Signals ChemDraw® - What's new
Signals ChemDraw streamlines chemistry communication with a hybrid suite that transforms drawings into knowledge by combining the advanced drawing capabilities of ChemDraw Desktop with modern, cloud-native ChemDraw applications in the Signals Platform.
What’s New
The latest version 24.8 release of Signals brings several enhancements in the area of HELM. Improvements include enhanced creation and editing capabilities for HELM biopolymers and the capability to add custom monomers to HELM libraries.
The following improvements are available for users of Signals ChemDraw. Certain features may only be available with enablement by an administrator.
ChemDraw+
- BILN support for peptides
- HELM hotkeys for editing biopolymers
HELM Monomer Curation
- Add new monomer to custom HELM libraries available to all systems
ChemDraw+
BILN support for peptides
BILN format, a human readable line notation for complex peptides, is now supported. Users can create complex peptides by pasting a BILN string to the ChemDraw canvas or by inserting a BILN string using the text tab in the HELM editor. Additionally, ‘Copy As’ support has also been added allowing users to generate a BILN string from a peptide sequence drawn on the canvas.
HELM hotkeys for editing biopolymers
Hotkeys are now supported when using the HELM editor. When editing a sequence on the canvas, any monomer from the selected monomer library with a single-letter symbol can be inserted by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. Similarly, any selected monomer while in HELM edit mode can be replaced by pressing a valid single-letter monomer from the selected library. For example, when the 'Peptide' tab is active in the HELM Editor and the 'Natural Monomers' library is selected, pressing 'a' will either insert monomer A (Alanine) or replace existing monomer with A (Alanine). HELM hotkey support is available in the Peptide, DNA/RNA and Blob/Chem tabs of the HELM editor.
HELM Monomer Curation Applications
Add new monomer to custom HELM libraries available to all systems
Adding a single monomer at a time to a custom monomer library in the HELM Monomer Curation (HMC) application, previously available in beta, is now available to all systems. Monomer structures can be drawn and edited directly within HMC, and all monomer properties defined in the ‘Add New Monomer’ form.
What’s New
The latest version 24.7 release of Signals brings improvements to the ChemDraw+ application. Notebooks can now be trashed and restored as needed, and improvements have been made to the editing and navigation of HELM biopolymers.
The following improvements are available for users of Signals ChemDraw. Certain features may only be available with enablement by an administrator.
ChemDraw+
- Trashing & Restoring Notebooks
- HELM Editing & Navigation Improvements
ChemDraw+
Trashing & Restoring Notebooks
Notebooks can now be trashed within the ChemDraw+ application by selecting ‘Move to trash’ from the Actions menu for a Notebook.
Trashed Notebooks can be now be viewed from a ‘Show Trashed’ view on the action menu of the Notebooks page. Additionally, trashed Notebooks may be restored via the action menu of a trashed notebook.
HELM Editing & Navigation Improvements
Usability enhancements are available for working with biopolymer structures. When editing a HELM structure, a click selection of a monomers will select it for replacement. Similarly, a click selection of the bond will select if as an insertion point for a new monomer to be added. The buttons at the bottom of the HELM Editor have been removed and replaced with a badge that indicates ‘Insert’ or ‘Replace’ mode.
It is now possible to traverse a HELM sequence by using keyboard arrow navigation. Once a monomer or bond is selected, directional arrows on the keyboard can be used to alternate between monomer and bond selection through the entirety of the sequence.
What’s New
The latest version 24.6 release of Signals brings several improvements to the ChemDraw+ application. We have brought sharing and notifications into the platform and are introducing a new web editing experience for ChemDraw. We have introduced 3D capabilities into the drawing editor and the generation of Complimentary strands. Finally, the recent stereochemical annotation tool released in beta is now available to all systems.
The following improvements are available for users of Signals ChemDraw. Certain features may only be available with enablement by an administrator.
ChemDraw+
- Sharing & Notifications
- New ChemDraw editor
- 3D Clean up & perspective tools
- Complimentary strand generation
- Enhanced Stereochemical Annotation tool available to all systems
ChemDraw+
Sharing & Notifications
Users can now share Notebooks with other users or groups in ChemDraw+ from within a Notebook or from the Actions menu in the Notebook list view.
