UCSF ChimeraX Early Access

UCSF ChimeraX is the next-generation visualization program from the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at UC San Francisco, following UCSF Chimera.

Features

Compared to Chimera, ChimeraX has a more modern user interface, better graphics, and much faster handling of large structures. For more information, see:

• ChimeraX Advantages, User Guide, Documentation Index, Change Log
• UCSF ChimeraX: Meeting Modern Challenges in Visualization and Analysis. (Goddard et al., Prot Sci. 2018)
• Integrative Modeling Demo (2016)
• Structures at the Experimental Forefront (2016)
• Next-Generation Graphics (2015)

Although similar in many aspects, ChimeraX is not backward compatible with Chimera and does not read Chimera session files.

Missing Features

While ChimeraX has several completely new features and other advantages, it will not substantially replace Chimera for some time. Current capabilities are somewhat limited and mostly implemented as commands only (not yet as graphical interfaces). Missing features relative to Chimera include calculation of axes/planes/centroids, dock prep, “worms” to show residue attributes, custom attributes, label by attribute, color key, 2D label GUI, per-model clipping, trajectory analysis other than simple playback, structure building, loop modeling, and many others. Chimera capabilities grew significantly over several years, and likewise, ChimeraX will contain more and more of these important features as development proceeds.

Downloads

• Daily Builds
• Production Releases
• Platform Notes
• Virtual Reality Notes

Daily Builds

Daily builds are generated automatically each night from the development source code (see the change log). While a given build may have unforeseen problems, these are often fixed by the next day.

Production Releases

Production releases are snapshots of the application that have been gently tested. They are provided so that users can fetch the same version of the application over time. To try out the latest features, please use the daily builds.

Release 0.91 (December 23, 2019)

Release 0.91 new features include:

• Graphical interfaces for Rotamers, Clashes, Contacts, and H-Bonds
• Tape-measure mouse mode to measure distances
• Multiple sequence alignment from Blast Protein results
• VR status and settings saved in sessions
• Augmented-reality video capture
• Maestro file reader available from Toolshed
• Improved MLP parameters for showing protein hydrophobicity
• Medical Image toolbar
• Segger tools: Segment Map watershed segmentation, Fit to Segments
• Fit in Map graphical interface
• Users can create their own presets
• 2D labels can be animated
• Map Eraser tool and mouse mode
• Measure and Color Blobs tool and mouse mode

Older Releases

Generic Linux Notes

The Generic Linux version does not run on Red Hat/CentOS 7, for those you need to install the CentOS 7 rpm. The Generic Linux version of ChimeraX is compiled on Debian 8 using gcc 4.9. It also runs on Ubuntu 16.04 and later versions. However, we recommend installing the debian package (.deb file) for your version of Ubuntu so all of the prerequistes are installed. Other Linux distributions have not been tested and might require additional libraries to be installed.

Windows Notes

ChimeraX requires Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 and 2017, which is typically already present on computers with up-to-date patches. In the future, this will be included as part of the installer.

ChemOffice 2002 supplies an ancient version of the OpenGL library that prevents ChimeraX from starting up. To fix it, you'll need to remove or rename its opengl32.dll file; typically found in "C:\Program Files (x86)\ChemOffice2002\Common\DLLs\opengl32.dll".