo Editor lists the panels in the demo. Clicking the name of a panel makes it the current panel: its name is highlighted and its information shown in the the Demo Editor. New adds a new panel below the current panel, if any (otherwise at the bottom of the list). Delete deletes the current panel. The up and down arrow buttons move the current panel up and down in the list. The order in the list is the order in which the panels will be shown when the demo is run.

Demo Editor - Panel Content

The Panel Content section of the Demo Editor specifies the content of an individual panel:

The Panel Options section of the Demo Editor includes properties of an individual panel:

The Demo Options section of the Demo Editor includes general properties of the demo:

For a demo to be listed in the Tools... Demos menu, there must be a corresponding directory under share/Demo/demos/. The directory should include the demo's source file (named demo.src) and any associated data files. For example, the file share/Demo/demos/COX_Demo/demo.src contains the instructions for the demo that is started by choosing Tools... Demos... Cyclooxygenase Demo from the menu. The name that appears in the menu is set within the file share/Demo/ChimeraExtension.py.


UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory / June 2005