See First look: the interface for the general description of the SAMSON interface.
Menu bar
The menu bar, located at the top of the interface, is composed of nine menus: File, Edit, Selection, Visualization, Properties, Simulation, App, Window and Help. Note: The menu may slightly differ on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
File
The File menu is used to manage SAMSON sdocs:
- New...: creates a new document with a user-defined name.
- Open...: shows a modal dialog to open a document. Files with extensions .sam or .samx correspond to entire SAMSON documents, whereas files with other extensions are imported into the current document.
- Recent: shows the list of recently opened files.
- Save: shows a modal dialog to save data to a file. Selecting files with extensions .sam or .samx saves the entire active document to the file, whereas selecting a file with another extension saves the current selection to the file, or the entire document if nothing is selected.
- Save as...: same as save, but with the possibility of saving to a different file, even if the document has already been saved.
- Save selection as...: same as save as, but saves only the selected part.
- Close: closes the active document.
- Exit: exits SAMSON.
The File menu
Edit
The Edit menu is used to edit SAMSON sdocs:
- Undo: undo an operation.
- Redo: redo an operation.
- Cut: cuts the selected part.
- Copy: copies the selected part.
- Erase selected nodes: erases the selected nodes.
- Editors: opens a submenu with available editors.
- Layer: opens submenu for layers.
- Show log: shows the SAMSON log.
- Preferences: opens the preferences window. On Mac this menu is in SAMSON menu
The Edit menu
Selection
The Selection menu is used to select nodes in SAMSON sdocs:
- Select all: selects all selectable nodes in the active SAMSON Document.
- Deselect all: deselects all selectable nodes in the active SAMSON Document.
- Find: opens a find window which allows you to do complex searches in the active SAMSON Document.
- Create group: creates a group out of selected nodes.
- Store conformation: stores a conformation of selected nodes.
The Selection menu
Visualization
The Selection menu is used to select nodes in SAMSON sdocs:
- Add visual model: adds a visual model for the selection.
- Capture viewport: captures the viewport (the settings can be changed in the Preferences).
- Rendering: opens the rendering submenu.
- Camera: opens the camera submenu, where you can add a new camera, change the active camera view, zoom in/out.
- Stereo: opens the stereo view submenu.
- Hide interface: hides the SAMSON interface.
- Full screen: goes in the fullscreen mode.
The Visualization menu
Properties
The Properties menu is used to add property models in SAMSON sdocs:
- Add property model: adds a property model for the selection.
The Properties menu
Simulation
The Simulation menu is used to manage simulators in SAMSON sdocs:
- Add simulator: opens a window where you can set up a simulator - choose an interaction model and state updater.
- Start simulation / Simulation running: starts a simulation or shows that a simulation is already running.
- Simulation stopped / Stop simulation: stops a simulation or shows that a simulation is already stopped (there is no running simulation).
The Simulation menu
App
The App menu shows all the Apps installed in your SAMSON, subdivided into categories.
Window
The Window menu is used to manage SAMSON interface and SAMSON Documents:
- Document view: shows/hides the document view.
- Inspector: shows/hides the inspector.
- History: shows/hides the history.
- Hide interface: hides the SAMSON interface.
- Full screen: goes in the fullscreen mode.
- Document 1: allows switching between opened SAMSON Documents.
The Window menu
Help
Toolbars
The file toolbar provides a one-click access to the file menu functionality.
The edit toolbar provides a one-click access to the edit menu functionality.
The editors toolbar provides a one-click access to the editors menu functionality.
The selection toolbar provides a one-click access to the selection menu functionality and a possibility to set a selection filter.
The selection filter allows you to specify types of nodes to which the selection should be applied.
The rendering toolbar provides a one-click access to the rendering menu functionality and to the screenshot functionality.
The camera toolbar provides a one-click access to the camera menu functionality.
The stereo view toolbar provides a one-click access to the stereo view menu functionality.
The simulation toolbar provides a one-click access to the simulation menu functionality.
The app toolbar provides a one-click access to the app menu functionality.
The window toolbar provides a one-click access to the window menu functionality.
Viewport
The viewport is dedicated to showing the visualization of molecules.
Document view
The Document view can be opened via Window menu / Document view or via shortcut Ctrl + 1 on Windows and Linux or Cmd⌘ + 1 on Mac.
The document view shows the data graph of an active Document. You can filter the nodes using Node Specification Language and names of the nodes. See node types for more details on types of nodes in the SAMSON document.
SAMSON documents store all information about atoms, bonds, molecules, models, simulators, etc. The document view shows the document structure:
Multiple documents may be opened simultaneously in SAMSON. Use the Window menu to switch documents, or the Ctrl/ Cmd⌘ + Tab and Ctrl/ Cmd⌘ + Shift + Tab shortcuts.
History
The History can be opened via Window menu / History or via shortcut Ctrl + 3 on Windows and Linux or Cmd⌘ + 3 on Mac.
The History shows a history of undoable operations, by clicking on any of them you may return to the associated state in the history.
Important: Not all the operations are undoable, if in between of undoable operations you did operations which are not undoable it might not be possible for SAMSON to properly undo operations, which may result in a loss of data.
Inspector
The Inspector can be opened via Window menu / Inspector or via shortcut Ctrl + I on Windows and Linux or Cmd⌘ + I on Mac.
The Inspector provides a possibility to view and edit the properties of the selected nodes.
The Inspector has controls that allows you to choose a) whether you inspect the descendants of the selected nodes as well, and b) whether you edit all selected nodes or only the last selected node. You can use the filter to see matching attributes only.
Status bar
The status bar is dedicated to showing status messages from SAMSON and SAMSON Elements.