Many molecular modelers and computational chemists spend significant amounts of time converting or cleaning data files before they can even begin modeling tasks. Whether it’s reading structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), parsing electron density files, or working with specialized formats, file compatibility is a daily bottleneck.
SAMSON, an integrative molecular design platform, addresses this frustrating and time-consuming issue through its system of importers. If you’ve ever had to write a script to fix a mismatched file format or spend hours looking for a converter, this feature offers a more streamlined alternative.
What Are SAMSON Importers?
Importers in SAMSON are small software modules designed to parse and interpret different scientific data file formats. They operate like translators: each one understands a specific file dialect (e.g., .pdb, .gro) and converts it into usable objects inside the SAMSON environment.
Even if you’re new to SAMSON, it already provides a convenient set of importers out of the box. These cover a wide range of common formats used in molecular modeling, such as PDB files for protein structures and electron density files for imaging data. This significantly reduces the setup time before you can start analyzing or simulating structures.
Extending What You Can Import
What if the format you’re working with isn’t supported yet? You can easily install additional importers from SAMSON Connect—a growing ecosystem of Extensions (including importers) developed by the community or by the SAMSON team itself.
Better yet, if an importer for your file format simply doesn’t exist, you can request it directly by contacting the SAMSON team at contact@samson-connect.net. This ensures your needs don’t go unheard, and helps improve the platform for others working with niche data types.
For Developers: Make Your Own Importers
If you’re building custom applications or working with proprietary data, SAMSON also supports user-defined importers. Developers can follow guides on generating SAMSON Extensions to create specialized importers that match their workflows. This is particularly useful in research environments where unique data formats are the norm rather than the exception.
Why This Matters
Having immediate support for multiple data formats can:
- Reduce onboarding time when switching tools
- Facilitate integration of public and private datasets
- Improve reproducibility by avoiding error-prone format conversions
- Simplify collaboration within interdisciplinary teams
If you’re tired of spending time debugging file readers instead of exploring biomolecular systems, SAMSON’s extensible and user-friendly importers may be the relief you’ve been waiting for.
📚 Visit the official SAMSON Importers documentation for the full guide and to see the list of currently supported file formats.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.