When you are in the middle of a molecular modeling task, learning a new tool can feel like another task competing for your time. You may need to inspect a structure, compare protein sequences, or make a clear interaction diagram—but not necessarily sit through an entire product tour to find the relevant feature.
SAMSON’s webinar recordings can be used more like a searchable set of short lessons than a single long viewing assignment. Their chapter timestamps let you jump directly to a topic, see the feature in context, and decide whether it fits the work in front of you.
Start with the problem, not the recording
Before opening a webinar, write down the specific obstacle you want to solve. For example: “I need a more controlled way to select parts of a structure,” or “I want to see how the platform handles protein alignment.” A concrete question makes it easier to choose a chapter and avoid collecting features that are interesting but not immediately useful.
The 2025 recording is organized around several hands-on topics. If selection and inspection are slowing you down, start with the View and Point selection editors at 1:30, then look at Progressive Clipping at 7:27. For keeping selections available and manageable, the Quick Groups chapter begins at 14:42.
Follow a small, relevant learning path
Once you find a useful chapter, watch a few minutes before and after the timestamp. That gives you enough context to understand what task the feature addresses, rather than just seeing a button or result. Then try the same kind of operation in your own project. This simple loop—identify a task, watch a focused segment, test it—turns a webinar into practical reference material.
For protein work, the 2025 webinar includes a chapter on using Protein Aligner to align multiple protein sequences and structures, starting at 20:33. If your next challenge is communicating protein–ligand interactions, jump to the Interaction designer at 30:02, which covers creating and editing 2D and 3D interaction diagrams. These are distinct tasks, so you can explore only the segment that matches your current need.
The recording also has chapters on Pattern Builders at 44:59, described as a way to rapidly create advanced designs. If you are not working on that kind of design, there is no need to start there. Skipping irrelevant chapters is part of making the resource useful.
Use the older recording when your task calls for it
The 2024 webinar covers a broader range of workflows. For selection, it offers several entry points: the Document View and Context Toolbar at 13:15, the Viewport and Selection filters at 16:29, Selection Commands at 17:37, and the Node Specification Language and SAMSON AI at 18:35. These chapters can help you compare different ways of approaching selection instead of assuming there is only one route.
Other segments are useful when your goal is presentation or simulation review. The recording includes studio-quality rendering with Cycles at 23:47, the Visual Preset Editor at 26:32, movie creation with the Animator at 31:52, and importing and visualizing GROMACS simulations at 36:40. Choose based on the deliverable you need: inspecting a simulation, preparing a visualization, or creating a movie are different jobs and call for different parts of the recording.
Make the learning stick
After watching a segment, note the chapter title and the task it helped with. If you are comparing workflows, write down what you tried and what remains unclear. That gives you a compact personal index you can return to later, and makes it easier to share a precise recommendation with a colleague—for example, “Start at 30:02 for interaction diagrams,” rather than “Watch this webinar.”
The goal is not to watch everything. It is to reduce the time between encountering a modeling problem and finding a relevant demonstration. Browse the SAMSON webinar documentation to find the recordings and chapter lists.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.