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Welcome to ePMV

The open-source uPy plugin, embedded Python Molecular Viewer (ePMV) runs molecular-modeling software directly in several professional 3D animation applications (hosts). Uniting host and scientific software in a single interface allows users from varied backgrounds to assemble professional quality visuals and to perform computational experiments with relative ease. The combination provides:

• High quality rendering with shadows, camera effects, global illumination, ambient occlusion, etc.

• Intuitive GUI workflows that help users set up animations ranging from easy turntable rotations to sophisticated mechanism of action movies

• Subcelluar modeling that allows users to illustrate or animate complex cell events in molecular detail by positioning objects with intuitive controls

• A common Python Platform that allows users to initiate sophisticated algorithms like molecular dynamics or docking energy calculations on the fly and to interoperate multiple algorithms at the same time on the same model

By enabling easy exchange of algorithms, ePMV can facilitate interdisciplinary research, smooth communication between broadly diverse specialties and provide a common platform to frame and visualize the increasingly detailed intersection(s) of cellular and molecular biology.

ePMV is free and the ePMV plugin currently supports:

• Cinema4D r12, r13, r14™

• Blender 2.49, 2.58, 2.60, 2.6.2, 2.6.8a

• Autodesk Maya 2011, 2012, 2013™

• Autodesk 3ds Max 2013, 2014™

With the help of developers like you, this list can easily extend to include Houdini, Lightwave, SoftImage, Modo, and many others...

Please acknowledge the use of the ePMV software that results in any published work, including scientific papers, textbooks, covers, animations, slides, etc. with this citation.

Read the paper here if you have access to the journal Cell, or from NIH for free.