ChemSketch Editor's Review

ChemSketch have released a much needed free version of their original chemical drawing software, with some great features that are perfectly ample for a chemistry student or casual home user.

The software is easy to download and has a straightforward and user-friendly interface – it was simple enough to get to grips with the functionality although some of the features seemed to work in the opposite way to the paid version which felt a bit counter-intuitive. The main crux of the software is the same, with the ability to draw chemical structures including polymers, organics, Markush structures and organometallics.

Other useful features include the name generation capability (up to a generous 50 atomic structures and 3 rings), comprehensive report generation and viewing and cleaning features for both 2D and 3D structures. It also provides tautomer recognition and valuable access to search engines such as PubChem, eMolecules and ChemSpider which are all great sources for the chemistry student or enthusiast. There are some advanced features that the paid version has and that are missing here, but these gaps are mainly felt if you are familiar with the paid version of ChemSketch.

Pros: Free to download, clean and straightforward interface, some impressive features.

Cons: Not all features are available, no Mac version currently, some of the editing functions are slightly tricky to navigate.

Conclusion: This popular software is great for home and educational use, good enough even for a working chemist. The fact that it’s free allows accessibility to this clever software, including for students who may not be able to fund the paid version. Some valuable features are missing here and some of the way it works is reversed but none of this will matter too much if you are only using this version.

Great features included in a user-friendly bit of kit.