XDrawChem
XDrawChem is open-source software for drawing chemical structure diagrams and schemes. It provides a basic set of drawing tools for constructing 2D molecular structures.
chemistry
drawing
molecular-structures
XDrawChem: Open-Source Chemical Structure Drawing Software
Open-source software for drawing chemical structure diagrams and schemes, providing basic drawing tools for constructing 2D molecular structures.
What is XDrawChem?
XDrawChem is an open-source software application for drawing chemical structure diagrams, reaction schemes, and publishing-quality figures. It is developed as part of the Blue Obelisk movement promoting open data, open source, and open standards in chemistry.
XDrawChem provides a basic yet flexible set of drawing tools for constructing 2D molecular structures, with support for common chemical glyphs like bonds, arrows, atoms, rings, braces, brackets, texts, and shapes. The graphical user interface is straightforward and intuitive to use.
Key features include:
- Intuitive toolbar for drawing chemical structures
- Template library for common rings, functional groups, linkers, etc.
- Interactive cleaning tools for refining drawn structures
- Support for SMILES and SMARTS strings
- Export vector graphics to PDF, SVG, PS formats
- Seamless integration with other cheminformatics tools
XDrawChem runs cross-platform on Linux, Windows, and macOS. The source code is freely available under an open source license for customization. It presents a basic yet flexible open-source alternative to commercial proprietary software like ChemDraw, ChemDoodle, and ChemSketch for drawing chemical structures.
XDrawChem Features
Features
- Drawing tools for constructing 2D molecular structures
- Support for common chemical drawing elements like bonds, rings, arrows, text labels
- Export images in PNG, SVG, PDF formats
- Import/export MDL Molfile format
- Customizable toolbars and keyboard shortcuts
- Multi-page documents
- Plugin architecture to extend functionality
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Free and open source
Cross-platform availability
Intuitive and easy to use
Support for major chemical file formats
Extensible and customizable
Cons
Limited built-in templates and samples
Less features than commercial alternatives
Not actively maintained or updated recently
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