Tiling the Workspace

The entries or surfaces in the Workspace can be arranged in a rectangular grid of "tiles", with each entry assigned to a tile. This operation is called tiling, and is done by one of the following methods:

The number of rows or columns in the grid can be specified from the Workspace shortcut menu after you have tiled the Workspace.

There are three tiling modes, which can be selected in theWorkspace Configuration toolbox from the Tile by menu.

  • Entry—This is the default mode, in which each entry in the Workspace occupies a separate tile, except for fixed entries, which are displayed in every tile.

  • Group—In this mode, all entries that are in the same entry group are displayed in the same tile. This mode allows you, for example, to display several proteins with their ligands in the Workspace, and use the ePlayer to step through ligands for a given receptor.

  • Surface—In this mode, each surface that is displayed in the Workspace is placed in a separate tile, along with the corresponding structure. Surfaces for fixed entries are displayed in every tile, and entries that are displayed in the Workspace that do not have surfaces are displayed in their own tiles, at the end of the grid (i.e. they are treated as having a single surface that is null). This mode allows you to display multiple surfaces for a single entry in separate tiles, such as molecular orbitals or SiteMap surfaces.

Tiles are initially displayed in the order in which the entries were included in the Workspace. There are two ways of rearranging the tiles. The first is to exclude an entry and then include it again. This entry is placed at the end of the grid of tiles. The second is to move individual tiles. To move tiles, first choose Change Tile Locations from the shortcut menu. Then click on a tile to select it for moving, and click on the desired new location. As you move the pointer, the location where the selected tile will go if you click in the current tile is marked by a purple line. The tiles between the initial location and the final location are moved to fill the space left by moving the selected tile, and the selected tile is placed in the new location.

Each tile is a mini-Workspace, in which you can perform all the operations that are available when the Workspace is not tiled. Camera view changes (rotation, translation, zoom) can be performed on all tiles simultaneously, or on individual tiles. To perform simultaneous transformations, make sure the link button is active (blue coloring).

If you click this button to deactivate linking of tiles, you can transform individual tiles. Clicking in a tile selects the tile, which is marked by a thicker border. To transform an individual tile, start the transformation operation when the pointer is in the tile. You can drag outside the tile to finish the transformation operation, but to start another operation on the same tile, you must move the pointer back into the tile.

  • To reset the view in each tile to the initial view, click the Reset All Tiles button in the Workspace Configuration toolbox.

  • To reset the view in an individual tile, right-click in the tile and choose Reset Tile from the shortcut menu.

  • To apply the view or zoom for an individual tile to all tiles, right-click in the tile and choose Apply View to All Tiles or Apply Zoom to All Tiles from the shortcut menu.

Saving an image preserves the tiling of the Workspace in the image.

Some actions do not behave the same in tile mode as out of tile mode.

  • Saving a camera view does not preserve changes made in individual tiles. Consequently, restoring a view applies the same view to each tile, and does not preserve changes made in individual tiles.

To undo the tiling of entries, you can use one of the methods you used for tiling entries. Information on individual camera views is discarded when you exit tile mode.

While tiles are displayed, the 2D overlay is temporarily hidden.