Read, Write or Full access control can be specified during the sharing process. Once shared, access can be removed or modified as needed.
There is now a notification icon in the Navigation pane of ChemDraw+ and users will be notified if a Notebook is shared with them. Notification Settings can be accessed via the notification menu, where in-app and email notification preferences can be set.
New ChemDraw editor
A new ChemDraw editing experience is now available and can be turned on using a toggle at the top of the ChemDraw canvas when editing a drawing. The new drawing experience provides new toolbars surrounding the canvas, with selection, editing and zoom tools being located at the top of the canvas, all drawing tools located on the left hand side of the canvas and context based tools such as properties, structure clean up, expand/contract labels, object tools, being located on the right hand side of the canvas.
Adjustable zoom controls now allow more refined control with options to ‘Zoom to fit’ and various other zoom percentages. Users can select into the zoom field and type in the desired zoom percentage if the default zoom percentages are not sufficient.
Templates are now accessible via a tool that opens a resizable panel on the left side of the drawing canvas and provides users with a variety of different structures, graphics and bioart to use for drawing complex structures, reactions and figures.
3D Clean and Perspective Tools
A new 3D Clean Up tool is available in the right side toolbar of ChemDraw+ , which allows the conversion of 2D structures to their corresponding 3D representation. Once a structure has been converted to 3D a structure perspective tool is available to rotate the structure in 3D.
Complimentary strand generation
Complimentary strands of DNA/RNA can now be generated in ChemDraw via the HELM editor Text tab with sequence types FASTA DNA and FASTA RNA. The template strand will be inserted in the 5’ to 3’ direction on the canvas, with the compliment being aligned underneath in the 3’ to 5’ direction. This capability is available in both the legacy and new ChemDraw editor.
Enhanced Stereochemical Annotation tool
Chemists can now view and annotate stereochemical information contained within their molecule using the “Enhanced Stereo Annotation” tool. This tool enables the assignment of enhanced stereo properties and the addition of chemically significant labels to stereocenters by applying rules that describe the stereochemical composition of each atom or bond. The chemically significant labels are recognized and honored in chemical searches, and if exported as a mol file, the labels will be included in the SGROUP portion of the file.
What’s New
The latest release includes a new enhanced stereo annotation tool in ChemDraw+ and the ability to add new monomers to a custom library in HELM Monomer Curation application.
Updates with this release can be found in the following categories:
ChemDraw+
- Enhanced Stereochemical Annotation tool (beta)
HELM Monomer Curation
- Add new monomer to custom HELM libraries (beta)
The following capabilities are in beta and are only available to users and administrators of Signals ChemDraw upon request. Please contact your account representative or our support team if you would like access to the following features.
ChemDraw+
Enhanced Stereochemical Annotation tool (beta)
Chemists can now view and annotate stereochemical information contained within their molecule using the “Enhanced Stereo Annotation” tool. This tool enables the assignment of enhanced stereo properties and the addition of chemically significant labels to stereocenters by applying rules that describe the stereochemical composition of each atom or bond. The chemically significant labels are recognized and honored in chemical searches, and if exported as a mol file, the labels will be included in the SGROUP portion of the file.
HELM Monomer Curation
Add new monomer to custom HELM libraries (beta)
Users can now add a single monomer at a time to a custom monomer library in the HELM Monomer Curation (HMC) application. Monomer structures can be drawn and edited directly, and all monomer properties can be defined in the ‘Add New Monomer’ form.
What’s New
The latest release of ChemDraw+ introduces several updates and enhancements related to drawing and editing of biopolymer sequences using HELM.
Updates with this release can be found in the following categories:
ChemDraw+
- Usability improvements when working with HELM biopolymer structures
- Refined Cursor display for drawing & editing HELM biopolymer structures
- Added support for pasting GenBank FASTA DNA/RNA sequences
ChemDraw+
Usability Improvements when working with HELM biopolymer structures
Several usability enhancements are available for working with HELM structures. When monomers are expanded, the expanded monomer labels will now be hidden. In addition, when monomers are expanded there is improved click selection behavior. Double clicking on a bond or atom in a monomer will select that monomer. An additional double click will select the entire sequence.
