VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 30 2014 - 22:31:31 CDT

Carlos,
  Sorry for the slow reply, I've been swamped and I'm slowly catching up...
For collaborative group meeting scenarios, have you tried using the new
Android VMD remote control app yet? If you're an iPhone user we don't yet
have an app there, but I'm sure at least some of your colleagues must have
an Android phone, so I'd love to get your feedback on the remote control
app and whether you find it a usable alternative to a mouse/keyboard for
the scenarios you describe and why/why not.

See the remote control plugin:
  http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/remote/

The latest test versions of VMD 1.9.2 have a greatly improved version
of the plugin and a new version of the app. My colleague Kirby can
fill you in on some of the details if you're curious.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 12:42:32PM -0400, Carlos Simmerling wrote:
> Hi John,
> that sounds fine. I don't have any favorite tools that we'd want to mimic,
> but a button combination to switch the mouse to translate would help a
> lot. I really using like the mouse wheel for scaling- something like that
> for translating...A
> I'll look into Josh's suggesting of remapping a gaming mouse. What I do
> now is hover on the keyboard like he suggested, I'm just trying to get
> away from that if possible (especially for group discussions where we can
> easily pass a wireless mouse around).
> carlos
>
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 12:33 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
> A At present, there isn't a VMD "mouse chord" mode that would allow
> these kinds of manipulations without the mode switching, but I could
> look into adding one. A There are minor challenges implementing this
> across
> all of the windowing systems, but it is doable with appropriate time
> spent.
>
> One question I would ask is what mouse chords people would prefer as a
> way
> of doing "translate while in rotate mode", or "rotate while in translate
> mode",
> etc?
>
> Charles Schwieters has an alternative mouse input scheme implemented in
> VMD-XPLOR, which is a slightly modified version of VMD. A For some time
> I've wanted to unify his custom mouse input scheme with the standard VMD
> mouse input scheme, perhaps allowing users to choose their favorite
> mouse
> input scheme from a menu, for example. A This would allow VMD to mimick
> the mouse input schemes used by other tools, which may make it more
> user friendly for people that make heavy use of other visualization
> tools
> where they've grown accustomed to a different mouse input style.
>
> If people have favorite mouse input schemes, I'd be happy to hear them
> and to consider implementing them in a future rev.
>
> Cheers,
> A John Stone
> A vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 11:49:48AM -0400, Josh Vermaas wrote:
> > A A If you had a "gaming" mouse with side buttons, I think its
> doable, as
> > A A those buttons can be mapped to keys easily and simulate hitting r
> and t.
> > A A Most of the people in lab use one hand on their mouse, and the
> other
> > A A hovering over the r & t keys if they are doing rotations +
> translations.
> > A A -Josh Vermaas
> >
> > A A On 6/25/14, 10:30 AM, Carlos Simmerling wrote:
> >
> > A A A Thanks - I do know about these and it's what I do now. It just
> slows
> > A A A things down to have to go to the keyboard all the time. A
> button
> > A A A combination would be much more convenient...
> >
> > A A A On Jun 24, 2014 4:37 PM, "Ajasja Ljubetic"
> <ajasja.ljubetic_at_gmail.com>
> > A A A wrote:
> >
> > A A A A Hi,
> > A A A A There are keyboard shortcuts "r" for rotate and "t" for
> translate,
> > A A A A that make switching very easy & painless for me. Does that
> also help
> > A A A A with your use case?
> > A A A A Regards,
> > A A A A Ajasja
> >
> > A A A A On 24 June 2014 20:17, Carlos Simmerling
> <carlos.simmerling_at_gmail.com>
> > A A A A wrote:
> >
> > A A A A A hi all- is there any way to use a combination of mouse
> buttons to
> > A A A A A translate while staying in rotate mode for the mouse?
> it's
> > A A A A A inconvenient when navigating a molecule to have to keep
> switch modes
> > A A A A A if you just want to shift the view a little but maintain
> rotate
> > A A A A A mode.
> > A A A A A thanks
>
> --
> NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ A A A A A Phone: 217-244-3349
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/ 

-- 
NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/           Phone: 217-244-3349
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/