Installation of VMD plugins

These are common instructions for my VMD plugins.

Before you begin. Download the latest release and extract it in a directory of your choice.

Method 1: edit VMD's startup file

You may download and extract the plugin in any directory. Then add the following lines to your .vmdrc startup file. Note that name and location differ under Windows !

    lappend auto_path /PATH/TO/EXTRACTED/PLUGIN
    menu main on

Method 2: set the TCLLIBPATH environment variable

This is suitable e.g. if you use modulefiles. Note that, unlike other Unix paths, multiple path components should be space-separated.

    export TCLLIBPATH="/PATH/TO/EXTRACTED/VMD_PLUMED $TCLLIBPATH"

Method 3: use VMD's preference manager (VMD 1.9.2 and higher)

This method is not well tested. If you are using VMD 1.9.2's new preference manager, .vmdrc should not be edited by hand, so method 1 above is not applicable. In this case, refer to the following figure, adjusting the plugin name, location and script.

    lappend auto_path /WHERE/YOU/EXTRACTED/THE/TOOL

Note that this method is not suitable to replace plugins distributed with VMD by newer versions.