Tracking Script Command Versions of the GUI Actions

For most actions performed from the VMDGUI, there is an equivalent script command. VMDcan print these commands to a log file or the console. This is a convenient way to automate file processing by first doing all steps interactively while logging to a file and then editing the logfile to turn it into a Tcl script operating on multiple files. There are two ways to do this in VMD:

• In the main menu, press the Log TCL Commands to File button found in the File menu; this will bring up a browser window where you can enter a file name in which you can save the resulting script code.
• In the text console, type logfile filename, where filename is the name of the log file.

The resulting file will contain Tcl script code that can be executed from the VMDcommand prompt. The Log TCL Commands to Console button or the command logfile console will print the Tcl commands to the console window instead. This is most useful, if you just want to find out, which VMDcommand is used to perform a specific action.

Finally, the logfile off command or clicking on the Turn Off Logging button will stop the log and close the log file, if needed.