• a ZIP file
• a self-extracting file; read this first.

Web-page molecular models

via Java	via Plug-in

Chemistry drawing software:

• This drawing software (fully OLE-enabled) has an accompanying, versatile 3D viewer. This software has recently undergone a radical redesign which, in my opinion, makes it much more difficult to use because it now requires you to move back and forth between several modules in order to generate anything more sophisticated than a simple structure or two. The older version wrote 256-color GIF files (which are found all over my website, including above right), but the new version won't.
  
  
  • Clicking on the "Download Now" image above allows academic users, both students and faculty, to download and use an extensive version of the KnowItAll software for free.
  • A freeware version of ChemWindow 3.0 is available here (1.1 MB download) until Bio-Rad tells me different; the software is provided as-is and neither Bio-Rad nor I make any guarantees that it will work properly, or for that matter that it won't mug your grandmother. It worked well on Win 3.1 systems but I haven't used it since then. The program is called ChemWeb and can only create 256-color GIF files that are too grainy for use in printed documents. It has no cut-and-paste capability.



• ChemPen is a drawing program that appears to have all the good points of ChemWindow at a much lower price.



• Freeware:
  • ISIS/Draw software from MDLI. This software is OLE enabled and works very well indeed, including saving structures as GIF files. The learning curve is steeper than for ChemSketch or ChemWindow, though.

    Greg Pearce's online tutorial for ISIS/Draw in a new window.

  • ACD/ChemSketch has a downloadable freeware version that can also generate GIF files for web posting. The user interface is more friendly than ISIS/Draw, but the pictures are not quite as pretty. ChemSketch has a number of problems, particularly in image cleanup, caused by the fact that there is no overlying grid which defines angles and distances when drawing. Bicyclic systems tend to be "cleaned up" to the point of illegibility.

    ChemSketch now has OLE capability. It also has an accompanying 3D viewer; the image above left was created using Show3D. However, in order to do this I had to create the molecule using another program, save it as an (incorrect!) MDL Molfile, then import it. Show3D does not import molfiles correctly. You can draw a molecule in ChemSketch and export it to Show3D, but there doesn't seem to be a way to draw a complex system in ChemSketch so that Show3D will interpret it properly.

    Bob Bruner's online tutorial for ChemSketch in a new window.

Chemistry markup languages, which allow better exchange of chemical information on the Web.

• A page on the use of Chemical Markup Language.
• An HTML essay, with links, on establishment of a chemical MIME standard.

For more chemical imaging pages, see my Chemical Education Links.

Maintained by Daniel J. Berger