ePMV Molecular viewer?

#1

Hey guys

Does anyone know if this will work in R26? Or is there an alternative for viewing molecular data from online repositories?

Thanks!

#2

Troyan

I can’t answer your R26 question but I do know of several non-C4D options for you if you are interested. There’s an amazing (free) addon for B* amongst the list but I won’t post the details unless you are actually interested.

There are a lot of molecular viewers developed at universities several are free for non-profit work but are expensive for commercial licensing and you must cite usage.

I don’t know of any C4D native solutions if ePMV doesn’t work.

#3

Hey Info! Sorry, I didn’t get a notice that there was a reply. This site, tho…

Thanks for that. Nick Woolridge was kind enough to offer to pull any that we needed (cuz he’s one of the nicest humans I’ve ever met) and the eMPV is working for him, but the eMPV plugin is really crashy for us. We wound up hand modeling some through Zbrush using what Nick showed us as a visual guide. Would love to have something like working again as we continue to do a lot of Medical, molecular and otherwise.

#4

@Troyan

No probs.

There are vast numbers of molecular viewers around in the open source and academic communities. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_molecular_graphics_systems) Chimera is by all accounts is highly regarded, it’s free for non commercial work and $2000 for a single license. You can export molecules into 3d models no problem and does everything you need for editing and visualising molecules you could ever dream of.

However, in recent months a Blender Addon called Molecular Nodes has surfaced which has the advantage of being completely free and open source while being really good too. You just tell it what molecule you want to visualise, it downloads it and sets up a Geometry Nodes tree with a base setup then you can add more nodes to alter the visualisation, it’s been designed well, it’s made by a biochemist for biochemists so you don’t have to be a node genius to make sense of it. You can either render your visualisation in Blender or export the molecule as a 3d model after applying the geonodes modifier. If you have any difficulties just ask and I’ll help with the Blender side of things don’t ask me about biochemistry!

The addon is actively being developed and is updated regularly. https://github.com/BradyAJohnston/MolecularNodes/releases

Here is the author’s YT Channel with tutorials https://www.youtube.com/c/BradyJohnston/videos

#5

10 tries to post the above message. What’s with the 403 error these days?

#6

Holy crap, that’s cool. Thanks for the heads up. We use Blender where we can, I wish we had the time to integrate it more fully. Maybe someday :).

#7

I might take you up on that offer to help with Blender :). If things slow down here. Can you share your email? This forum is not very reliable nowadays.

#8

Blender is a huge free resource that offers so much for a studio workflow even if you have no intention of using it as your main App. Some of Blender’s Addons have no equivalent in C4Dland and can be life savers, Molecular Nodes is a perfect example. If you can find the time (easier said than done) to try and work it in to your workflow you’ll be richly rewarded.

Anyway, if this forum goes to the wall and you become Blender curious create a thread on BlenderArtists and I’ll find you or if you’re tempted by Houdini I’m on odforce too.

TBH, I don’t know how long it’s worth me swinging by here as not using C4D on a daily basis means I’ve forgotten a lot of detail. IMHO, anyone serious about using a C4D forum should really join Core4D, no 403 errors over there!

#9

Now that the B-word is already out, I want to add Bio Blender:

https://blendermarket.com/products/bio-blender

It is really good (see the ratings).

cheers

celke

#10

Wow @celke I wasn’t aware of that, thanks.

B* is used in many research fields so there are countless Addons like this for all sorts of niches on Github. I make use of several scientific visualisation Addons, they’d never be commercially viable in the C4D context, but this is a good example how you can use B* in your C4D workflow to access some novel tools. It’s always worth searching around Github.

#11

Also worth mentioning that you can view design look and export 3D models from protein data banks two 3Dviewer(s)