Tips for Using Maestro

To center any atom in the Workspace, middle-click on that atom. For PrimeX users, this also centers the electron density on that atom.

Molecular rendering can be controlled with the Atoms and bonds settings of the Preferences Panel. Here, you can modify molecular rendering options such as line width thickness, resolution, etc.

To undo an action, press Ctrl+Z (⌘Z) or choose Edit → Undo action in the main window. Maestro supports multiple levels of undo. To redo an action that was just undone, press Ctrl+Shift+Z (⇧⌘Z) or choose Edit → Redo action.

Use the Molecule Number or Molecule Number (Carbons) color scheme to rapidly identify a noncovalently bound ligand in a protein as well as any chain breaks that might be present.

To quickly zoom in on a residue in a protein, display the Sequence Viewer, right-click on a residue, and select Fit to Workspace from the shortcut menu.

Right-clicking on an atom in the Workspace provides quick access to many useful operations, such as changing the style, mutating residues, deleting, changing element. See Main Window Shortcut Menus for more information.

Right-click in the title region of the Sequence Viewer (left pane) for a number of useful options, such as color schemes, font sizes, secondary structure assignment, alignment by residue number, and saving an image.

Surfaces can be clipped separately from atoms in the Workspace. First, display the clipping planes window by choosing Window → Clipping Planes. Next, right-click in the clipping planes window and choose Surfaces from the shortcut menu. Drag the orange lines to adjust clipping of the surfaces. See Adjusting the Clipping for more information.

There are many keyboard shortcuts in Maestro. For example, Ctrl+L (⌘L) tiles the Workspace . For a full list of shortcuts, see Using the Keyboard in Maestro.

Function keys can be customized to your needs, using the Function Key Macros settings in the Preferences Panel. Choose to open the Function Key Macros panel. F2 through F12 can now be programmed to perform a set of desired operations. F1 is reserved for opening the help.

The Protein Preparation Workflow provides an interactive way to set up your protein system. Many operations can be automatically performed, such as assigning bond orders, generating a set of reasonable ionization and tautomeric states for ligands, predicting rotameric states for Asn, Gln, and His, optimizing hydroxyl and thiol torsions, and performing a constrained minimization on the system. Use the Protein Preparation button on the Favorites toolbar to open it. See Protein Preparation Workflow Panel for more information.

Jobs can be monitored and controlled through our Job Control facility, which is available in Maestro by choosing Window → Job Monitor, or from the command line by typing $SCHRODINGER/jobcontrol.

Saving a project allows you to keep a running "lab book" of your work. Once a project is saved the first time, the work you do in that project is automatically saved. It can also be shared with your colleagues. The same Maestro project can be opened on all platforms.

To select one or more rows in the Project Table (highlighted yellow), use control- and shift-click. Operations can be performed on this entire set by right-clicking. The set of selected entries can also be dragged up or down to move these rows as a block in the Project Table.

Properties in the Project Table can easily be hidden and program-specific subsets can be selectedfrom the Property Tree or from the Show toolbar button menu. For example, to show only the properties that have values for at least one of the selected entries, choose For Selected Entries. See Organizing Properties for more information.

Use the ePlayer to perform repetitive operations on entries in the Project Table. In the Project Table, choose Options from the ePlayer menu to specify a command file to run on each selected entry. See The ePlayer for more information.

To copy a property value to other rows in the same column, first select the rows, then edit the property value and press Ctrl+Enter (⌘Enter).

Right-click on the header cells of the Project Table for useful options, such as sorting, setting displayed decimal places, clearing values, and adjusting column width.

The Build toolbox provides an easy way to build molecules in the Workspace. The Draw button can be used to sketch molecules or connect existing molecules with bonds. See Building and Editing Structures for more information.

Global preferences can be set in the Preferences Panel (Edit → Preferences or Maestro → Preferences on Mac).

The Pose Viewer allows quick viewing of H-bonds and clashes from Glide docking results. Just import your Glide Pose Viewer file into Maestro. If the Pose Viewer Panel doesn't open automatically, right-click on the group row for the poses in the Project Table and choose View Poses. You can then use Ctrl+RIGHT ARROW (⌘RIGHT ARROW) to step through the poses, Ctrl+LEFT ARROW (⌘LEFT ARROW) to step back up the list.