Camera

A camera in SAMSON provides a 3D view of visualizable objects in SAMSON's document view, and can be easily controlled to point to a specific location, zoom in or out, translate, rotate, etc.

You can check the Moving around section to see how to operate with a camera.

To access the camera functionality (add new cameras, switch the camera view, zoom in/out) go to the Visualization menu. You can also modify various camera properties in the inspector.

The camera menu

A camera is a part of a SAMSON Document, and each Document has at least one camera. A camera is saved/loaded with a Document in/from SAMSON file formats (.sam, .samx). You can have multiple cameras in one Document. It might be useful if you want to switch fast between different views (e.g., positions, projections, close-up views, and a full view) in the same Document. To switch between cameras, double-click on one or select one in the document view and in its context menu click "Set as active camera". Only one camera can be active at a time.

Multiple cameras

A newly added camera will have a default starting position. You can create a new camera by pressing the "Camera" icon in the Visualization menu or using the Ctrl + Shift + C shortcut on Windows and Linux or Cmd⌘ + Shift + C on Mac.

Context menu for a camera

Through this menu you can also activate the camera inertia which will allow for a movement with inertia of the camera and orthographic projection which is useful e.g. for viewing crystals.

The camera properties (positions, projection, inertia, etc) can be viewed and modified through the inspector window:

Inspector view of a camera