Hi I quite new to the phenix environemnt and just ran a phenix refinement with the following command line *phenix.refine myfile.mtz mymodel.pdb simulated_annealing=true model.ncs refinement.main.ncs=true --overwrite refinement.ncs.excessive_distance_limit=None >phenix_06_18_2008_2.log * The model.ncs file is structured as follows refinement.ncs.restraint_group { reference = chain A selection = chain B selection = chain C selection = chain D } My data is good to 3.3 A ( membrane protein) and thus far I have been refining with refmac5. After the phenix run indicated above, I had a dramatic reduction in r/rfree ( post refmac 33/36 AND post phenix 28/31). This is despite relatively small changes to my model by the simulated annealing refinement. I have a few questions about the process and am hoping some phenix veterans can help me out. 1) At my resolution I guess I should at best be refining only one B-factor / ADP per residue is this the default behavior with the command line above 2) I have seen the emails about syntax for forcing group-B refinement at this locationhttp://www.phenix-online.org/pipermail/phenixbb/2007-March/000161.htmland this onehttp://www.phenix-online.org/download/documentation/cci_apps/structure_refin.... Basically they use strategy=group_adp . I am imagining this calculates one ADP per residue or per defined group. In my case if I force the behavior with the syntax , how is group ADP for NCS-mates handled? 3) On a general note , when I say phenix.refine --show-defaults , the section on strategy has a long list, what do the asterisks (*) in the syntax mean .Does that mean those are the defaults . Also how can I infer the syntax from this hierarchy? Sorry for the long list of questions but I am very happy with phenix and just thought I should understand the syntax better. Thanks for your help Hari Jayaram Attachments: phenix.refine --show-defaults returns refine { strategy = *individual_sites rigid_body *individual_adp group_adp tls \ individual_occupancies group_occupancies group_anomalous sites { individual = None rigid_body = None } adp { individual { isotropic = None anisotropic = None } group = None one_adp_group_per_residue = True tls = None }