Refined Cursor display for drawing & editing HELM biopolymer structures
When drawing biopolymers, a refined cursor display now offers a clearer view of monomer insertion points, facilitating easier drawing and editing of biopolymers.
Added support for pasting GenBank FASTA DNA/RNA se
When pasting a DNA or RNA FASTA sequence with header into a Chemical Drawing, either directly or via the Text tool of the HELM Editor, the FASTA header will appear as an annotation.
What’s New
The latest release of ChemDraw+ introduces an expanded user menu, flexibility to create Notebooks directly from the navigation pane, and enhanced functionality allowing the upload of multiple files at once into a single Notebook. This update provides users with more resources, increased flexibility, and improved file management capabilities.
Updates with this release can be found in the following categories:
ChemDraw+
- Expanded User Menu
- Add Notebook
- Upload Multiple Files
ChemDraw+
Expanded User Menu
The user menu in ChemDraw+ has been expanded and now includes new ‘Help Resources’ & ‘Explore More’ sections. Additionally, the ‘Sign Out’ option is now accompanied by the display of the current version of the Signals Research Platform.
Add Notebook
Expanding on the capability of creating a new Notebook during Drawing creation, you can now create a Notebook from the ‘Add New’ button in the ChemDraw+ navigation pane.
Upload Multiple Files
In ChemDraw+, we’ve enhanced the upload functionality to accommodate multiple files simultaneously. You now have the convenience of selecting and uploading multiple files into a single Notebook.
As the files are uploading, a green checkmark will appear next to each successfully uploaded file. Should you wish to halt the upload while it’s in progress, you’ll have that option. Once upload is complete, selecting “Done” will transport you to the Notebook containing the newly uploaded drawings.
What’s New
The latest minor release of ChemDraw Desktop introduces improvements in the areas of HELM and document level annotations.
Updates with this release can be found in the following categories:
ChemDraw Desktop
- HELM Improvements
- Annotation Handling
ChemDraw Desktop
HELM Improvements
Several usability enhancements are available for working with HELM structures. When monomers are expanded, the expanded monomer labels will now be hidden. In addition, when monomers are expanded there is improved click selection behavior. Double clicking on a bond or atom in a monomer will select that monomer. An additional double click will select the entire sequence.
When drawing biopolymers, a refined cursor display now offers a clearer view of monomer insertion points, facilitating easier drawing and editing of biopolymers.
When pasting a DNA or RNA FASTA sequence with header into a Chemical Drawing, either directly or via the Text tool of the HELM Editor, the FASTA header will appear as an annotation.
Annotation Handling
The handling of annotations has been improved in ChemDraw with an added ‘Delete All’ option, which provides a bulk deletion of all custom annotations added to an object or document.
What’s New
We are excited to announce the release of Signals ChemDraw, a new streamlined desktop and cloud offering which will provide full access to ChemDraw desktop applications, as well as the new cloud-native ChemDraw+ and ChemDraw Collections, accessible within the Signals Research Platform.
Signals ChemDraw is built within the same platform as Signals Notebook and Signals Research Suite, so any users who are interested in adding Signals ChemDraw to their current Signals environment are able to do so seamlessly in the same environment.
Updates with this release can be found in the following categories:
Signals Home and Configuration
- ChemDraw products in Signals Home App & App switcher
- Application installation and connection to Signals
- Administration of Signals ChemDraw Licenses
- New Help Center
ChemDraw+
- Dashboard & Workflows
- Create & Upload New Drawings
- Web Editor
- Trash Drawings
HELM Monomer Curation
- Browse Monomer Libraries
- Bulk Import to Custom monomer libraries
- HELM Administration
Signals Home and Configuration
ChemDraw products in Signals Home App & App switcher
All products that are part of a Signals ChemDraw license are accessible via the Signals Home App and App Launcher. Selecting any app tile will launch the appropriate application.
Application installation and connection to Signals
Users can now download, install and activate the ChemDraw Desktop suite from the Home App by clicking the install tile under ‘Installers’ and following the instructions.
Administration of Signals ChemDraw Licenses
Administrators can easily add new users and assign Signals ChemDraw licenses in the Signals Configuration user panel and view used and total licenses available.
