If you work with molecular structures, you’ve likely experienced the frustration of transferring data across different tools. Whether it’s preparing a protein in one program, transferring it to another for visualization, or converting the format just to load it elsewhere, there’s often an unnecessary loop of exporting, converting, or re-formatting.
This is where SAMSON can help streamline your workflow. SAMSON is not just a modeling environment—it also offers built-in tools to export your data in formats that are widely used across computational chemistry, biology, and materials science. Let’s take a closer look at this often-overlooked set of tools: Exporters.
What are Exporters?
Exporters in SAMSON are specialized modules that allow you to save content from your molecular document to files in different formats. Whether you’re working with proteins, small molecules, or materials, exporters help you reuse your data in other programs without resorting to external format converters.
SAMSON provides a default set of exporters when you install the platform. These may include formats like:
- PDB (Protein Data Bank): For exporting protein and nucleic acid structures.
- XYZ: Useful for representing atomic coordinates.
- CML, MOL2, and other formats often used for computational chemistry.
This means that once you’ve built or prepared your structure in SAMSON, you can export it directly to the format your next tool requires—whether that’s visualization software, molecular simulations, or databases.
Adding More Export Formats
Need a format that’s not available by default? You can find and install additional exporters directly from SAMSON Connect. This marketplace of modules allows users to expand SAMSON’s capabilities—including new export formats, visualization tools, and simulation engines.
Installing a new exporter is simple and doesn’t require any programming knowledge. Just go to SAMSON Connect, search for the exporter you need, and install it into your SAMSON environment with a few clicks.
Missing an Exporter?
If you can’t find the format you’re looking for, the SAMSON team wants to hear from you. You can suggest new exporters by emailing contact@samson-connect.net. Your feedback could lead to new features added to the platform.
Want to Build Your Own Exporter?
If you’re comfortable with coding and want a tailored exporter for your workflow, you can develop your own exporter as a SAMSON Extension. Check out the developer documentation on generating SAMSON Extensions and get started with writing a custom exporter adapted to your own output formats or data structures.
By integrating export functionality directly into your modeling environment, SAMSON helps reduce friction in multi-tool workflows, saving you time and helping avoid errors from manual format conversions.
To learn more, visit the original documentation page on Exporters in SAMSON.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.