When working with large molecular systems and complex animations in SAMSON, clarity and focus are key. A common challenge for molecular modelers lies in quickly identifying which animation nodes are visible and which are hidden, especially when juggling multiple animation tracks or frames. Fortunately, the Node Specification Language (NSL) in SAMSON provides a solution that’s both elegant and powerful without requiring any scripting.
This post will walk you through using animation visibility attributes in NSL to filter and manage animation nodes by their visibility state. Whether you’re refining a presentation or just trying to declutter your animation workspace, mastering these filters can save you time and reduce cognitive load.
Understanding the Visibility Attributes
Within the animation attribute space in NSL (short name: an), there are multiple visibility-related attributes that you can use to query and filter nodes:
an.v– The basicvisibleattribute. This indicates whether a node is currently visible based on all its parent nodes and flags.an.vf– ThevisibilityFlag. This shows whether the visibility checkbox associated with the node is checked.an.h– Thehiddenattribute. This is another way to know if the node is explicitly hidden.
These attributes are often used together to get logical combinations, for example:
|
1 |
an.vf false</code> (<em>nodes with visibility flag turned off</em>)<br><code>an.v</code> (<em>nodes that are effectively visible</em>)<br><code>not an.v</code> <em>nodes that are not effectively visible</em> |
These are particularly useful when you want to:
- Hide invisible animations from your animation browser
- Isolate only those animations currently shown in the viewport
- Perform bulk operations like batch-deleting hidden animation nodes
Example Use Case
Let’s say you are working on a molecular simulation and want to clean your scene before exporting frames for a video. You only want to keep visible animations. You can use:
|
1 |
an.v |
This will filter all animation nodes that are currently visible. This ensures that all the nodes you export are actually contributing to what’s shown visually without surprise “invisible” data cluttering the scene.
If instead you’d like to identify animations disabled via the visibility checkbox, use:
|
1 |
an.vf false |
This is particularly helpful if animations are hidden due to user action, rather than hierarchical visibility constraints higher in the node tree.
Combined Filtering
You can also combine filters. For example, to find hidden animations that were manually hidden, use:
|
1 |
not an.v and an.vf false |
This allows for fine-grained control over what’s displayed and editable. It’s a practical method to track down orphaned or obsolete animation nodes that might be affecting performance or clarity without being immediately visible.
Conclusion
Filtering animation nodes based on visibility attributes in SAMSON’s Node Specification Language (NSL) is a simple yet effective technique for managing molecular scenes. It’s especially useful when preparing visual outputs, debugging animations, or just keeping your project organized.
To learn more about animation attributes and NSL, visit the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/nsl/animation/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.