Automatic styling or smart initial display refers to automatically adjusting the appearance of a newly opened atomic model based on its contents, as described below. The lighting is only adjusted if no other atomic models are already open. If only a volume model is opened, full lighting is used.
The process includes chemical perception, which can be slow and unnecessary for pseudoatom data not meant to be interpreted as atoms in molecules (e.g., a SAXS bead model in PDB format). Generating the initial representation can also be slow, for example, drawing ribbons for a very large number of models. Automatic styling can be circumvented by using the open command with autoStyle false. See also: color schemes, markers and links, presets, model information
Automatic styling rules, where the first applicable category is used:If there are 10-4999 biopolymer residues, they are shown as cartoons and atoms are hidden, except for:
Any hydrogens on carbons, however, are kept hidden.
Nucleotide sidechains are
colored by base type and
shown as tube/slab
in models with ≤100 nucleic acid residues,
ladder
in those with 101-2000 nucleic acid residues.