Drawing Tools – ChemSketch How-To Video

This how to video will show you the basics in structure drawing for ChemSketch.

To begin, ensure that you’re in Structure mode by clicking Structure in the upper left-hand corner of the toolbar. By default, you will have the Draw Normal tool selected. Clicking anywhere on the page will insert the atom that is selected on the left-hand toolbar, in this case, Carbon.

Click once to produce a single carbon, or click and drag, then release to create a bond between two Carbon atoms. From here, you can click on an existing Carbon to extend the chain by one bond. You can also do this by clicking, dragging, and releasing.

Select a different atom and click on an existing Carbon to convert it to the selected atom. With the new atom selected, you can also insert the corresponding group by clicking on an existing Carbon and dragging. When you release your mouse-click, the group will appear attached to Carbon.

Click on a bond to change it from single to double or triple. Click again to go back to a single bond.

The software will automatically insert charges for certain atoms based on their valence. The Draw Continuous tool will produce a connection with each click of your mouse. Clicking to produce higher-order bonds also works for continuous drawing.

Select the Draw Chains tool to easily insert a chain. You can see the chain length on your pointer as you click and drag to add atoms to the chain. Release your mouse to produce a chain corresponding to the length displayed by your pointer.

When you’re finished drawing with the manual tools, it’s often helpful to clean up the structures. You can do this by selecting a molecule. Use the Select/Move tool and click near the desired structure. Then click on the Clean Structure tool. If you continue to click, the software will continue to reorient the structure. When you’re satisfied, the structure can be copied and pasted into another program, saved, printed, or converted to PDF.

Thank you for watching.