Hot Keys

When the mouse is in the graphics window, many commands are accessible via programmable hot keys. Hot keys allow you to do things like change mouse modes or advance the animation by a frame by simply pressing a key. There are a number of predefined hot keys, as listed in tables 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4. They can be printed out with the command user print keys. The commands listed are the text commands which are executed when the hot key is pressed; these text commands are explained in section 9.3.

To add or modify a hot key, use the command user add key key command. The key parameter must be a single character. If command contains more than one word, it must be enclosed in braces so that the subsequent command words are not ignored. When that key is pressed while the mouse cursor is in the graphics display window, the associated command will be executed. Once you have a set of commands which are particularly useful and familiar for you, you will want these hot key commands automatically available every time you run VMD. This can be done by placing the commands to add these items in your .vmdrc file, which is a file containing VMD text commands that is executed every time VMD starts up. The basic method for setting up this file is described in section 14.3.3. Once you have such a file, put the user add commands in it.

Table 5.1: Mouse control hot keys.

Hot Key	Command	Purpose
r, R	mouse mode 0 0	enter rotate mode; stop rotation
t, T	mouse mode 1 0	enter translate mode
s, S	mouse mode 2 0	enter scaling mode
0	mouse mode 4 0	query item
c	mouse mode 4 1	assign rotation center
1	mouse mode 4 2	pick atom
2	mouse mode 4 3	pick bond (2 atoms)
3	mouse mode 4 4	pick angle (3 atoms)
4	mouse mode 4 5	pick dihedral (4 atoms)
5	mouse mode 4 6	move atom
6	mouse mode 4 7	move residue
7	mouse mode 4 8	move fragment
8	mouse mode 4 9	move molecule
9	mouse mode 4 13	move highlighted rep
%	mouse mode 4 10	apply force on atom
${}^\wedge$	mouse mode 4 11	apply force on residue
&	mouse mode 4 12	apply force on fragment

Table 5.2: Rotation & scaling hot keys.

Hot Key	Command	Purpose
x	rock x by 1 -1	spin about x axis
X	rock x by 1 70	rock about x axis
y	rock y by 1 -1	spin about y axis
Y	rock y by 1 70	rock about y axis
z	rock z by 1 -1	spin about z axis
Z	rock z by 1 70	rock about z axis
j, Cntl-n	rotate x by 2	rotate $2^{\circ}$ about x
k, Cntl-p	rotate x by -2	rotate $-2^{\circ}$ about x
l, Cntl-f	rotate y by 2	rotate $2^{\circ}$ about y
h, Cntl-b	rotate y by -2	rotate $-2^{\circ}$ about y
g	rotate z by 2	rotate $2^{\circ}$ about z
G	rotate z by -2	rotate $-2^{\circ}$ about z
Cntl-a	scale by 1.1	enlarge 10 percent
Cntl-z	scale by 0.9	shrink 10 percent

Table 5.3: Menu control hot keys.

Hot Key	Command	Purpose
Alt-M	menu main off;menu main on	Show main menu
Alt-f	menu files off;menu files on	Show files menu
Alt-g	menu graphics off;menu graphics on	Show graphics menu
Alt-l	menu labels off;menu labels on	Show labels menu
Alt-r	menu render off;menu render on	Show render menu
Alt-d	menu display off;menu display on	Show display menu
Alt-c	menu color off;menu color on	Show color menu
Cntl-r	display resetview	Reset display
Alt-q	quit confirm	Quit VMD with confirmation
Alt-Q	quit	Quit VMD
Alt-h	hyperref invert	Invert hyper text mode (NOT help)

Table 5.4: Animation hot keys.

Hot Key	Command	Purpose
+,f,F	animate next	move to next frame
-,b,B	animate prev	move to previous frame
.,>	animate forward	play animation forward
,	animate reverse	play animation reverse
<	animate reverse	play animation reverse
/, ?	animate pause	stop animation