How do I generate an attractive, publication-quality figure in Maestro of a molecular surface of a protein colored by electrostatic potential that looks something like the image below?

Follow these steps:

1. In the Style toolbar, select "Quality" from the Rendering button (Suite 2011 on).
2. If partial charges have not already been calculated for your protein, select Tools → Assign Partial Charges
3. Generate a molecular surface (Workspace → Surface → Molecular Surface) by selecting All or specifying atoms, set the "Image quality" to "High", and then click "Create Surface".
4. Click on the "S" in the Title cell in the Project Table corresponding to the entry that is included in the Workspace, or select Workspace → Surface → Manage Surfaces. Select the row corresponding to the surface you generated in (3), and then click "Display Options". Choose "Property" and then "Electrostatic Potential" as the Color Scheme. Choose the "Red White Blue" color ramp and set the minimum to -0.12 and the maximum to 0.12.
5. Choose Workspace → Appearance and select the Lighting tab. Set the Ambient, Diffuse, Specular for light1 to 50, 50, 100, and for light2 set these to 25, 80, 0 (make sure "Use light" is selected for light2). In the Materials tab in the same panel, select Surfaces as the Object type and click the Metallic preset.
6. Make sure Fog is on (View toolbar), and then enhance the fog by clicking on the "Enhance Depth Cues" toolbar button (also in the View toolbar).
7. Select Workspace → Save Image or click the "Save an image of the Workspace" button on the Workspace toolbar. Select PNG format, Transparent Background, and 300 DPI, and click Save.

Keywords: surface, electrostatic potential, publication quality, Maestro

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