Session files

PMV 1.5.6 introduces a new session file. It no longer relies on log strings and on playing back the entire session, which was error prone and slow.

The new session file is self-contained: you can send it to another user and it restores the session. It contains a Python script that issues all the PMV commands needed to create the molecular geometries and configure them as they were when the session was saved. Vision networks are saved and restored too.

Session files are gzipped tar files with the extension .psf (PMV Session File).

NoteLimitations
  • Molecules read from PDBQ, PDBQT and PDBQS files are saved in their original format. All other molecules are currently saved as PDB files, which can lose information (for example from mol2 files).
  • Only ATOM, HETATM and CONECT records are saved for molecules in a session file. For example, a molecule read from a PDB file with secondary structure records loses these records when restored from a session, so its secondary structure is assigned programmatically and may differ from the PDB records.
  • Some representations are not restored: splines, CA traces, distance, angle and torsion measurements, and isosurfaces of volumetric data.
  • Geometry not created by PMV (for example created in Vision) is not restored.
WarningKnown bug

PMV molecules used in Vision networks are not restored.

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