ChemSketch

Students taking chemistry, either in high school or college, often find it difficult to sketch out their representations of molecules, chemicals, etc, and typically end up with a mess on their hands; and this is precisely why a program like ChemSketch comes in handy for chemistry students.

An Overview of ChemSketch

Although students of chemistry may get the most practical use out of ChemSketch for their various assignments, teachers and professors and others within the professional world can also greatly benefit from this program. In short, this program, available for the Windows OS, basically provides you with a gaggle of tools that you can use to draw actual realistic representations of molecules and chemicals, creating bonds and accurate depictions of all things chemistry. It's a bit difficult to get the hang of, but after you enter the information into the system, it will create the sort of representation you're after, and from there you can save the file, or print it to have a tangible chart that you can present.

This is basically a 3D rendering program that can also render simplistic images in 2D. Although the learning curve might be initially steep, it's also one of those programs that can become very simple once you initially learn the ins and outs. Basically, you're going to input your information into the system, and arrange it until which point it's accurate. After that, you choose the sort of graphic you want to make, and select from 2 or 3D, and then simply render the project. It can take some getting used to, but it's very intuitive.

Features of ChemSketch

One thing that any natural science requires is objectivity in detail. This is something that can take you a very long time to sort out, in the event you're building any sort of charts or graphs, especially in chemistry. And this is precisely why a program like ChemSketch does such a great job for people in a chemistry discipline. You can draw accurate representations of molecules, chemicals, bonds, etc, and then create a 3D model of the setup. Once programmed correctly, you can use this program to continue to draw a wide range of molecules, so you never have to put pen to paper again, unless you're performing some sort of test.

This is a freeware program to download, about 50MB in size, and the first thing you'll notice upon opening the program up is that you have a full featured 2D sketch pad at your disposal, and plenty of tools to help you draw. The idea here is to draw your data onto the screen, at which point you're going to find a bunch of options to help you complete the chemistry formulas, molecules, or whatever it is you're drawing. After complete, you can pick from a wide assortment of rendering options to create any sort of graphic you want with the chemistry. Great for students or teachers, this program can save you hours upon hours of tedious work.

What ChemSketch is and How it Works

Pros and Cons of ChemSketch

Pros

• Program is free
• Tough to learn initially but very intuitive
• Saved features make it easy to use again and again
• Creates great 3D models

Cons

• Rendering your projects can lag the PC
• Not much in the way of updates