Illustrate: Documentation

Compiling and Running

Compile the fortran code: gfortran illustrate.f -o illustrate

Run the program: illustrate < command_file

Command file is read from unit 5 (standard in), and a bunch of diagnostic stuff is written to unit 6 (standard out)

Command File Format

Command file has command cards (read, center, world, calculate, etc), followed by parameter cards needed for each command

Please issue command cards in this order:

  •     read — reads coordinates and selection/rendering parameters
  •     center, translate, xrot, yrot, zrot, scale commands, in any order
  •     world — defines rendering parameter
  •     illustrate — defines illustration parameters
  •     calculate — renders the image and writes ppm file

This program has many idiosyncracies and almost no error checking (beware…postdoc code from the 90s!):

  •  Selection/rendering cards in the “read” command are read sequentially until one without “ATOM” or “HETATM” is found. Atoms are compared to cards in order, and if a match is found, the atom is assigned those parameters. This process provides a lot of flexibility with very few cards, if you’re clever about the order of cards and the use of wildcards.
  • Any number of rotation cards may be added, and they are concatenated when added. This means they are effectively applied last to first, so if you’re progressively refining an orientation, add new rotations to the top of the list.
  • Rotations are applied first, then centering, and finally translation. This ensures that the molecule is always centered in the view. Use the translation if you want it offset.
  • Origin at upper left, +x down, +y left to right, +z towards viewer, molecules clipped at z=0

About the Outlines

Outlines are created by calculating the local derivative of the z-value using a variety of kernels, then providing a range of values of these derivatives that will be given shades of gray and black. Outlines may be drawn based on the contours and outer shape of the molecule, between subunits, and based on the differences in the residue number in chains.

Sample Command File for PDB entry 2hhb (Hemoglobin)

read                                          #READ command
2hhb.pdb                                         #PDB format coordinate file
HETATM-----HOH-- 0,9999, 0.5,0.5,0.5, 0.0        #selection/rendering cards
ATOM  -H-------- 0,9999, 0.5,0.5,0.5, 0.0          # omits hydrogens
ATOM  H--------- 0,9999, 0.5,0.5,0.5, 0.0          # omits hydrogens with long atom names
ATOM  -C-------A 0,9999, 1.0,0.6,0.6, 1.6          # draws carbon atoms in chain A, pink
ATOM  -S-------A 0,9999, 1.0,0.5,0.5, 1.8
ATOM  ---------A 0,9999, 1.0,0.5,0.5, 1.5          # draws the rest of chain A atoms
ATOM  -C-------C 0,9999, 1.0,0.6,0.6, 1.6          # similarly for chain C
ATOM  -S-------C 0,9999, 1.0,0.5,0.5, 1.8
ATOM  ---------C 0,9999, 1.0,0.5,0.5, 1.5
ATOM  -C-------- 0,9999, 1.0,0.8,0.6, 1.6          # draws remaining protein carbons, light orange
ATOM  -S-------- 0,9999, 1.0,0.7,0.5, 1.8
ATOM  ---------- 0,9999, 1.0,0.7,0.5, 1.5
HETATMFE---HEM-- 0,9999, 1.0,0.8,0.0, 1.8          # draws heme iron, yellow
HETATM-C---HEM-- 0,9999, 1.0,0.3,0.3, 1.6
HETATM-----HEM-- 0,9999, 1.0,0.1,0.1, 1.5
END                                              #end of READ command
center                                       #CENTER command
auto                                             #use autocentering
trans                                        #TRANSLATION command
0.,0.,0.                                         #x,y,z for translation
scale                                        #SCALE command
12.0                                             #scale value (pixels/A)
zrot                                         #ROTATION command
90.                                              #rotation angle (deg)
wor                                          #WORLD command (rendering parameters)
1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0                  #rgbback, rgbfog, fogparams
1,0.0023,2.0,1.0,0.2                             #soft shadow parameters
-30,-30                                          #image size with autosizing
illustrate                                   #ILLUSTRATION command
3.0,10.0,4,0.0,5.0                               #contour outlines
3.0,10.0                                         #subunit outlines
3.0,8.0,6000.                                    #residue outlines
calculate                                    #CALCULATE command
2hhb.pnm                                         #image file name in ppm 

COMMAND CARDS

READ command

PDB filename

Selection/rendering cards

         record name (A6) “ATOM  “ or “HETATM”, matched with columns 1-6 of PDB file

         atom descriptor (A10) matched with columns 13-22 of PDB file, “-” is a wildcard

         residue range low, high (integer)

         color r,g,b (3 real)  0.0-1.0

         radius (real) angstrom, value of 0.0 will omit the atom

CENTER command

centering type (a3)

        “aut”  (auto) will autocenter with no clipping

        “cen” (center) will center on max/min coordinates in xyz

TRANSLATE command

translation vector x,y,z (3 real) translation in Angstroms

XROT, YROT, ZROT commands

rotation angle (real) rotation angle in degrees

SCALE command

scale value (real) pixels/Angstrom

WORLD command

Background and fog parameters

    rback r,g,b (3 real) color of background (0.0-1.0)

    rfog r,g,b (3 real) color of fog (0.0-1.0)

    pfogh, pfogl (2 real) fractional transparency of fog at front and back of molecule

                                       (0.0-1.0, 1.0=no fog)

Soft shadow parameters

        icone (integer) 0=no shadows, 1=shadows

        pcone (real) fractional shadowing around each atom

                             larger=darker (0.0-1.0, typically 0.0023)

        coneangle (real) angle of shadowing around each atom

                            larger=tighter region (0.0-1.0, typically 2.0)

        rcone (real) shadowing only applied if z-difference greater than this value

                           (Angstroms, typically 1.0)

        pshadowmax (real) maximal shadowing amount

                            smaller=darker (0.0-1.0, typically 0.7)

ILLUSTRATE command

Contour outline parameters

        l_low, l_high (2 real) thresholds for gray to black

                 typically values from about 3.0-20.0, best values for typical atomic illustrations: 3.0, 10.0

        ikernel (integer) kernel for derivative calculation (1,2,3,4 smoothest=4)

        l_diff_min, l_diff_max (2 integer) range of z-difference used for derivative (Angstroms)

                    0.0,1.0 gives outlines around every atom

                    0.0,1000.0 gives only outline around molecule

                    0.0,5.0 is typical

Subunit outline parameters

        l_low, l_high (2 real) thresholds for gray to black (typically ~ 3.0-20.0)

Residue outline parameters

        l_low, l_high (2 real) thresholds for gray to black (typically ~ 3.0-20.0)

        resdiff (real) difference in residue numbers to draw outlines

CALCULATE command

Filename for PPM format file