BKchem

BKchem

BKchem is free and open-source 2D chemical drawing software. It allows users to draw and edit chemical structures, reactions, and formulas. BKchem has basic drawing tools and can export images as PNG, SVG, EPS files.
BKchem image
drawing chemical-structures reactions formulas

BKchem: Free & Open-Source 2D Chemical Drawing Software

BKchem is free and open-source 2D chemical drawing software. It allows users to draw and edit chemical structures, reactions, and formulas. BKchem has basic drawing tools and can export images as PNG, SVG, EPS files.

What is BKchem?

BKchem is a free, open-source 2D chemical drawing program for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. It provides an intuitive user interface and a wide range of tools to draw and edit chemical structures, reactions, polymers, and spectra.

With BKchem, users can quickly sketch chemical structures using build tools, templates, and by entering SMILES strings or chemical names. It supports drawing bonds, arrows, brackets, texts, and various shapes. Advanced editing features like clean-up, atom/bond stretching, structure rotation, and scripts allow for fine manipulations.

Some key features include:

  • Intuitive build tools to draw common organic structures
  • Extensive chemical symbol and template palettes
  • Support for polymers, reactions, arrows, curves, texts, shapes
  • Multiple undo/redo functionality
  • Structure manipulation through rotation, alignment, distribution
  • Built-in script editor to automate tasks
  • Export vector graphics to PNG, SVG, PDF, EPS etc.

BKchem enables chemists, researchers, students and educators to easily draw publication-quality chemical diagrams. It can serve as a free alternative to commercial tools like ChemDraw, ChemDoodle, ChemSketch with basic drawing and editing features.

BKchem Features

Features

  1. Drawing tools to create chemical structures
  2. Support for common chemical formats like SMILES and InChI
  3. 2D rendering of chemical structures
  4. Export images in PNG, SVG, EPS formats
  5. Editing and annotating chemical drawings
  6. Customizable interface and themes
  7. Scripting support via Python

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Cross-platform availability

Intuitive and easy to use

Active community support

Customizable and extensible via scripts

Cons

Limited to 2D structure drawing

Lacks some advanced features of commercial tools

User interface could be more polished

Limited file format support


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