In SAMSON, to move an object (e.g., an atom, a molecule, etc) first you need to select it. You can select an object either in the document view or in the viewport.
In SAMSON, you can move objects with the help of:
Here we will only consider how to move objects in SAMSON with the help of Selection editors. For how to move objects with the help of Python Scripting, please, check the Python Scripting guide.
To move - rotate and translate - a selection you can use one of the several move editors provided with SAMSON by default. You can find them in the Home menu or in the Editors menu. There are 4 move editors provided by default.
1. The local move editor (shortcut: M).
Translate or rotate the selected atoms along the principal axes of the selected atoms:
Important: right-click (or press Ctrl / Cmd⌘ and left-click) on widgets to enter a precise displacement or angle. Right-click on translation widgets to align atoms along global axes.
Note: the colors of the translation and rotation widgets indicate the principal axes:
2. The global move editor (shortcut: K).
Translate or rotate the selected atoms along global directions:
Important: press Ctrl / Cmd⌘ and left-click on widgets to enter a precise displacement or angle.
Note: the colors of the translation and rotation widgets indicate the global axes:
3. The minimal move editor (shortcut: J).
Translate or rotate the selected atoms:
Important: press Ctrl / Cmd⌘ and left-click on widgets to enter a precise displacement or angle.
You can move object with or without snapping. To modify the snapping preference, double-click on the icon of the selection editors you are using and check or uncheck the snapping for atoms or nodes.
4. The simple move editor (shortcut: H).
Use the translation widget to move atoms in the plane of the camera.
Important: press Ctrl / Cmd⌘ and left-click on the translation widget to enter a precise displacement.
When rotating and translating using these move editors, you can enable or disable the snapping in the Edit menu or in the top-right corner if the viewport.
Let's now see how to use the local move editor (shortcut: M). This editor allows for moving in local XY, YZ, XZ planes, translating and rotating around principal axes and on a sphere.
Let's load a molecule e.g. from assets or create it ourselves.
To move you first need to select atoms. Let's use Rectangle selection to choose a group of atoms.
Let's move atoms in the camera plane. To move atoms, simply drag press on the cross controller and drag it in the desired direction, the editor should display the positional shift:
If you enable snapping for atoms, then when you will move the selection, the selection will try to snap so that atoms woulb be aligned.
To rotate around an axis press on a controller and drag it in a desired direction:
To rotate on a sphere left-click and hold on the circle and move the mouse cursor.