[PyMOL] assign secondary structure?

[Michael Bovee]

Hi,
I have a 'raw' pdb file of atom coordinates only, and I'm hoping to use 
the dss command in pymol to get helix and strand designations that I 
can paste back into the header space of the pdb so that I can model 
fancy helices and strands and so forth to get a nice picture in pymol. 
Then I can superpose features with homologous proteins for which this 
header info is available. I just didnt want to modify or create this 
header info 'by hand' if I didn't have to...

But, I can't get dss to work in pymol (even the refman warns that this 
algorithm has not been rigorously validated). The refman says USAGE is 
dss selection, state
Does this mean I need to first make a selection that encompasses some 
part (or whole) of the molecule, or should this work on the entire pdb? 
 I don't know what 'states' are so I just opted for '0' which is 
supposed to mean 'all states'.

Thanks,
--Michael Bovee