Visualizing complex molecular systems can often feel overwhelming. Between selecting the right atoms, choosing the appropriate rendering styles, and tweaking color schemes, molecular modelers spend valuable time setting up visuals instead of analyzing their data. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How can I speed up the visualization of my molecule while still getting a publication-quality image?” – SAMSON’s Visual Presets provide a simple and effective answer.
Whether you’re working on a protein-ligand complex, a DNA-protein interaction, or a large viral capsid, SAMSON offers a set of default visual presets that apply carefully chosen combinations of visual models and color schemes. These are designed to help you focus on the science, not the styling.
Why Use Visual Presets?
Visual presets function like one-click stylesheets for molecular scenes. They automatically apply optimized visual configurations to highlight important features of your molecular system. This includes:
- Rendering atoms and bonds using specific models (e.g., Van der Waals, Ribbons, Licorice)
- Color schemes based on chain IDs, elements, residue indices, and more
- Special effects like ambient occlusion, shadows, and fog
Imagine going from raw molecular data to this in just a few clicks:
How to Apply a Visual Preset
You can apply any available preset by going to Visualization > Visual preset and choosing from the list. A particularly useful one is the “Protein-ligand” preset, which quickly highlights the interaction between a receptor and its ligand. This is especially helpful for structural biology and drug design tasks.
Create Your Own Presets
If the default options don’t fully meet your needs, SAMSON allows you to create and save your own visual presets. Customize styles, models, and render settings, then apply them to future projects instantly.
Illustrative Style: Inspired by RCSB PDB Molecule of the Month
If you’re aiming for a more artistic or educational style reminiscent of science illustrations, SAMSON offers an Illustrate visual preset. These presets apply pastel shading, color per chain, and soft lighting effects:
Set the rendering preferences to Illustrative under Visualization > Presets > Illustrative to achieve a smooth, cartoon-styled representation of your system.
Switching Quickly Between Rendering Presets
In addition to visual presets that target molecular representations, you can change scene-level rendering settings through Visualization > Presets. This lets you toggle between display styles like Default, High-quality, or Illustrative to see your molecule in different lighting conditions without changing the visual models themselves.
By combining presets with just a few manual tweaks, SAMSON allows you to go from raw data to curated molecular visuals in seconds. It’s a practical boost to your daily work, whether you’re preparing a figure for publication, teaching structural biology, or giving a presentation.
Learn more about visual presets and how to fine-tune them in the official SAMSON documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.