Visualizing molecular structures accurately and effectively is one of the key challenges for molecular modelers. Whether you’re analyzing complex nanosystems or presenting findings, the ability to highlight geometric and field features at different levels of detail can make a critical difference in your work. Fortunately, SAMSON offers Visual Models, an intuitive way to navigate and represent molecular systems graphically.
Visual models in SAMSON are incredibly versatile. They enable you to create representations such as secondary structure diagrams of proteins, Gaussian surfaces, isosurfaces of electron densities, volumetric representations of electrostatic fields, and more. This flexibility ensures that molecular modelers can adapt their visualizations to highlight the exact elements they are working on, from atoms to residues and chains.
Here's how you can start using visual models in SAMSON:
- Apply visual models to selected nodes in your document or to the entire document if no selection is active.
- Use the context toolbar menu of the selection, or the visualization menu via
Visualization > Add > Visual model. - Leverage keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V.
For some visual models, you can further customize their parameters. Select the visual model in the Document view and open the Inspector. Modifications can include adjusting surface styles, dimensions, or other graphical properties tailored to your project’s needs.
SAMSON also provides default visual models to simplify your workflow. Take a look at this image of the available default visual models:
The platform even allows you to develop custom visual models. If the default options don’t meet specific requirements, you can create SAMSON Extensions, enhancing how molecular systems are represented. For development resources and documentation, refer to the Extension Generator.
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced user, SAMSON’s visual models make it not only simpler but also more efficient to analyze and present your molecular data. To explore these features in detail, feel free to dive into the full documentation on visual models here.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Download your copy today at SAMSON Connect.