![]() ![]() Nowadays an obvious requirement is WYSIWYG ( What You See Is What You Get). The presented drawing software applications work on the Windows or McIntosh platforms, some under Linux as well. If a precise 3D representation of the molecule is needed, its import from a modelling program or 3D data base is the most feasible arrangement, although the recent drawing packages usually contain a simple 2D → 3D converter module or add-in. The availability of different tools (the palette of fonts, arrows, lines and curves, arcs and other shapes or graphics primitives) is also of high importance. Direct 3D editing is usually not possible – 3D features of a molecule can be visualised only by using the wedged/hashed bond drawing methodology. With publication in mind aesthetics and quality come to the front, ensured by built-in templates, bonds constrained to fixed length and angles, etc. The creation of chemical structures with the conventional drawing software applications would be extremely painstaking and practically impossible. With the aid of these applications one can create professional looking articles and drawings, and a large amount of time for the rewriting, redrawing and making corrections can be spared as well. Instead, text editors like MS Word, Corel WordPerfect or Apache OpenOffice, etc. Expect to see ChemDoodle v1.4.0 released in late November.The immense development of microelectronics has banished the use of a typing machine, drawing pen, Indian ink and templates. We believe this feature is a great way of providing that versatility. ![]() It is a goal of ours to create a chemical drawing tool that is intuitive and adapts to the user’s drawing preferences. Using these features, you may more efficiently draw structures and more quickly finish your figures. Also note that there are new object alignment and distribution functions that have been added to ChemDoodle v1.4.0 to help in all aspects of producing quality figures.ĬhemDoodle v1.4.0 will contain new features for managing how structures are drawn. This new grid option will help you to place items and align them with ease. You may have gestures snap to a 5 pixel grid, a 10 pixel grid, or no grid by default. In the same section of the Preferences dialog (see the above image), there is another new option for managing the grid. Lastly, let me just describe the new “snap-to-grid” feature. Also, don’t forget the blue optimize zone circle that will choose the optimal position for a new bond when you move your mouse pointer inside of it. These settings will take effect when adding new bonds or when moving a atom in a bond that has nothing connected to it on at least one side. This entire system may seem overly complicated, but once you try it out, I guarantee it is intuitive and very powerful. Is the fixed bond length setting selected? A break down of the combinations for fixed lengths is shown in the following table. These keys modify your settings in XOR fashion. To make things even more manageable, the shift and alt keys will toggle fixed lengths and fixed angles respectively. ![]() Placing bonds when drawing molecules is now more controllable as they will follow certain rules based on which restraints you have enabled. You may individually restrain either angles, lengths or both. To begin, there are now two options in the Preferences dialog under the General tab for setting the default restraints on angles and lengths as shown in the image below (Also notice the new snap-to-grid options). UPDATE: ChemDoodle v1.4.0 was released on 12/19/08. The following image shows the effects of fixing angles and lengths. We have competely changed the drawing system to provide easy management of these restraints and even provided an extra snap-to-grid feature for even further control. This system was not completely manageable as there were no default settings for controlling fixed angles or lengths. Previously, angles and lengths were fixed by default and you could break from both restraints by holding the shift key. By popular demand, we have implemented a very intuitive system of managing fixed bond angles and lengths when drawing structures in ChemDoodle v1.4.0. ![]()
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