[ccp4bb]: NCS masks in DM & SOLOMON

[Sugoto Chakravarty <sugotoc@bcm.tmc.edu>]

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I have some queries regarding the masks in Dm and SOLOMON:

I got the rotation and translation parameters for a multimeric protein
using CNS/XPLOR. I wanted to get the averaged and solvent flattened
phases and structure factors using DM & SOLOMON. That required the
construction of appropriate masks. I constructed the averaging mask for
one of the monomers using the PDB coordinates of a structurally similar
molecule along with NCSMASK/MAPMASK, and checked using 'O' that the mask
was properly covering the asymmetric unit that was not related by NCS.
SFALL was not practical to construct the mask because of the large size
of the protein. My questions are:

1. Can I use the same mask file for both averaging and solvent
flattening in DM i.e.  will DM automatically adjust the masked regions
when it switches between the averaging and solvent flattening modes? If
not, what is the easiest way to construct a solvent flattenng mask from
an averaging mask and vice-versa?

2. Can I use the same mask file in both DM and SOLOMON?  If not, is
there an easy way to convert a mask from one program to the other?

I will appreciate any help.

Sugoto