ACD/ChemSketch 1.0 (freeware) / ACD/ChemSketch 2.0 and its Tautomers, Dictionary, and 3D Plug-ins / ACD/HNMR 2.0; ACD/CNMR 2.0

ACD/ChemSketch 1.0 (freeware)

ACD/ChemSketch 2.0 and its Tautomers, Dictionary, and 3D Plug-ins

ACD/HNMR 2.0; ACD/CNMR 2.0

Advanced Chemistry Development Inc.,133 Richmond St. West, Suite 605, Toronto, ON M5H 2L3, Canada. URL: http:/ /www.acdlabs.com; Email: [email protected]; Phone: [phone] or 416/368-3435.

Sometimes surfing the WWW can be as productive as it is fun. Last spring, while searching NMR web sites, I came across a series of links that I followed to the home page of Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. Several of their software packages caught my eye: a free chemistry drawing package and a pair of programs for predicting 1H and ^sup13^C NMR spectra, which come bundled with a more complete chemistry drawing package. Despite my initial low expectations, I downloaded and installed this software and was pleasantly surprised by both packages.

Advanced Chemistry Development Inc., ACD, was formed "by a small group of independently minded young post-doctoral researchers working together at Moscow State University" in 1990; in 1994 they were incorporated (141 Adelaide St. West, Suite 1501, Toronto, ON M5H 3L5 Canada). Demonstration versions of their software are available for download from their web site (http:// www.acdlabs.com) and on CD (inquire at [email protected]). Their chemistry drawing package, ACD/ChemSketch, is the common graphical user interface for their other software packages that interactively predict boiling points, partition coefficients, IUPAC names, ^sup13^C NMR spectra, and ^sup1^H NMR spectra for user-defined structures. In this review, I discuss version 2.0 of their ChemSketch, CNMR, and HNMR software. They regularly update their products, so new versions with enhanced features, including web-based multi-platform client/server versions, probably will be available by the time you read this review.

The ChemSketch chemistry drawing package comes in two versions. ChemSketch 1.0 is a freeware program that lacks some of the features of the commercial ChemSketch 2.0 product. Nevertheless, this freeware product is broadly similar in functionality and ease of use to the popular chemistry drawing programs that I have used previously (ChemDraw and ChemWindows/ ChemIntosh, from Cambridge Scientific Computing Inc. and SoftShell International, Ltd., respectively). It has all the standard drawing tools for flat and perspective drawings of organic and inorganic molecules. Also included are useful tools that quickly add substructure fragments from ACD templates (e.g., amino acid residues, nucleotides, functional groups, common protecting groups, rings,...