obminimize(1)

OBMINIMIZE(1) General Commands Manual (urm) OBMINIMIZE(1)

NAME

obminimizeoptimize the geometry, minimize the energy for a molecule

SYNOPSIS

obminimize [OPTIONS] filename

DESCRIPTION

The obminimize tool can be used to minimize the energy for molecules inside (multi-)molecule files (e.g., MOL2, etc.)

OPTIONS

If no filename is given, obminimize will give all options including the available forcefields.

-c criteria
Set convergence criteria (default=1e-6)
-cg
Use conjugate gradients algorithm (default)
-sd
Use steepest descent algorithm
-newton
Use Newton2Num linesearch (default=Simple)
-ff forcefield
Select the forcefield
-o format
Select the output file format
-h
Add hydrogen atoms
-n steps
Specify the maximum number of steps (default=2500)
-cut
Use cut-off (default=don't use cut-off)
-rvdw rvdw
Specify the VDW cut-off distance (default=6.0)
-rele rele
Specify the Electrostatic cut-off distance (default=10.0)
-pf freq
Specify the frequency to update the non-bonded pairs (default=10)

EXAMPLES

View the possible options, including available forcefields:

obminimize

Minimize the energy for the molecule(s) in file test.mol2:

obminimize test.mol2

Minimize the energy for the molecule(s) in file test.mol2 using the Ghemical forcefield:

obminimize -ff Ghemical test.mol2

Minimize the energy for the molecule(s) in file test.mol2 by taking at most 300 geometry optimization steps

obminimize -n 300 test.mol2

Minimize the energy for the molecule(s) in file test.mol2 using the steepest descent algorithm and convergence criteria 1e-5:

obminimize -sd -c 1e-5 test.mol2

SEE ALSO

obabel(1), obenergy(1), obrotamer(1).

The web pages for Open Babel can be found at: <https://openbabel.org/>

The web pages for Open Babel Molecular Mechanics can be found at: <https://openbabel.org/docs/Forcefields/Overview.html>

AUTHORS

The minimize program was contributed by Tim Vandermeersch.

Open Babel is developed by a cast of many, including current maintainers Geoff Hutchison, Chris Morley, Michael Banck, and innumerable others who have contributed fixes and additions. For more contributors to Open Babel, see <https://openbabel.org/docs/Introduction/thanks.html>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2007 by Tim Vandermeersch.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation version 2 of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

May 26, 2026 Open Babel 3.2