Conrad C. Huang

The design, implementation, and capabilities of an extensible visualization system, UCSF Chimera, are discussed. Chimera is segmented into a core that provides basic services and visualization, and extensions that provide most higher level functionality. This architecture ensures that the extension mechanism satisfies the demands of outside developers who wish to incorporate new features. Two unusual extensions are presented: Multiscale, which adds the ability to visualize large-scale molecular assemblies such as viral coats, and Collaboratory, which allows researchers to share a Chimera session interactively despite being at separate locales. Other extensions include Multalign Viewer, for showing multiple sequence alignments and associated structures; ViewDock, for screening docked ligand orientations; Movie, for replaying molecular dynamics trajectories; and Volume Viewer, for display and analysis of volumetric data. A discussion of the usage of Chimera in real-world situations is given, along with anticipated future directions. Chimera includes full user documentation, is free to academic and nonprofit users, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Apple Mac OS X, SGI IRIX, and HP Tru64 Unix from http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/.

UCSF ChimeraX is the next-generation interactive visualization program from the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics (RBVI), following UCSF Chimera. ChimeraX brings (a) significant performance and graphics enhancements; (b) new implementations of Chimera's most highly used tools, many with further improvements; (c) several entirely new analysis features; (d) support for new areas such as virtual reality, light-sheet microscopy, and medical imaging data; (e) major ease-of-use advances, including toolbars with icons to perform actions with a single click, basic "undo" capabilities, and more logical and consistent commands; and (f) an app store for researchers to contribute new tools. ChimeraX includes full user documentation and is free for noncommercial use, with downloads available for Windows, Linux, and macOS from https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax.

UCSF ChimeraX is next-generation software for the visualization and analysis of molecular structures, density maps, 3D microscopy, and associated data. It addresses challenges in the size, scope, and disparate types of data attendant with cutting-edge experimental methods, while providing advanced options for high-quality rendering (interactive ambient occlusion, reliable molecular surface calculations, etc.) and professional approaches to software design and distribution. This article highlights some specific advances in the areas of visualization and usability, performance, and extensibility. ChimeraX is free for noncommercial use and is available from http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/ for Windows, Mac, and Linux.