Hello folks! Few days ago, a good friend asked for help in manually reconstructing the chemical structure (on paper) from SMILES. It wasn't that hard but took some time. Just for fun, try drawing COC1= C(OC) C=C2C (=O)C (CC3C CN(CC 4=CC= CC=C4 )CC3) CC2=C 1. It is a "trial-and-error" task on paper and beginners often loose time, especially during assignments.
This motivated me to create a light-weight desktop application that will dynamically update the SMILES as you type in. Now comes the question why should one use this instead of the very famous ChemAxon's Marvin or Chemicalize or ChemSpider? My application takes an edge over them in the following ways:
- you need not hit enter each time you update the smile or enter a new atom (visualization is dynamically updated),
- any error in the smile will be displayed (for example, ring closure error underlined at the corresponding index),
- you can instantly save the molecule as PNG, SDF or MOL by a simple right-click,
- lastly, you will not need Internet
Here is the link to binary. Just unzip and execute the JAR file. A simplest way for Linux users is to install a Debian package. For source code, clone/fork it directly from my GitHub repository. Have fun and welcome the spring with SMILES. ;)