Molecular modeling often involves balancing scientific accuracy with visual clarity. Whether you’re preparing molecular graphics for a publication, presentation, or educational material, achieving visual consistency while highlighting important features can be time-consuming. This is where SAMSON’s Visual Presets come in.
Visual Presets offer a quick and flexible way to adjust the appearance of molecules in your scene. Instead of manually changing display settings for each element, you can apply a coherent visual style in just a few clicks. If you’ve ever found yourself spending too much time tweaking colors, representations, and rendering settings to make your molecules clear and appealing, this feature can save you hours.
What Are Visual Presets?
A visual preset is essentially a predefined combination of display settings applied to molecular structures. It changes things like:
- Molecular representations (ball-and-stick, cartoon, surface, etc.)
- Color schemes (atom types, chains, secondary structure, etc.)
- Transparency, lighting, and shading parameters
Rather than adjusting each parameter individually, a preset adjusts multiple properties at once. This can help maintain consistency across different documents and projects, especially in collaborative environments.
When Should You Use Visual Presets?
Here are some scenarios where they are especially helpful:
- You’re creating a molecular animation or simulation and need a coherent visual theme throughout.
- You want to standardize the look of all your figures before submitting a paper.
- You’re preparing a live demonstration and want to make sure all structures are easy to interpret visually.
- You need to highlight specific molecular components for teaching purposes.
How to Apply a Visual Preset in SAMSON
It’s straightforward:
- Select the molecule or set of molecules in the viewport.
- Navigate to the Visual Presets section from the documentation or through the interface.
- Choose a preset that fits your context (e.g., “Cartoon + Surface”, “Licorice + Transparent Surface”).
- The visual preset is instantly applied, updating the representations and colors.
Keep in mind that you can still adjust individual properties afterward—presets serve as a baseline, not a rigid template.
Customizing Visual Styles
While presets are designed to be general-purpose, you can build upon them to match your specific visual needs. Tweak colors to align with your lab’s style guide, or adjust rendering settings for better performance or appearance. Once you’ve reached the perfect configuration, you can even save your own preset for reuse.
Final Thoughts
Visual Presets in SAMSON aren’t just cosmetic; they’re a practical tool to help you communicate molecular information clearly and consistently. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, presets streamline the process of creating high-quality molecular visuals.
To learn more about SAMSON’s visual presets and explore other features, visit the official documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.