In fact, almost everything I’ve learned about ChemDraw is on YouTube. In that sense, it’s a lot like Excel for chemists! Video tutorials are plentiful and they are an excellent way to start seeing what ChemDraw has to offer. I’m constantly learning new applications and shortcuts for ChemDraw tools. Maximizing Your Efficiency in ChemDrawĬhemDraw can be a bit daunting and tricky to use at first, but shortcuts and hotkeys can help.

From there, you can explore experimental properties, published literature and patents, and synthesis routes. Simply select a structure or reaction and click the SciFinder button. Newer versions of ChemDraw have a direct link to SciFinder, which is a powerful addition to this already versatile software. If you use thin layer chromatography, there’s even a tool to create TLC plate images.įigure 6: NMR Prediction. You can use these templates in combination with chemical structures and reaction schemes to show how an experiment is performed or how a compound fits into an overall experiment. Certain versions include customizable bio-art ranging from enzymes and receptors to cartoons of entire organisms and bench equipment. Molecular charges, atomic orbitals, and individual electrons are also included.ĬhemDraw isn’t limited to drawing chemical structures. You can include stereochemistry and rotate molecules in all axes. If you understand skeletal formulas, you can use ChemDraw! The program includes a plethora of customizable options, like setting bond lengths and widths, changing the font and size of individual atoms, and changing the colors of atoms and bonds. Making Beautiful Figures with ChemDrawĬhemDraw is quite intuitive for new users. Most universities and several companies have a ChemDraw license and free trials are also available. It’s especially useful for making publication-worthy figures because you can easily manipulate minute details of chemical structures and formulas, as well as draw a viewer’s eye to what is really important. It’s easy to create figures that appeal to broad audiences with ChemDraw, whether they include your PI, seminar attendees, or the general public.

What Exactly IS ChemDraw?Īt its core, ChemDraw is a drawing program that allows users to sketch skeletal structures of chemical compounds, which can then be moved into other programs, like MS Word, Powerpoint, and Adobe Illustrator.

In this article, I’ll highlight some handy ChemDraw features for chemists and biologists alike. I've tried reducing the resolution of my computer screen, but it doesn't seem to help the problem in any way.Have you ever wondered how to make professional, easy-to-understand figures of molecules for presentations or publications? While several programs exist for this purpose, ChemDraw is like the Swiss Army knife of chemical sketching programs that most chemists and journals use to prepare figures.īeyond the ability to create chemically accurate and legible figures, ChemDraw can perform in-depth analyses of compounds and predict their properties. If I'm trying to modify a terminal bond it can be the difference of a few pixels which is incredibly frustrating.

It is so small that it becomes very difficult to see and trying to hover over a particular atom or bond can be a frustrating ordeal. The problem has to do with my mouse cursor beeing nearly invisible when I try and use it on the document. I am currently running Chemdraw on a Samsung UHD (4K or 3840 x 2160) and I've found that ChemOffice Professional 15 is almost useless on my machine.

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