VMD Command-Line Options

When started, the following command-line options may be given to VMD. Note that if a command-line option does not start with a dash (-), and is not part of another option, it is assumed to be a filename, and its extension is matched to the extension registered by the proper plugin. Thus, the Unix command

        vmd molecule.pdb

will start VMD and load a molecule from the file molecule.pdb, while the command

        vmd molecule.psf molecule.dcd

will load the corresponding structure and coordinate files into the same molecule. On the Windows platform, one must preface the VMD invocation with the Windows start command

        start vmd molecule.pdb

• -h | -help : Print a summary a command-line options to the console.
• -e filename : After initialization, execute the text commands in filename, and then resume normal operation.
• -python : After initialization, switch to the Python interpreter before executing commands in the file specified by -e (if any), and leave the text interpreter in Python mode.
• filename : Load the specified file at startup. The file type will be determined from the filename extension; if there is no filename extension, and the filename contains 4 letters, it is assumed to be a PDB accession code and will be loaded accordingly; otherwise the format is assumed to be PDB.
• -<filetype> filename : Load the specified file using the given filetype.
• -f : Load all subsequent files into the same molecule. This is the default. A new molecule is created for each invocation of -f; thus, vmd -f 1.pdb 2.pdb -f 3.pdb loads 1.pdb and 2.pdb into the same molecule and 3.pdb into a different molecule.
• -m : Load all subsequent files into separate molecules. The -f and -m options may be specified multiple times on the command line in order to load multiple molecule containing one or more files.
• -dispdev < win | text | cave | caveforms | none > : Specify the type of graphical display to use. The possible display devices include:
  • win: a standard graphics display window.
  • text: do not provide any graphics display window.
  • cave: use the CAVE virtual environment for display, windows are disabled.
  • caveforms: use the CAVE virtual environment for display and with windows enabled. This is useful with -display machine:0 for remote display of the windows when the CAVE uses the local screen.
  • none: same as text.
  It is possible to use VMD as a filter to convert coordinate files into rendered images, by using the -dispdev text and -e options.
• -dist z : Specify the distance to the VMD image plane.
• -height y : Specify the height of the VMD image plane.
• -pos x y : Specify the position for the graphics display window. The position (x,y) is the number of pixels from the lower-left corner of the display to the lower-left corner of the graphics window.
• -size x y : Specify the size for the graphics display window, in pixels.
• -nt : Do not display the VMD title at startup.
• -eofexit : Make VMD exit when EOF on stdin is reached; for example, when a script is redirected to VMD. The combination vmd -dispdev text -eofexit < input.tcl > output.log is useful for batch mode scripting.
• -startup filename : Use filename as the VMD startup command script, instead of the default .vmdrc or vmd.rc file.
• -args : Pass subsequent command line arguments to the text interpreter. The Tcl interpreter will store these arguments in the list variable argv. By default, no arguments are stored in this variable.
• -debug [level : Turn on output of debugging messages, and optionally set the current debug level (1=few messages ... 5=many verbose messages). Note this is only useful if VMD has been compiled with debugging option included.