ChemDraw

{{Short description|Software for drawing chemical structures}}

{{Infobox Software

| name = ChemDraw

| logo =

| logo_size = 200px

| operating system = macOS, Microsoft Windows

| developer = Revvity Signals

| genre = Scientific

| license = Proprietary

| website = {{oweb|https://revvitysignals.com/products/research/chemdraw|ChemDraw on Revvity Signals website}}

}}

ChemDraw™ is a molecule editor and communication suite, for the management, reporting, and presentation of chemistry research and discoveries.

ChemDraw was originally conceived in 1985 by Selena "Sally" Evans, her husband David A. Evans, and Stewart Rubenstein.{{cite journal|last1=Halford|first1=Bethany|title=Reflections On ChemDraw|journal=C&EN |year=2014 |volume=92 |issue=33 |pages=26–27 |url=http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i33/Reflections-ChemDraw.html|access-date=20 August 2014 |doi=10.1021/cen-09233-scitech1}}{{Cite journal |last=Evans |first=David A. |date=2014-10-13 |title=History of the Harvard ChemDraw Project |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201405820 |journal=Angewandte Chemie International Edition |language=en |volume=53 |issue=42 |pages=11140–11145 |doi=10.1002/anie.201405820|doi-access=free }}

In July 1985, ChemDraw was demonstrated at the Gordon Research Conference on Reactions & Processes in New Hampshire, USA, an event remembered by many chemists, such was the breakthrough provided by the software.{{cite journal|last1=Yarnell|first1=Amanda|title=Happy Birthday ChemDraw|journal=C&EN |year=2015 |volume=93 |issue=27 |pages=3 |url=https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i27/Happy-Birthday-ChemDraw.html|access-date=20 August 2014 |doi=10.1021/cen-09327-editorial|doi-access=free }}

Later that same year, Stewart’s younger brother, Michael, began developing Chem3D, a companion program to ChemDraw that allows users to draw three-dimensional chemical structures. ChemDraw’s popularity led to the launch of cheminformatics company Cambridge Scientific Computing, later renamed CambridgeSoft, to further develop the program. CambridgeSoft was sold to PerkinElmer in 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cambridgesoft.com/pki/ |title=Announcing CambridgeSoft from Perkin Elmer |access-date=2014-09-09 |archive-date=2014-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911001815/http://www.cambridgesoft.com/pki/|url-status=dead }} In 2022, PerkinElmer split their businesses, and the Life Science and Diagnostics divisions became Revvity, Inc.{{Cite web |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/perkinelmer-completes-transformation-become-revvity-154135634.html |title=PerkinElmer Completes Transformation to Become Revvity |access-date=2025-05-14}} Today, ChemDraw is developed by {{oweb|https://revvitysignals.com/|Revvity Signals Software}}, the informatics division of Revvity.

ChemDraw is augmented by a number of desktop applications such as Chem3D (3D modelling) ChemFinder (dataset analysis), and ChemDraw for Excel.{{cite web|title=ChemDraw & ChemOffice+ Products|url=https://support.revvitysignals.com/hc/en-us/sections/360010804431-ChemDraw-ChemOffice-Products|access-date=14 May 2025}} In 2024, ChemDraw+, a web-based application, was launched as part of the new product Signals ChemDraw, with full integration with other Revvity Signals solutions.{{cite web|title=Signals ChemDraw - What's new|url=https://revvitysignals.com/signals-chemdraw-whats-new|access-date=14 May 2025}}