The command surfcolor sets the surface coloring mode (effectively the color source or level at which coloring is defined), but not the color itself. The mode can be byatom or bymodel. The color of the surface does not necessarily match the color of the items at the same level, since at each level the "self" and surface color assignments may differ (see coloring hierarchy). If no model_number is supplied, all open models will be affected. The model_number(s) should be preceded by #, as in a normal atom specification.
For surface color to be visibly controlled by the command color, the surface color source must be atoms (mode byatom). The surface color source can also be set in the molecular surface attributes panel. The mode is normally byatom unless specifically set otherwise (for example, by using Surface Color).
See also: color, modelcolor, surface, the molecular surface attributes panel, the Actions menu