What is the difference between 'scenes' and 'views'?
One well-received feature in Maestro 9.1 is the ability to save multiple views. Maestro has long had the ability to save a single view – in other words, to save a perspective from which the Workspace is shown. Now, the ability to save multiple views allows you to quickly jump between different, frequently used vantage points during the course of day-to-day work.
However, what if you want to save not only the perspective from which the Workspace is shown, but also structures and their appearance in the perspective view?
Maestro 9.1 introduces a new feature called “scenes,” for that exact purpose. When you save a scene, you save not only the perspective from which you view the Workspace, but also the contents of the Workspace and their exact appearance. This includes things like surfaces, protein ribbons, coloring, and atom and bond representation modes.
When preparing for a presentation, you might save multiple scenes, each scene illustrating a promising lead compound and its most important receptor-ligand interactions. During the presentation, you can manipulate the rendering style used – and even experiment with novel chemical modifications – and then revert to the saved scene as needed.
In brief: Views only save the perspective from which the Workspace is shown and is agnostic to the strucutre in the Workspace. Scenes save everything about the Workspace – including structures, coloring, and more.
How to save scenes and views
To save views, make sure that the Views toolbar is visible (Maestro > Toolbars > Views). Then click the Save View icon in the Views toolbar. Use the numbered buttons or arrow keys in the toolbar to jump between views. To delete saved views, click the toolbar icon to Manage Views (the rightmost icon in the Views toolbar).
To save a scene, choose Workspace > Scenes > New from the Maestro menu bar. To navigate through scenes using a toolbar, choose Workspace > Scenes > View. To delete saved scenes choose Workspace > Scenes > Manage.
Did you know you can also export saved scenes to a standalone Maestro project? First, in the Manage Scenes interface, simply select the saved scenes you’re interested in. Then click Export Presentation. The selected scenes will be exported to a zipped project that you can share with colleagues.
Operating on selections in the Workspace
Right-clicking in the Workspace will allow you to quickly and easily perform many of the common tasks that can be performed using the toolbar. Exactly what tasks you can perform will depend upon where you click, but perhaps the most helpful options are exposed when you right-click a set of selected atoms. For example, to display only certain atoms in the Workspace, you could do the following :
• Choose to select residues. Use the Select atoms toolbar button, or press the keyboard shortcut R (see Figure 1).
• Click and drag in the Workspace to select a collection of nearby residues, or control-click to select distinct residues. Selected residues will be highlighted.
• Right click on one of the selected atoms. Choose "Display only Selected" to display only the selected atoms (see Figure 2).
Figure 1: Screenshot showing how to select residues in the Workspace (and not atoms, molecules, chains, etc.)
Figure 2: Screenshot showing how to display only selected residues in the Workspace
Once an atom or several atoms have been selected in the Workspace, right-clicking on the selected atom(s) exposes many operations, including the ability to:
• Modify the atom selection
• Show or hide atoms
• Mutate residues
• Change the conformational state of a residue (using the
"Rotamers…" option)
• Remove an entry from the Workspace, or select it in the
Project Table
• Move one set of atoms (Transform) relative to others
Preferences panel
If you’ve ever wondered how you can change default behaviors in Maestro, try exploring the preferences settings. These are available in the menu bar under Maestro > Preferences… Among the behaviors whose default settings you can change are:
• Project behavior and Workspace appearance
• 2D structure appearance
• 3D builder preferences
One of the most useful options that can be found under the Preferences menu is in the Workspace tab. Click the Feedback… button to choose properties to display in the Workspace when only a single entry is shown. This so-called "single-entry feedback" behavior can be toggled on and off using the S key, or by choosing Property > Single Entry Feedback in the Project Table menu bar.
Try exploring the Preferences panel on your own - not only is this a good way to customize Maestro to your specific needs, but you might even learn about features that you aren't aware of.