Guided Drawing
ChemWriter makes it easy to create structures with regular bond angles and lengths. For exceptional cases, ChemWriter lets you override these constraints to get exactly the result you need.
Plant and Pivot
If you click on the
canvas with the bond tool and then drag the mouse, you'll notice that
the placement of the second atom in the bond is constrained. Although
this works well for most structures, some
situations require less constrained atom placement. ChemWriter lets you
partially or totally remove drawing constraints if needed:
- Control-Drag. The bond length is not fixed, but the bond angle is.
- Shift-Drag. Both the bond length and bond angle are unconstrained.
New ring geometry can be specified analogously.
Sprouting and Fusing Rings
New
rings can be formed at an existing atom by clicking with a ring tool.
Alternatively, the 'a' keyboard shortcut
can be used to create a benzene ring. Depending on the valence of the
atom being clicked, a new ring is either sprouted or fused:
- Sprouted Ring. The new ring is connected to the clicked atom, but doesn't contain it.
- Fused Ring. The new ring inorporates the atom that was clicked.
For example, pressing the 'a' key while hovered over the oxygen atom of methanol creates anisole, while pressing the 'a' key while hovered over either carbon atom of ethane produces toluene.
Fuse to Skeleton
Sometimes the purpose of a bond is to connect two existing atoms. ChemWriter enables this type of bond by allowing a new bond to be fused to the existing structure skeleton.