Molsketch – 2D molecular structure editor

Molsketch is a graphical application for drawing and editing two-dimensional molecular structures.

The application provides a conventional desktop chemical drawing environment with tools for constructing molecules, selecting atoms and bonds, editing structures and arranging elements on a drawing canvas. A periodic-table-style element selector makes it easy to change atom types, while drawing settings allow users to control features such as bond width, atom fonts and other visual properties.

Molsketch supports more than straightforward atom and bond diagrams. Drawings can contain reaction arrows, equilibrium arrows, mechanism arrows, frames, brackets and free text. It can also represent lone pairs and radical electrons. Alignment, spacing and structure-cleanup tools help produce consistent diagrams, and users can explicitly control the direction of attached hydrogen atoms where needed.

The program uses its own MSK document format and MSM format for individual molecules. OpenBabel integration significantly extends file handling by allowing structures to be imported from and exported to additional chemistry formats. Molsketch can also use OpenBabel to optimize coordinates. Recent development has included fixes to its OpenBabel export path as well as continued work on rendering and drawing behaviour.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Provides graphical tools for drawing and editing two-dimensional molecular structures.
• Supports reaction arrows, equilibrium arrows, mechanism arrows, text, frames and brackets.
• Represents lone pairs, radical electrons, implicit hydrogens and configurable atom and bond properties.
• Uses OpenBabel to extend structure import, export and coordinate-processing capabilities.
• Exports drawings as SVG, PNG, BMP and JPEG graphics and supports adjustable bitmap resolution.

Website: github.com/hvennekate/Molsketch
Support:
Developer: Hendrik Vennekate
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

Molsketch is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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