Movement Mouse Mode

Movement Mouse Mode enables moving part or all of a molecule model (and not other parts or other models) with the mouse regardless of activation status. The set of atoms to move can be a selection, chain, secondary structure element, or whole molecule model. This tool allows making coarse modifications to structures, after which their coordinates can be saved.

There are several ways to start Movement Mouse Mode, a tool in the Structure Editing and Movement categories.

The dialog controls which items will rotate and translate in response to mouse manipulations:

• Normal (default) - all models that are activated for motion
• Move selection - the currently selected atoms and/or surface pieces; when nothing is selected, as Normal
• Move molecule - the molecule model under the cursor when the mouse button was pressed; when no molecule model was under the cursor, as Normal
• Move chain - the chain under the cursor when the mouse button was pressed; when no chain was under the cursor, as Normal
• Move helix, strand, or turn - the helix, strand, or other peptide chain segment (comprised of residues containing CA) under the cursor when the mouse button was pressed; when no such segment was under the cursor, as Normal

Nonstandard movements (by mouse modes other than Normal) occur regardless of model activation status. There is no consideration of what is physically reasonable; any bonds between movable and immovable parts will simply stretch and distort. Nonstandard movements can be undone and redone by clicking the Undo Move and Redo Move buttons, respectively. A history of up to 100 nonstandard movements is stored. Positions are only logged after pauses in motion of at least 1 second. (The separate Undo/Redo Move tool handles only standard movements.)

The center of rotation is as described in the Rotation tool, except that only the movable atoms are considered when calculating the bounding box for the center of models method.