next up previous contents index
Next: Color Window Up: Description of each VMD Previous: Graphics Window   Contents   Index

Subsections


Labels Window

Figure 5.8: The Labels window
\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\par
\par
\latex{
\scalebox{0.550}{\includegraphics{pictures/ug_labels}}
}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

The Labels window is used to manipulate the labels which may be placed on atoms, and the geometry monitors which may be placed between atoms. Labels are selected with a mouse, as discussed in section 5.1.2. Once selected, the Labels window can be used to turn different labels on or off or to delete them entirely. Also, labels displaying geometrical data such as bond lengths may be graphically displayed using this window.


Label categories

The Category chooser (in the upper left) is used to select which category of labels to manipulate. The different label categories include:

All the labels for the selected category which have been previously added are displayed in the browser in the center of the window. The line itself contains from 1 to 4 atom names, depending on the category; the atom names have the form
<residue name><residue id>:<atom name>
followed by either (on) or (off). The last word indicates if the label is turned on or off.


Modifying or deleting a label

A label can be turned on or off without deleting it, by selecting the label in the central browser and pressing the Hide button. To turn it back on, select it again then press the Show button. Press the Delete button to delete it. This browser allows multiple selections, which, for example, allows you to delete several labels at once. To select everything in the current category, press Select All; to unselect them, press Unselect All. If nothing is selected, the action is applied to everything. Thus, one way to turn everything off is to press Unselect All then press Hide. (It may seem counterintuitive, but it was done this way so all the labels could be deleted by just pressing Delete.)


Pick information

The Picked Atom tab displays information about the last atom picked by the mouse. This information is also echoed to the vmd console. The data in the will remain in until a new label is selected by the mouse. Information about the following fields is identified:


Plotting a label's value

If the label has a numeric value (such as a bond length geometry monitor), it is easy to graph the change of the value over time (for multiple frames in an animation). The Graph button calls a Tcl script to plot the data for the selected labels. You can create your own script to handle label plotting simply by creating a Tcl proc named vmd_labelcb_user. The proc should accept three arguments. Have a look at the default scripts in the VMD scripts directory, found in the VMD installation directory under scripts/vmd/graphlabels.tcl. If no supported graphing program is available, a dialog box will be presented which will allow you to save the values of the labels to a file.


next up previous contents index
Next: Color Window Up: Description of each VMD Previous: Graphics Window   Contents   Index
vmd@ks.uiuc.edu