ChemDraw

ChemDraw is a chemical structure drawing and editing program used by chemists to create publication-quality representations of molecules, reactions, and schemes. Originating with CambridgeSoft and later incorporated into the ChemBioOffice suite, it has been marketed since the 1980s and is now produced and distributed by PerkinElmer after its acquisition of CambridgeSoft in 2011. The software integrates drawing tools with chemical intelligence to support accurate depiction of chemical structures and reaction schemes.

Key features include a 2D drawing environment with atom, bond, and ring templates, stereochemical notation, charge and isotopic specification, and support for reaction arrows and text annotations. It provides automated layout and tools for naming, structure-to-name generation, and conversion between chemical representations such as SMILES and InChI. Property calculations can yield molecular formula, molecular weight, and basic descriptors. Users can also generate 2D diagrams suitable for figures and export them to common formats.

ChemDraw supports interoperability with other software, including plug-ins and integration for embedding figures in word processors and presentation software. It exports and imports standard chemical formats (MOL, SDF, SMILES, InChI) and produces high-quality vector or bitmap images (PDF, EPS, SVG, PNG, TIFF). Platform availability includes Windows and macOS, with companion mobile and cloud-enabled options in recent years, and inclusion in the broader ChemBioOffice suite.

Usage typically spans academic publishing, patent preparation, education, and pharmaceutical research, where precise, reproducible drawings and structure-based queries are valuable.