Troubleshooting and FAQ:
What are Chime and/or JMol tutorials?
The many molecular structures solved by
scientists provide an excellent educational/presentation tool to
communicate how many biological processes work. The
coordinates for solved structures (often in .pdb or .xyz file
format) are available all over the web, and there are just as
many visualization programs available. Although these
visualization programs allow complex visual manipulation of the
molecular structure, many find that the programs are not so
user-friendly, especially for students who simply want to
explore general characteristics of a complex. Chime and
JMol tutorials allow visualization and manipulation of molecular
structures through a internet browser interface. Often
complemented with animated scripts and detailed descriptions,
these tutorials are self-guided lessons intended to help the
viewer understand the structural and functional characteristics
of the complex.
How do I view Chime and/or JMol tutorials?
Chime is a free program offered by MDL.
Download is free from
www.mdl.com after registration on
their site. Although Chime is avaiable for both Mac and PC
platforms, the program has not been updated for compatibility
with more recent operating systems. You can Google for
instructions on how to install Chime for Firefox and other
popular browsers.
JMol is an open-source program intended to
replace Chime. Information on JMol is available on
www.jmol.org. JMol is a Java
based program and does not require a separate download or
program to be installed on the viewer's computer. It is
compatible with both Mac and PC operating systems. Most
common problems associated with JMol seems to be browsers with
old versions of the Java engine. Make sure you have the
most recent Java program installed on your computer (www.java.com).
The structures do not appear on my web
browser and/or the buttons to run scripts do not work.
Most common problems associated with JMol
seems to be browsers with old versions of the Java engine.
Make sure you have the most recent Java program installed on
your computer (www.java.com).
Use Firefox! Stop using Internet
Explorer!
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