When working on complex molecular systems, every second spent navigating software is a second not spent modeling. If you’re using SAMSON for integrative molecular design, you might find yourself wondering: where do I find the tools I need to build, edit, or deform models?
That’s where Editors come in. In SAMSON, editors are tools that let you interact intuitively with molecular models. They respond to mouse and keyboard events to do things like generate nanotubes, deform molecules while preserving structure, apply rigid-body transformations, and more. But with so many capabilities, where exactly do you access them?
Where to Find Editors
The fastest way to get to the right editor depends on how you prefer to work:
- Use the menu** on the left side of the viewport. This sidebar lists all available editors so you can browse and activate exactly the one you need.
- Quick access commands** appear in the top-left corner of the viewport. This allows you to toggle options and tools for the editor that’s active now—super handy when switching between selection and transformation modes, for example.
- The Find Everything search box**, located at the top of the SAMSON interface, can help you locate any editor instantly by name. Just type what you need and launch the tool in seconds.
Why This Matters
If you’re struggling to reshape a protein complex, run a geometry optimization, or generate nanotubes efficiently, chances are you’re spending extra time just looking for the right editor. Streamlining tool access gives you back that time for real work—building models, testing hypotheses, and visualizing results.
What’s more, only one editor is active at any given time, which means picking the right one without disrupting your workflow is essential. Constantly switching editors from menus can get tedious, especially for tasks that require mixing multiple types of interactions.
So whether you’re tweaking ligands interactively, aligning molecular domains with rigid transformations, or rapidly iterating through model variations, knowing how to quickly locate and switch editors is key to smooth molecular modeling in SAMSON.
What If the Editor You Need Isn’t There?
Out of the box, SAMSON ships with a curated set of editors. But you can always extend your toolkit by adding more editors from SAMSON Connect. These plugins allow the SAMSON environment to stay lightweight while letting you customize your installation for your exact needs.
Finally, if you’re interested in scientific programming, you can develop your own editors with SAMSON’s Extension Generator. That’s a more advanced path but extremely powerful for creating custom interaction behaviors tailored to your research protocols.
For complete details about SAMSON editors and how to work with them, visit the original documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/editors/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.