User:Rune.welsh/Structures

Sample structure of a large molecule

Sample structure of a small molecule

This is a mini-tutorial on how to set up ChemDraw in order to draw chemical structures like those shown on the right. This whole thing is based on User:Cacycle's settings.

1. Structure creation

1. Open ChemDraw. Go to File -> Document settings...
2. On the Layout tab set up a large document size just to allow a larger drawing space.
3. On the Drawing tab change the following settings:

   Chain angle: 120 degrees

   Bond spacing: 15

   Fixed length: 2.566 cm

   Bold width: 0.3 cm

   Line width: 0.107 cm

   Margin width: 0.15 cm

   Hash spacing: 0.1 cm

4. On the Atom labels tab choose the Arial font, size 45.
5. Once the structure has been created save it as a black and white TIFF.

2. Structure editing

Use an image manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop or Irfanview to make the following changes to the TIFF image created in the previous step:

• Add a canvas of 75 pixels around all four sides of the structure.
• Save as a black and white PNG file. I use compression 4.

3. Upload

Upload to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, as you prefer. (I have chosen not to upload to Commons for personal reasons). I use the following template when uploading:

==Summary== 
* Description: Chemical structure of [[compound]].
* Author, date of creation: selfmade by [[User:XYZ]], [[February AB]], 2006
* Source: - 
* Copyright: Released to the Public Domain 
* Comments: high-resolution b/w PNG; ChemDraw / Irfanview. 
==Licensing== 
{{PD-self}}

Releasing the images to the public domain makes a lot of sense, considering that once you get used to the process and become more proficient at drawing structures it drawing a structure can take you less than a minute. Thus a lot of good is done with little effort, however you may choose to license the structures under the {{GFDL}} instead.

4. Some things to consider

• You may save your ChemDraw drawing preferences in a template to avoid changing them every time you load the program. To do this, set up your drawing references a described above, then go to Save as and select CD Style Sheet. Save it in a location you can remember and every time you open ChemDraw you can choose you style sheet in File -> Apply document settings from...
• Use the Convert Name to Structure feature to your advantage and speed up the drawing process.
• You may want to show all carbon and hydrogen atoms in very short chains or small molecules, as shown in the example above.

-- Rune Welsh | ταλκ 19:21, 22 February 2006 (UTC)