Software recommendations for Drawing Molecules

[BillTre]

What do people use for drawing molecules (in a digital manner)?

I would like to make space filling type models as well as letters representing the atoms connected by lines at different angles.
The second kind I could make with ad drawing program, but there's got to be a better way.

 

[mcastillo356]

Geogebra maybe? If you want post a hand-drawn sketch, and I'll send you back the Geogebra file. Is it a 3D drawing?

 

[BillTre]

Geogebra maybe?

Thanks for the suggestion.

Checked it out quickly on line.
Looks like a math program with some drawing capabilities rather then a chemical drawing program.
I am getting old and lazy and just want a simple molecule drawing program.

Probably also, connected to some data base of chemicals, so you could say ethanol and it would bring up the structure.

The drawing of the two different kinds of diagrams could be done by different programs.
Although both together would optimal.

Is it a 3D drawing?

I would be using 2D drawings as the output, but the space filling ball models come in 3D (as I understand) and you then get a 2D rendering of that.
Being able to rotate the molecule vs. view before rendering would be useful in making figures.

 

[mcastillo356]

Have a look at this link:
https://www.acdlabs.com/resources/freeware/chemsketch/
I've wrote "chemistry drawing programs" at Google.

 

[robphy]

I like GeoGebra.
Glowscript/VPython (at Glowscript.org or trinket.io) is another possibility.
However, those are more general purpose... not really Chemically oriented.

These might be useful:
https://molview.org/
http://biomodel.uah.es/en/DIY/JSME/draw.en.htm
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov//edit3/index.html
https://chemagic.org/molecules/amini.html

If any of these latter ones output your creation in a standard format,
one could view the structure in another viewer, like the ones at the top or some other 3d viewing program.

 

[Borek]

Chemsketch was always my first choice.

 

[Ibix]

ChemSketch gets another recommendation from my friendly neighbourhood chemist (Mrs. Ibix). It's free, which is a bonus.

 

[HAYAO]

I use ChemDraw package which includes 3D model output of the input chemical structure. It's not free though. I use my university license.

 

[BillTre]

What about programs that could draw whole biochemical pathways?

Anybody know any thing about programs that do that?

 

[Wrichik Basu]

What do people use for drawing molecules (in a digital manner)?

Many years back, I attended a molecular modelling workshop, and we were taught how to use Avogadro. It's open-source. I stopped using it since a long time because I moved over to particle physics, but as far as I remember, it was fairly easy to draw molecules using this software.

 

[berkeman]

Chemsketch was always my first choice.

What about programs that could draw whole biochemical pathways?

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but looking though the ChemSketch pages, it does include some biochemical process capabilities:

https://www.acdlabs.com/download/quickstart/draw/QSG_ChemSketch_BiosequenceTools.pdf

 

[BillTre]

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but looking though the ChemSketch pages, it does include some biochemical process capabilities:

https://www.acdlabs.com/download/quickstart/draw/QSG_ChemSketch_BiosequenceTools.pdf

Looks interesting.
It looks like it requires some additional software to run on Macs.
I'll probably be getting a new Mac soon (see below), so I'll have to determine if it will work on a new machine (with a new processor).

My old apple laptop now has hardware problems.
I have just figured out that my battery is swelling up (a known problem).
It is recommended to get battery replaced, but I'll probably get a new 13" M1 macbook pro (I want a larger screen but those versions have not come out yet).
Then I'll probably get the battery fixed afterwards and figure out what to do with the old machine (recycle to a relative or trade in for new computer for relative).

I'll have to deal with the hardware first.

 

[anorlunda]

I have just figured out that my battery is swelling up (a known problem).

They should call it MacGout.

 

[chemisttree]

You might try an online application.

MolView

Kind of easy to use.

 

[sysprog]

@BillTre and anyone else interested in biochemichal pathways the [Roche Molecular Biochemicals [Boehringer-Mannheim]] Biochemical Pathways wall charts are just great: http://biochemical-pathways.com/#/map/1

 

[sysprog]

@BillTre yeah the reactions of each of over 70 enzymes well-charted $\dots$

 

[BillTre]

@BillTre yeah the reaction of each of over 70 enzymes well-charted $\dots$

I have an old book that has similar figures.
I like these overviews of the processes.
Metabolism is impressively complex.

 

[sysprog]

For SVG (scalable vector graphics) a great resource is https://inkscape.org/