Getting started

Application home screen

New Project

Creating a new project with Biomovies is as easy as clicking the Create new project button (or via menu: Project > New Project) and selecting a 3D biological structure file (in PDB or MMCIF format) from the user’s computer.

Shortcut: ⌘/Ctrl + ⇧ + N

New Project with Trajectory

The process of creating a new project with a trajectory starts by clicking the Create new project with trajectory button (or via menu: Project > New Project with Trajectory) and selecting a 3D biological structure file (in PDB or MMCIF format) as a topology and its corresponding trajectory (in NETCDF, XTC or DCD format) from the user’s computer. Note that both files must be selected at the same time, so it’s recommended to have them in the same folder at the time of creating the new project.

Be aware that, if the trajectory doesn’t fit the topology, errors will happen in the representation of the structure. It is very important too that the trajectory is well created and tested with its corresponding topology in a visualization program such as VMD .

Take into account that, depending on the trajectory size and the memory of the computer, the loading process can take a while. Consider as well that, if the trajectory is big and the project is saved in a .biomovies file, this file will contain the trajectory along with the topology. So, consequently, the final size of the project file will be big as well.

In those cases it can be worth considering exporting the project as a template instead of saving it as a project. A template only saves the project information (but not the structure and the trajectory) and, therefore, the file size is really small.

Shortcut: ⌘/Ctrl + ⇧ + T

Open Project

Just click the Open project button (or via menu: Project > Open Project or Project > Open Recent) and select a .biomovies file from the user’s computer. A .biomovies file contains all the necessary information of the project, including the 3D structure file and the trajectory file (if necessary).

Recent projects can be opened as well from the JumpList in Windows and from the Application dock menu in macOS.

Shortcut: ⌘/Ctrl + ⇧ + O

Import Template

Templates are a very interesting option for applying the same video edition to different structures. They are worth considering too for sharing a project, since a template only saves the project information (but not the structure and the trajectory) and, therefore, the file size is really small.

Clicking the Import template button (or via menu: Project > Import Template) will ask to select a .tbiomovies file from the user’s computer. As the .tbiomovies file only contains the necessary information to create a new project but not the 3D structure file and the trajectory file (if necessary), after loading it, a new dialog window will ask for this 3D structure file and the trajectory file (if it is a trajectory template). After these two steps, a new project is created applying the actions of the template on the new 3D structure (and the trajectory if provided).

Shortcut: ⌘ + ⇧ + I for macOS, Ctrl + Alt + I for Windows / Ubuntu

Help

A broad documentation has been written and is available in this same Read the Docs. Besides, there are several video examples available in the Gallery as well as some Tutorials in the official website .

Common shortcuts

When launching the application, a list of common shortcuts is shown (see figure Application home screen in this same section). However, a list with all the shortcuts available can be found in the Utilities section.