Top Draw!
Azhar Zaidi
Product Specialist
For a long time now ChemDraw has been the industry standard chemical drawing software, used in labs and chemistry departments all over the world. Now there’s a custom version for biologists too, unsurprisingly called BioDraw – and new versions of both were recently released.
ChemDraw is renowned not only for its efficient and accurate chemical structure drawing, but for the large amount of highly useful “extras” it comes bundled with. Depending on the level (Standard, Pro or Ultra) and platform (Windows or Macintosh) you choose, these might include an ActiveX Web plug-in, a molecular modelling application (Chem3D), an electronic lab notebook and a searchable structure database among others.
Other goodies include tools for atom numbering, stereochemistry, changing perspectives, manipulating polymers, reproducing TLC plates; a structure clean-up feature; a floating character map and a floating periodic table; and top-quality labware clip art.
In the Ultra version there are tools to generate the correct chemical names from the structure, and a structure from the chemical name; for displaying and predicting both proton and carbon-13 NMR spectra; and for tracking and updating stoichiometry data. The newest extra is MestReC, for offline processing and analysis of experimental NMR data.
BioDraw provides a drawing tool for biological pathways. It includes common pathway elements (membranes, DNA, enzymes, receptors) and the ability to import other elements. BioDraw also includes a new pallet of flexible arrow tools. You can now completely customise arrows and arrowheads for use in complex biological pathway drawings.
CambridgeSoft offer many other tools too, available separately or in various bundles. There are Chem3D and Bio3D for molecular modelling, ChemFinder for creating and searching chemical databases, an E-Notebook for the lab, a chemical materials management package called Inventory and a plethora of structure databases.
On the biology side, there’s BioAssay which provides desktop data storage and visualisation for both high and low throughput screening; and BioViz which allows you to identify trends visually and correlate biological activity with chemical structures, as well as offering statistical analyses and a wide variety of flexible plotting options.
All these are included, together with both ChemDraw and BioDraw, in the top-end version of the ChemOffice 2006 suite. But there are several versions of both ChemOffice and BioOffice, with different combinations of different levels of the core applications – sounds complicated, but we’re here to guide you towards the best combination to suit your needs and your budget. Give us a call.
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Medicines