When preparing molecular presentations or designing animations of molecular mechanisms, one recurring challenge for modelers is tracking how atoms move over time. Whether you’re simulating a docking event, assembling a complex, or simply visualizing structural changes, keeping a clear record of atom movements can make your work more accurate and reproducible.
Thankfully, SAMSON provides a simple but effective way to do this with the Record path animation effect. This animation doesn’t move atoms on its own—instead, it follows them. It captures the trajectory of atoms affected by other animations, like Move atoms, Assemble, or Simulate.
How it works
When you play your presentation in SAMSON’s Animator and include the Record path effect, it automatically logs the positions of atoms frame-by-frame, creating a visual path. This is incredibly helpful for validating motions or exporting a visual trajectory.
To add the animation, double-click Record path from the Animation panel. The keyframe will be added at your current frame, but you can move it if needed. The effectiveness of the recording is shown visually: green track segments indicate successful recordings, while red means either no data yet or invalid positions.
Order matters
Keep in mind, the Animator executes animations from top to bottom. So make sure Record path is placed after the animations whose effects you want to capture. If you put it before, it’ll record nothing or potentially outdated information.
Performance tip
Recording atom paths in real-time can be computation-heavy if you’re still testing your presentation. You can temporarily disable the recording by right-clicking on the effect in the Animator and unchecking Enable recording. Darkened animation controllers let you know it’s off. Later, you can click it back on once you’re ready for the final recording pass.
What to do once the path is recorded
After playing your presentation and confirming that Record path has created a completely green track (i.e., it has recorded everything needed), you can export the pathway into your document. You can do this in two ways:
- Click Create path from the animation’s Inspector.
- Or right-click the animation in Animator and choose Create path.
This will generate a separate Path node in your model document, which you can analyze, visualize, or reuse in other animations (e.g., you can play it in reverse using the Play reverse path effect).
Want to try it?
Working with dynamic simulations or creating complex presentations? Try using Record path to document how atoms move and interact. It validates your process, helps you debug, and makes your findings easier to visualize and communicate.
You can learn more in the SAMSON documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.