As a molecular modeler, the interface of your design platform plays a crucial role in ensuring productivity and a smooth workflow. SAMSON, the integrative molecular design platform, offers immense flexibility to tailor its interface to your specific needs. In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can customize the SAMSON interface to optimize your molecular modeling tasks.
The Challenge: A Cluttered or Non-Intuitive Workspace
Molecular modeling often requires working with multiple panels, tools, and assets simultaneously. A cluttered or non-intuitive workspace can slow down operations, increase errors, and add unnecessary frustration. SAMSON allows users to fully customize its interface, giving you control over the appearance, placement, and functionality of vital tools like the menu, Document view, Inspector, and more.
Effortless Customization Through Drag-and-Drop
Reorganizing your workspace in SAMSON is straightforward thanks to its drag-and-drop functionality. You can rearrange the Document view, History, and Inspector panels to your liking. Want more focus on atomic-level details? Move the Inspector where it’s most accessible. Prefer tracking your actions at a glance? Position the History widget front and center.
To dock or undock a widget, simply click and drag its title bar to your desired location. Release the mouse to set it in place.
Keeping Key Tools Always Accessible
Some SAMSON windows, like specific Apps, offer a “Pin” icon. By clicking this icon, you can ensure the selected window stays on top of other panels, keeping your critical tools visible and within reach at all times.
Customizing Shortcuts for Greater Efficiency
Switching between different panels and tools shouldn’t feel tedious. SAMSON provides several built-in keyboard shortcuts to speed up navigation:
- Document view: Ctrl/Cmd + 1
- Inspector: Ctrl/Cmd + 2
- History: Ctrl/Cmd + 3
- Asset browser: Ctrl/Cmd + 4
These shortcuts are customizable via the Interface menu, enabling you to align the controls with your workflow requirements.
Using Favorites to Save Time
SAMSON’s Favorites feature is another productivity booster. By favoriting commands, apps, and editors, you can ensure your most-used tools appear in special Favorites sections at the top of the ribbon menu or in the Editors menu on the viewport’s left side. To favorite an item, simply hover over it and click the (
) icon. You can unfavorite items the same way.
Preserving Changes for Consistency
Once you’ve spent the time organizing your ideal workflow, you’ll want to save your layout preferences. Luckily, SAMSON automatically saves your interface setup, so it’s ready exactly how you left it when you return.
Conclusion
A well-structured and customized interface can dramatically improve your productivity in molecular modeling. SAMSON’s customization options empower you to make the interface work for you, from rearranging panels to creating shortcut keys and favoriting tools. For a detailed guide to all available customization features, visit the official documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON today at https://www.samson-connect.net.