When working on molecular modeling projects, it’s common to share, archive, or analyze your structures using external tools. But if you’re using SAMSON, have you ever wondered how to actually export your carefully built molecular systems or visualizations into widely recognized file formats?
This is a frequent pain point for many users—especially beginners unsure of how to save their work for use in other scientific environments. Whether you’re collaborating with colleagues using different software or preparing data for publication, being able to export your work easily is essential.
What Are Exporters in SAMSON?
Exporters are dedicated tools in SAMSON used to write content from your document (structures, visual representations, etc.) to external files. SAMSON includes several exporters by default, such as:
- PDB exporter – for Protein Data Bank files
- XYZ exporter – simple atomic coordinate output
- Other formats commonly used in cheminformatics and nanoscience
Why This Matters
Imagine designing a complex structure in SAMSON and needing to analyze it further in another software like VMD, GROMACS, or Avogadro. Exporting in a compatible format becomes necessary. Similarly, exporting high-quality images and visualizations for a scientific paper or presentation is a routine task for most molecular modelers.
Without an effective exporter, you might find yourself manually re-entering data or losing information during format conversions.
How to Access and Use Exporters
To export content in SAMSON:
- Go to the main menu and select the ‘Export’ option (depending on the exporter, this could be under ‘File’ or in the context menu).
- Choose the desired exporter, such as PDB or XYZ.
- Select the parts of your structure to export and confirm.
It’s that simple.
Need More Exporters?
If the format you need isn’t provided by default, you can browse SAMSON Connect to find community-contributed exporters and extensions. Many of these plugins are free and extend the capabilities of SAMSON significantly.
For a complete reference, see the formats supported by SAMSON.
Want to Create Your Own Exporter?
For those with experience in coding or unique exporting needs, SAMSON allows users to build custom exporters. You can do this by developing a SAMSON Extension. There’s a full section in the developer documentation on generating extensions, which makes it possible to script your export logic and support different output formats.
SAMSON’s developer tools allow integration with other software ecosystems while keeping your workflow streamlined and customized to your research.
➡️ Learn more about Exporters in SAMSON
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON from https://www.samson-connect.net.