"Receptor Is Not Rigid" — Docking Receptor Errors, Fixed

By BioDockify Computational Research Team · September 3, 2026 · Troubleshooting

Fix Vina receptor errors: flexible-residue records, NMR MODEL blocks, AltLoc atoms and flex-file confusion. Exact commands, a decision flowchart and a prep checklist.

Read the complete article with tables, code and references on BioDockify.

Key References

• Trott O, Olson AJ. AutoDock Vina: improving the speed and accuracy of docking. J Comput Chem. 2010;31(2):455-461. doi:10.1002/jcc.21334
• Morris GM et al. AutoDock4 and AutoDockTools4: automated docking with selective receptor flexibility. J Comput Chem. 2009;30(16):2785-2791. doi:10.1002/jcc.21256
• Berman HM et al. The Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids Res. 2000;28(1):235-242.

Scope & Limitations

Side-chain flexibility via --flex changes search behavior; results are not directly comparable to rigid-receptor runs