VMD-L Mailing List

From: Morizono, Hiroki (HMorizono_at_cnmcresearch.org)
Date: Thu Nov 30 2006 - 09:07:51 CST

This is slightly off topic--but it originates from VMD--
my kids saw the physical models of the light harvesting complex, and
wanted to build space filled protein structures as
holiday ornaments, and we were looking for any pointers on how to go about it.
(without the cost associated with 3Dpowder and a Zprinter)
The thought was to somehow output slices at some reasonable Z spacing
as a set of images, glue them to cardboard, cut them out (imps with scissors work for cheap,
and it keeps them occupied) and assemble them like the bust of Arthur Fiedler
near the Boston Half Shell. http://www.bostonfiremuseum.com/fiedler_photo_gallery/Image4.gif
Can VMD do this directly?
Alternatively, does anyone know of any VRML or STL manipulation program,
preferably open source, that might help accomplish this?
Another thought was to use clipping planes, and move the clipping plane up, capture
each image frame, and print those.
Are there any better solutions?

Thanks,
Hiroki