Cartoon

Cartoon Command

DESCRIPTION

"cartoon" changes the default cartoon for a set of atoms.

USAGE

  cartoon type, (selection)

  type = skip | automatic | loop | rectangle | oval | tube | arrow | dumbbell

PYMOL API

   cmd.cartoon(string type, string selection )

EXAMPLES

  cartoon rectangle,(chain A)
  cartoon skip,(resi 145:156)

NOTES

   the "automatic" mode utilizes ribbons according to the
  information in the PDB HELIX and SHEET records.

Adjusting width of cartoon

Try varying the following.

For strands:

cartoon_rect_length
cartoon_rect_width

For helices:

cartoon_oval_length
cartoon_oval_width

or for "fancy" helices: cartoon_dumbell_length cartoon_dumbell_width cartoon_dumbell_radius (radius of cylinder at edge of helix ribbon) In each case "length" refers to what some might call the width and "width" refers to what some might call the thickness.

Cartoon Representation Example

Forcing Exact Boundaries in Coloring Secondary Structures

To force PyMol to respect secondary structural elements color-wise (PyMol smooths out colors near color chagnes for a prettier image) use the following PyMol command: set cartoon_discrete_colors, on

Discrete Coloring Off

Discrete Coloring On

Sausage Representation

The familiar sausage representation in PyMol is called, "putty". To enable the putty/sausage view simply do,

show cartoon
cartoon putty
unset cartoon_smooth_loops
unset cartoon_flat_sheets

Black and White Representation

For those who want a nifty black and white representation of their protein try the following:

Ray trace your protein of choice in a cartoon representation use a BLACK background
Save the image
Load the image in GIMP

Black BG Ribbon
Desaturate or Grayscale the image

Grayscale
Run the filter: Filter->Edge-Detect->Edge

Edge Detect
Select: Layers->Color->Invert

Invert Color

Comments: Different methods of edge detection will give you different results. In the last example, I used Laplace Edge-Detect, then painted an all white layer beneath the current layer to achieve the results.

Other Styles

I'm sure there are other ways to do this. If you want to include it in a publication make sure you ray traced it large enough. For that, see Creating Publication Quality Images.