VMD 1.7.1 Bugs

Alas, there are still bugs and "inconsistancies" in VMD. Following is a list of known problems and a description of how to work around them.
  • The Linux version VMD 1.7.1 will not run on PC's with the original Pentium processor. This problem is apparently caused by the version or build of Python that we used in the Linux version of VMD 1.7.1. The easiest workaround for this problem is to use a version of VMD compiled without Python for now. If you need such a version, please contact the VMD developers and we'll be happy to provide one for you.
  • Changing the "Color Scale Method" in the color menu does not immediately affect surface renderings. Only surfaces created after the setting is changed are correctly colored.
  • Some Windows ME systems fail to work correctly with the Winzip self-extracting software installer code. Unzipping manually works perfectly.
  • An incorrect PDB accession code or download failure causes a 0 atom molecule to be loaded rather than for an error/info message to be printed.
  • The MacOS-X version of VMD does not have a normally functioning help button. This is a deficiency in our implementation of web-based help on the Mac, and we are looking to provide a better solution soon, but time constraints prevented us from solving this issue prior to this release of the MacOS-X version.
  • The OpenGL versions of VMD use the standard GLX routines to ask for a visual that supports stereoscopic display. VMD then proceeds to use the standard GLX mechanisms for performing buffer swaps on the stereo visual. Some SGI systems will return a visual that supports a special form of stereo requiring special handling (i.e. the normal GLX calls have no effect). VMD does not presently contain the code necessary to support these systems.
  • There are a small number of rendering bugs in VMD related to the connections between tubes and beta sheets, and between tubes in the "cartoon" representation. These will be fixed in a future version of VMD. (there are tiny gaps between the end of tubes, sheets, or cartoons in some circumstances)
  • Changing some of the atom information (secondary structure classification, beta and occupancy values, etc.) doesn't update the graphics display automatically. Workaround: press the "Apply Changes" button on the graphics form.