When building complex molecular models, labels are essential for tracking atoms, residues, measurements, or annotations. But as models grow in size and complexity, overloading your Viewport with labels can make things harder to interpret, not easier.
Fortunately, SAMSON offers several ways to improve the visibility of labels in your molecular model so you can stay focused on what really matters. This post walks you through how to control when and how labels appear, especially as you zoom in and out, helping you maintain a clear and readable workspace.
Label visibility adapts to your zoom level
By default, SAMSON adjusts label visibility depending on how closely you’re zoomed in. When zoomed out, labels for smaller elements like atoms may disappear, while those for larger entities like whole molecules remain. As you zoom in, more granular information is gradually revealed. This dynamic behavior keeps your workspace clean and usable without sacrificing detail when it’s most needed.
Controlling what appears and when
If you’d like more control over which labels appear at different zoom levels, you can finely tune each label by modifying its display radius using the Inspector.
Each label has settings for minimum and maximum display radii. These values determine the range of zoom levels at which the label will be visible:
- Labels with a small max display radius will disappear when zooming out.
- Labels with a large min display radius will only be visible when zoomed far in.
This is particularly useful when organizing a labeled system across various resolution levels, for instance:
- Displaying only key molecules when viewing the entire system
- Showing residues when zooming on a region of interest
- Activating atom-level labels only during focused inspection
Hiding and showing specific labels
If you want to manually toggle the visibility of any label, you can do so from the Document view. In this interface, each label has a checkmark box you can use to include or exclude it from the Viewport at any time:
This can be a quick and efficient way to declutter your Viewport temporarily without altering your zoom level or display radius settings.
Make the most of dynamic labeling
By combining the automatic zoom-dependent visibility with manual display radius settings and toggling, SAMSON gives you the flexibility to build models that are both informative and readable.
This helps modelers avoid one of the most common issues in molecular design: clutter. Too many labels, even when relevant, can obfuscate the system and get in the way of insight. Smarter use of visibility simplifies the interface and improves productivity.
To learn more about label visibility and other labeling features in SAMSON, visit the original documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/labeling/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.