When working with complex molecular systems, visualization is more than aesthetic—it’s how we perceive patterns, make decisions, and communicate insights. But if you’re often switching between tasks—say, from analyzing molecular dynamics to preparing a figure for a publication—manually adjusting render settings every time can be frustrating and error-prone.
This is where Visual Presets in SAMSON come in.
Visual Presets are a helpful feature that allow you to rapidly switch between different predefined visual styles in just a few clicks. Whether you’re aiming to inspect molecular geometry, trace a biomolecular backbone, or produce a high-quality snapshot, SAMSON’s Visual Presets are designed to optimize your workflow and enhance visual clarity.
What are Visual Presets?
Visual Presets are predefined collections of visualization parameters that determine how molecules are rendered in the SAMSON viewport. They control aspects such as:
- Cartoon/trace styles for proteins
- Color schemes for atoms or residues
- Lighting, shading, and background colors
- Level of detail and rendering complexity
Instead of adjusting these settings manually each time, you can select a visual preset from a list and instantly apply a curated setup adapted for specific tasks.
Why Visual Presets Matter
We’ve all been there: toggling between ball-and-stick and surface views, tweaking transparency levels, adjusting lighting to interpret your structure… and then having to redo it all for your next task or screenshot. Visual Presets solve this.
For example, are you preparing a figure for a paper submission? Try using a preset designed for publication-style rendering with high contrast and simplified backgrounds. Analyzing a large complex? Use a minimal front representation to reduce clutter and focus on functional groups.
This streamlined switching not only saves time, it reduces errors from manual setup inconsistencies. More importantly, it can help ensure that everyone on your team is visualizing in the same consistent way.
How to Use Visual Presets
To access Visual Presets in SAMSON, simply go to the documentation page on Visual presets. In the SAMSON interface, presets can often be accessed through the visualization panel or relevant contextual menus.
Presets are particularly effective when used in combination with scene-saving tools, so you can return later to the same system and layout without losing your visualization context. SAMSON also allows you to customize and create your own visual presets if you have specific rendering needs.
Quick Use Cases
- Presentations: High-contrast coloring, bold geometry, dark background for projections.
- Teaching: Simplified cartoon views with labeled atoms to help students understand protein folding.
- Model inspection: Transparent surfaces and color-coded charge regions to reveal nano-scale interactions.
If you often find yourself adjusting visual settings by hand, Visual Presets might be worth exploring. Whether for science, teaching, or communication, visuals matter—and with the right preset, you’ll save time and stay focused on the chemistry, not the rendering.
To learn more and see the full list of references, visit the SAMSON Reference Documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.