Molecular modelers often face the challenge of presenting complex atomic transitions and simulations in a clear and visual way. Whether you’re showcasing conformational changes, docking processes, or molecular dynamics, it’s helpful to create a visual trail that tracks how atoms move through space over time.
The Record Path animation in SAMSON offers a solution: it lets you automatically capture atom trajectories during animations. This makes it easier to explain and present your molecular processes visually—without manually recreating motion paths or duplicating efforts.
What does Record Path do?
Record Path creates a trail of atomic positions as they evolve during a presentation. It adds a dedicated track to the Animator in SAMSON and records atomic movement over time as driven by other animations like Assemble, Dock, Move atoms, or Simulate.
Adding the animation
To begin recording atomic trajectories, go to the Animation panel of the Animator and double-click on the Record Path effect. A keyframe is inserted at the current frame. You can always move it if needed.
The animation track uses color coding to show what has been recorded:
- Green segments mean positions have been recorded.
- Red segments mean positions haven’t yet been recorded or are invalid.
Tips for effective use
Execution order matters: The Animator processes animations in top-down order. To make sure you’re capturing the result of other animations, place the Record Path track after those animations in the Animator timeline.
Managing performance: If your presentation becomes heavy, you can temporarily disable path recording through the animation’s Inspector or by right-clicking on the animation and selecting Enable recording. Disabled tracks appear darkened.
Keyframe flexibility: You can always move keyframes to fine-tune when and how much is recorded.
Exporting the recorded trajectory
Once your path has been recorded (i.e., the full track is green), you can export the path into your document as a Path node for visualization or further manipulation:
- In the animation’s Inspector, click Create path.
- Or right-click the animation in the Animator and choose Create path.
Why this is useful
Instead of manually defining trajectories or relying solely on video formats, the Record Path animation gives you a reusable, editable path object inside your project. This makes it easier to revisit, stylize, or share your results later on. It’s particularly helpful when preparing teaching materials, publications, or collaborative presentations.
For more details, visit the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/record-path/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.