BKChem – chemical drawing program

BKChem is an open source 2D molecule editor written in Python. It has a wealth of features but is simple to use.

Key Features

• Drawing:
  • Bond-by-bond drawing.
  • Bond lenght and angle restrictions to assist with the drawing.
  • Ready to use templates of common rings.
  • Ability to expand common groups from abbreviated to structural form.
  • Support for linear formulas (such as -CH2CH(COOCH3)2).
  • Radicals, charges…
  • Arrows (several types – normal, retro, equilibrium, etc).
  • Rich text.
  • Color support.
  • Simple vector graphics (rectangles, circles, polygons etc).
• Editing:
  • Unlimited undo and redo capabilities.
• • Aligning.
• • Scaling.
• • Rotation (2D, 3D).
• • Aligning of molecules so that particular bond is horizontal/vertical.
• • Rotation of molecular fragments around bonds (conformation changes).
• • Definition of personal preferred drawing style (bond lengths, widths, colors…).
• Export:
  • SVG (native data are transparently embedded into SVG file), OpenOffice Draw format, ODF (OpenOffice 2.0) format, Encapsulated PostScript, and PDF.
• • Basic support for both CML1 and CML2.
• • Molfiles.
• • Generation of SMILES.
• Import:
  • Basic support for both CML1 and CML2.
• • Molfiles.
• • SMILES (subset).
• • INChI (subset).
• Localization support (currently English, French, Czech, Polish, German and Traditional Chinese translations are available).
• XML based.
• Validity checking of drawn structures.
• Support for user written plugins. A BKChem plugin in general consists of two main parts: a short XML file describing the plugin, and a Python script that represents the actual code.
• Support for user written batch scripts.
• Searching for BKChem files containing specified molecules or molecule fragment.

Website: bkchem.zirael.org
Support:
Developer: Beda Kosata
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

BKChem is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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