MoluCAD

What MoluCAD is

MoluCAD is a free Windows desktop program for building and viewing molecular structures in three dimensions. Designed for chemistry students, it lets users examine structures from any perspective and create animations of chemical reactions. The product page describes more than 170 sample structures and animations that users can open, view, and modify, giving learners material to explore alongside their own models. MoluCAD includes built-in MM2 energy minimization and an interactive periodic table, with HTML-based help. It supports input and output in PDB, ENT, MOL, and MM3 formats, and can create BMP and JPEG images as well as AVI video files. The program grew out of a three-year National Institutes of Health biomedical technology research project intended to produce low-cost educational software for chemistry students. New River Kinematics offers MoluCAD as a free download, with a Windows executable. The company, founded in 1994 and based in Williamsburg, Virginia, develops and supports portable metrology software solutions. MoluCAD was originally conceived to aid organic chemistry students.

Who it suits

MoluCAD suits chemistry students, particularly those studying organic chemistry, who want to build and inspect molecular structures in 3D. It can also suit learners who want to explore sample structures, reaction animations, and energy minimization on Windows.

Getting started

1. Visit the MoluCAD product page on the New River Kinematics website.
2. Download the Windows executable offered by New River Kinematics.
3. Open MoluCAD on a Windows computer.

Verdict

Choose MoluCAD if you are a chemistry student looking for free Windows software to build and explore molecular structures, with sample content and reaction animations. Look elsewhere if you need software for a platform other than Windows.