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VMD Command-Line Options
When started, the following command-line options may be given to
VMD. Note that if a command-line option does not start with a dash
(-), and is not part of another option, it is assumed to be a PDB
filename. Thus, the Unix command
vmd molecule.pdb
will start VMD and load a molecule from the file molecule.pdb.
On the Windows platform, one must preface the VMD invocation
with the Windows start command
start vmd molecule.pdb
- -h | -help :
Print a summary a command-line options to the console.
- -e filename :
After initialization, execute the text commands in filename, and
then resume normal operation.
- -python :
After initialization, switch to the Python interpreter before executing
commands in the file specified by -e (if any), and leave the text
interpreter in Python mode.
- filename :
Load the specified file at startup. The file type will be determined
from the filename extension; if there is no filename extension, and
the filename contains 4 letters, it is assumed to be a PDB accession
code and will be loaded accordingly; otherwise the format is assumed
to be PDB.
- -<filetype> filename :
Load the specified file using the given filetype.
- -f :
Load all subsequent files into the same molecule. This is the default.
A new molecule is created for each invocation of -f; thus,
vmd -f 1.pdb 2.pdb -f 3.pdb loads 1.pdb and 2.pdb into the
same molecule and 3.pdb into a different molecule.
- -m :
Load all subsequent files into separate molecules. The -f and
-m options may be specified multiple times on the command line
in order to load multiple molecule containing one or more files.
- -dispdev < win | text | cave | caveforms | none > :
Specify the type of graphical display to use. The possible display devices
include:
- win: a standard graphics display window.
- text: do not provide any graphics display window.
- cave: use the CAVE virtual environment for display,
forms are disabled.
- caveforms: use the CAVE virtual environment for display
and with forms enabled. This is useful with -display machine:0
for remote display of the forms when the CAVE uses the local screen.
- none: same as text.
It is possible to use VMD as a filter to convert coordinate files
into rendered images, by using the -dispdev text and -e options.
- -dist z :
Specify the distance to the VMD image plane.
- -height y :
Specify the height of the VMD image plane.
- -pos x y :
Specify the position for the graphics display window. The position
(x,y) is the number of pixels from the lower-left corner of the
display to the lower-left corner of the graphics window.
- -size x y :
Specify the size for the graphics display window, in pixels.
- -nt :
Do not display the VMD title at startup.
- -eofexit :
Make VMD exit when EOF on stdin is reached; for example, when a script
is redirected to VMD. The combination
vmd -dispdev text -eofexit < input.tcl > output.log
is useful for batch mode scripting.
- -startup filename :
Use filename as the VMD startup command script, instead of the
default .vmdrc or vmd.rc file.
- -debug [level :
Turn on output of debugging messages, and optionally set the current debug
level (1=few messages ... 5=many verbose messages). Note this is only useful
if VMD has been compiled with debugging option included.
Next: Environment Variables
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