Trajectories
Upload, process, inspect, and share molecular dynamics trajectories in VOLT.
TL;DR -- In VOLT, a trajectory is more than an uploaded file. The platform parses it, derives simulation-cell metadata, stores frame dumps, generates GLB models and previews, and turns it into something the rest of the workspace can use.
Overview
Trajectories sit at the center of the platform. Once a file lands in VOLT, it starts moving through a processing pipeline that extracts metadata, stores the underlying dumps, creates derived simulation-cell records, and prepares 3D assets for the viewer.
That is why trajectories end up feeding so many other modules. Analysis runs against them, simulation cells are derived from them, notebooks can be linked to them, and public sharing starts from them.
Organizing the listing
The main listing is folder-based. You can create folders, move trajectories between them, and keep long-running projects separated by system, experiment, or paper.
The listing also doubles as a status board. It shows whether a trajectory is still being processed, already viewable, or has failed somewhere in the pipeline.
What happens after upload
Uploading is the visible part. Most of the work happens after that.
When you select one or more files, VOLT creates trajectory records and hands the heavy lifting to background processing on your team infrastructure. Depending on the file, that can include extraction, metadata parsing, frame registration, dump compression, cloud upload into cluster storage, GLB preprocessing, and preview rasterization.
| Status | What It Usually Means |
|---|---|
| Queued | The upload is registered and waiting for processing capacity |
| Processing | Metadata, frames, and derived records are being built |
| Rendering | 3D assets are being generated for the viewer |
| Completed | The trajectory is ready for inspection and analysis |
| Failed | Processing stopped because a step in the pipeline failed |
One useful detail here is that previews and derived assets do not always appear at exactly the same moment the upload record becomes visible. Some parts of the pipeline continue in the background.
Working in the 3D viewer
Once the trajectory is ready, the viewer becomes the main workspace for visual inspection.
- scrub or play through timesteps,
- orbit, pan, and zoom around the structure,
- inspect atoms in the particles table,
- view the simulation-cell wireframe,
- create scene artifacts through filters or color coding,
- and launch analysis plugins directly from the same context.
The key idea is that the viewer is not a dead-end visualization tool. It is the place where raw trajectory data, derived overlays, and analysis-driven artifacts meet.
Particles and per-atom data
The Particles tab gives you a frame-level table of atoms and their properties. In practice, that means you can move between two ways of understanding the same timestep: the 3D scene for spatial context, and the tabular view for exact values.
Alongside the usual fields such as atom ID, type, and coordinates, VOLT can also surface additional per-atom properties extracted from the dump or generated by an analysis.
Color coding and filters
Two of the fastest ways to change what you are looking at are color coding and particle filters.
Color coding maps a property to a gradient, which is useful when you want to see variation rather than exact values. Filters let you isolate or remove subsets of atoms based on property rules. Both actions create scene artifacts instead of destructively rewriting the original trajectory view.
That matters because it lets you compare interpretations of the same frame without losing the baseline.
Scene artifacts
Scene artifacts are one of the small but important ideas in VOLT. They give the viewer memory.
Every color mapping, particle filter result, or plugin-generated 3D exposure can appear as an artifact in the scene. You can toggle artifacts on and off, switch between them, and use them to compare different analytical views of the same timestep.
Public sharing and downloads
Trajectories can also leave the private team context when needed. You can download the original trajectory data or generate a public link for viewer access, which is useful when you want to share a result with someone who does not need a full VOLT account.
Public access is viewer-oriented. It is meant for sharing the trajectory itself, not for granting team-level write access.
Sample simulations
If you are still learning the platform, sample simulations are a good place to start. They let you explore the viewer and the surrounding workflow without preparing your own data first.
Related modules
Trajectories connect directly to several nearby modules:
- Analysis & Jobs for plugin execution and progress tracking,
- Simulation Cells for derived box geometry,
- Scripting for trajectory-linked notebooks,
- and Volt AI for natural-language operations on trajectories and analyses.
Trajectory files and derived assets live on your team's infrastructure. The VOLT server coordinates access, but the cluster daemon is the component that performs parsing, GLB generation, rasterization, and many frame-level queries.