Molecular modeling often involves inspecting structures from many angles: a close-up of an active site, a top-down view of a cavity, or a wide view of the entire system. Constantly tweaking the camera position to get these views back and forth can feel repetitive and time-consuming.
If you’re using SAMSON, there’s a feature that can save you time and make navigating your molecular scenes smoother: multiple cameras in a document. With this approach, you can predefine different views and switch between them on the fly.
Why multiple cameras matter
Each SAMSON document includes at least one camera by default—the active one you’re using for navigation. But you can add more and assign each camera a specific viewpoint. For example:
- Create a close-up camera centered on an interaction site.
- Set up a camera with an orthographic projection for analyzing crystal structures.
- Define a broader camera to reorient yourself in the overall geometry.
The key benefit? You don’t need to manually rotate or zoom back to a previous view. Just double-click the camera you want to activate, or right-click it in the Document view and choose Set as active camera.
Adding and managing cameras
To add a new camera, go to Visualization > Camera. A new camera is added with a default position—but from there, you can move it to the desired location, change its properties, and save your view setup.
You can perform various actions on each camera via its context menu:
- Center the camera on the current selection or entire document
- Enable inertia to simulate smooth motion
- Switch projection to orthographic, useful for crystal symmetry analysis
- Move the camera to set a custom position
Customize camera properties
Beyond simple position, each camera also has configurable properties like projection mode, inertia, and positioning. To access these settings, select the desired camera and open the Inspector window.
There, you can adjust everything from the camera’s focal length to its movement settings, offering even more control to tailor your modeling environment.
When does this help?
Here are a few situations where switching between multiple cameras can improve your workflow:
- Jumping between active sites on a large biomolecule
- Comparing binding pocket orientations before and after a docking simulation
- Validating symmetry operations from different angles
- Demonstrating specific poses in presentations and tutorials
By setting up your views once and reusing them, you reduce effort and improve accuracy in your interpretations.
To learn more about working with cameras in SAMSON, visit the official Camera documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.