Need recommendation for drawing chemical structures

[Kimico]

Hi all.

I would like to purchase SW to draw chemical structures and I just wanted to hear from everybody in regards to basic software to accomplish thiss. What is best? chemdraw, isis, etc etc?

[Consumer Products Guy]

I've been using ChemWindows 2.1 for ages now, came as a one-disc 3.5 inch floppy back then for Windows 3.1, still works on my desk computer here (XP), pastes into Microsoft Word and Powerpoint perfectly.

We also have as part of Bio-Rad suite software a much newer version, has some bells and whistles and more icons, but works about the same. I don't know what that sells for separately. I haven't tried any other.

[JGK]

I'm using Chem sketch (freeware) which is enough for my needs. Try it, if it's not what you want you have wasted nothing (but the evaluation time).

[lmh]

Depending on your environment (are you a student? does your employer care about software licensing?), beware freeware. If you read the small print, they nearly all state that they're for educational and personal use only, or you are supposed to pay for them after a short time.

There are loads of good packages out there. I favour Chemdraw. Friends use ISIS/draw. If you look at Chemdraw, don't be put off by reps trying to sell you the full ChemBioDraw-take-over-your-computer-and-make-life-simple-with-electronic-notebooks package. It is probably superb but costs a fortune and you can get a fairly basic version of Chemdraw a lot cheaper.

If you find yourself drawing hexagons in Powerpoint it's time to move on...

[Jackus]

I'm satisfied with MDL ISIS Draw
http://mdl-isis-draw.software.informer.com/download/

"...ISIS/Draw was a chemical structure drawing program for Windows, published by MDL Information Systems. It was available free of charge for academic and personal use. It acted as a front end to ISIS/Base, a chemical database program from the same company, as well as some other ISIS (Integrated Scientific Information System) products. The first version of the program was released in 1990, and the last version was 2.5; it has since been superseded by Symyx Draw. ..."

[varossf]

Check out the software at www.chemaxon.com.