When preparing molecular presentations or simulations, one common issue molecular modelers face is the inability to track or replay how atoms moved over time — whether they were manually shifted, simulated, or assembled. This becomes especially problematic when collaborating with others or returning to older projects.
To solve this, SAMSON provides the Record path animation feature, which allows you to capture atom trajectories in a presentation. It doesn’t just show an animation — it records it as data you can reuse, visualize, or export later. Here’s how you can benefit from it and integrate it into your molecular modeling workflow.
Why use Record path?
Let’s say you’ve manually docked a ligand, run a short dynamics step with the Simulate animation, and added a few position modifications via Move atoms. Normally, once you press play, it looks nice — but unless you take action, the actual trajectory won’t be stored.
This is where the Record path animation becomes useful. It captures the atomic positions at each frame as a path in the document. You can replay it, share it, export it, and use it as a reference for your research.
How to use it
- Go to the Animation panel in the Animator.
- Double-click on Record path. It appears as a new keyframe.
- Make sure you place it after the animations that move atoms (since SAMSON executes animations from the top down).
- Play your presentation. A green segment on the track indicates that positions have been recorded. Red means missing or invalid data.
One common concern is performance. Recording positions continuously might slow things down when you’re still setting up your animation. Don’t worry — you can temporarily disable recording:
- Right-click the Record path animation in the Animator and select Enable recording to toggle this feature.
- Or go to the animation’s Inspector.
The controller will appear darkened when recording is disabled, helping you visually track what’s active.
Exporting the Result
Once your animation is fully recorded (the entire track is green), you can extract a reusable Path node:
- Use the Create path button in the Inspector, or
- Right-click on the Record path animation in the Animator and choose Create path.
This Path node can be used in combination with other animations like Play path or Play reverse path, or even exported as part of your project.
If you often lose track of how your atoms move during animation workflows, adding this recording step can make your work more reproducible and easier to communicate.
Learn more about this feature in the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/record-path/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.