When working on complex molecular systems, visualization is key. But have you ever opened a molecular model and found yourself buried under a forest of overlapping labels? Labels for every atom, residue, and molecule crowding the screen can slow down your workflow and make it harder to focus.
This is a problem many molecular modelers face when they annotate molecular structures or use labeling to highlight measurements, names, or regions of interest. Thankfully, SAMSON provides flexible label visibility controls that can help you keep your molecular scenes neat and readable.
How label visibility works in SAMSON
In SAMSON, labels are displayed contextually. This means their visibility changes depending on your zoom level: zooming out highlights larger structures (like molecules), while zooming in reveals smaller ones (like atoms).
This progressive visibility helps keep high-level overviews clean while providing detailed labeling when doing close-up inspections. But what if you need more control?
Controlling label visibility manually
To fine-tune when labels appear or disappear, SAMSON allows you to set the minimum and maximum display radii for each label. Here’s how you can do it:
- Select a label in either the Document view or the Viewport (make sure the Selection Filter is set to “Labels” if selecting through the Viewport).
- Open the Inspector.
- Adjust the minimum and maximum display radii to define your visibility range based on your preferred zoom level.
This level of control means you only see the labels you need, when you need them.
Quick switch: Turning all labels on/off
If you just want to enable or disable labels without editing each one, use the Document view to quickly hide or show labels:
- Find the labels in the Document view hierarchy.
- Tick/untick the checkbox to toggle visibility for each label or group.
This is particularly helpful when toggling between different annotation sets in presentations or publications.
A cleaner, focused modeling experience
Managing label visibility in SAMSON isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about reducing visual noise and improving focus. Whether you’re analyzing ligand binding sites, presenting findings, or preparing visuals for publication, effective label visibility management can help simplify complex scenes.
To learn more about labeling and other view options in SAMSON, check out the full labeling documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/labeling/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.