When you’re dealing with molecular modeling, presentation isn’t just aesthetic—it’s essential. Whether you’re preparing visuals for publication, sharing models with collaborators, or trying to quickly identify certain features in a complex scene, controlling how each part of your system is rendered can save enormous amounts of time and effort.
In SAMSON, the visual representation of molecular scenes can be precisely managed through render preset nodes. These nodes control how molecular entities are displayed—think of them as the settings layer between your model and its visualization. But how do you filter or manipulate these presets efficiently? The answer is in the renderPreset attribute space, or simply rp.
The Need: Finding and Managing Render Presets
Imagine you’re working in a large project, and you’ve applied various render presets to distinguish between different ligands, domains, or conformations. Later, you want to programmatically select all render presets with names containing “L”, or filter only the presets you’ve already selected for visualization. Manually doing this is cumbersome. This is where Node Specification Language (NSL) and render preset attributes step in.
The Basics of rp: Build Queries That Work
In NSL, the renderPreset space includes a few key attributes you can use to identify and manipulate render presets:
- name (
n): A string in quotes specifying the name of the preset. - selected: A boolean indicating if the node is currently selected (no short name).
- selectionFlag (
sf): Also a boolean, typically used to filter based on user-defined selection flags.
Here’s how you can use these:
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// Select all render presets with names starting with "L" rp.n "L*" // Select all render presets that are currently selected rp.selected // Select all render presets that are not currently selected not rp.selected // Select only render presets with selectionFlag set to false rp.sf false |
These filters are especially useful within workflows or scripting environments where automation and logic can speed up repetitive tasks. Want to ensure only a specific subset of your visual presets are toggled or previewed? Use these filters to build precise queries.
Not Just Technical—Real Workflow Benefits
Let’s say you’ve rendered several protein conformations: A, B, C, and Ligand1, Ligand2. You’ve applied different visual styles and want to unify or manipulate only those presets related to the ligands. When naming your presets consistently (e.g., “Ligand1”, “Ligand2”), you can instantly target them using rp.n "Ligand*".
Want to check which ones have already been selected in the view? Combine your name filter with rp.selected.
By making use of these attributes, you gain control over your rendering pipeline and can streamline updates, visual focus, or even export operations based on the visibility or selection state of render presets.
More Subtle Control With selectionFlag
Although often overlooked, selectionFlag is helpful for distinguishing data that’s flagged for an operation (like export or comparison). Unlike selected, which refers to what’s selected in the interface, selectionFlag can be set and unset dryly in scripts or workflows, enabling a clean separation between UI state and logical flags.
For example:
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// Find presets not flagged for export rp.sf false |
Quick Recap
The renderPreset attribute space provides:
- Powerful filtering via attributes like
name,selected, andselectionFlag. - Precision selection for managing appearance.
- Enhanced scripting capabilities for workflows.
If you’ve found yourself battling cluttered scenes or iterating manual selection steps, understanding and leveraging render preset attributes in SAMSON can help simplify your molecular design process.
To learn more, visit the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/nsl/renderPreset/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download it at https://www.samson-connect.net.