Administrators can add individual users or upload bulk users using a suitable templated csv file.
New Help Center
The Help Center has been expanded with content to support Signals ChemDraw.
ChemDraw+
Dashboard & Workflows
Chemdraw+ is a new cloud-native application within the Signals Research Platform that allows scientists to create, upload and curate chemical drawings all in one place. This app is launchable from the Signals Home or app switcher.
Create & Upload New Drawings
Users have a Dashboard that allows them to create a new drawing from a style sheet and access recently edited or favorited drawings.
Dedicated smart folders allow users to easily navigate and search their drawings, navigate through contents of notebooks, and access favorites. Both the Drawings & Favorites smart folders will be comprised of detailed list views containing a sortable table that includes a drawing preview.
Web Editor
Once created, the new drawing will open in a web editor window and provide a familiar ChemDraw editing experience with access to hotkeys and shortcuts. For any features not accessible in the web editor, a round trip editing workflow can be done by opening the drawing in ChemDraw desktop, making edits and saving.
Trash Drawings
Users can delete unwanted drawings from the Drawings, Favorites or Detailed Notebook list views using the ‘Move to Trash’ option from the overflow menu, or by selecting the trash icon in the web editor view.
Users can view their trashed drawings by selecting ‘Show Trashed’ option on the overflow menu in the Drawings list view. Once trashed, drawings are retained according to the System Settings in Signals Configuration.
Drawings can be restored by opening in the web editor and selecting the ‘Restore from Trash’ option in the Editor page.
HELM Monomer Curation
Browse Monomer Libraries
The HELM Monomer Curation (HMC) App is available with a Signals ChemDraw license. The app will allow users to browse available HELM monomer libraries, view monomers in detail and access Reports.
Bulk Import to Custom monomer libraries
The app will allow users to bulk upload custom monomers into configured libraries. These custom libraries will then be available for use with the HELM Editor within ChemDraw+
HELM Administration
Administrator configuration options are available to activate HELM on the Signals tenant.
System Administrators will have access by default. The app can be accessed via the Signals Home Page and via the App switcher within the Signals Research Suite.
What’s New
This version 23.0 release of ChemDraw brings a series of enhancements and integrations with the Signals Research Platform. We have also brought intelligence to paste operations, improved chemical perception and extended hydrogen bonding capabilities with this release. We have also made improvements around update capabilities of ChemDraw.
The following updates are available as part of this release:
ChemDraw Desktop
- License/Authenticate via Signals
- Signals Integrations
- Smart Paste
- Dark Mode Style Sheet
- Atropisomer Perception
- Hydrogen Bonds in 3D Clean & 3MF
- Automatic Update
ChemDraw Desktop
License/Authenticate via Signals
Once installed, activation of ChemDraw products is completed by individual user sign-in to Signals using their Signals account. Once sign-in is successful, ChemDraw products will be activated and ready for use. Periodically, the user will need to re-authenticate their license, however offline use will be available.
Signals Integrations
Users will be able to access licensed Signals applications from a Signals menu in ChemDraw Desktop and the general tool bar.
Users can now open drawings saved in Signals for editing in ChemDraw Desktop.
Users can now save new drawings to Signals from ChemDraw.
Smart Paste
The copy and paste behavior in ChemDraw has been improved. When pasting an object on a drawing canvas, ChemDraw will now automatically find open space to paste the object without overlapping any existing objects or structures.
Dark Mode Style Sheet
Users can now create drawings with a dark background and light foreground using the 'Dark Mode' style sheet
This style sheet can now be accessed from the File menu under Style Sheets for Windows, or Stationary for Mac.
Atropisomer Perception
The core chemical intelligence in ChemDraw has expanded from perception of only 6:6 atropisomers to perceive all possible atropoisomeric combinations.
Hydrogen Bonds in 3D Clean & 3MF
Hydrogen bonds are now taken into account in 3D clean up
Hydrogen bonds are now supported in the export of 3MF for display and printing. They will appear as alternating white and purple cylinders between the atoms where they hydrogen bond is placed.
Automatic Update
ChemDraw now supports auto-update. Upon launch, ChemDraw will check to see if a newer version is available and will offer to download and install it.
What’s New
ChemDraw Collections is a cloud native application that is designed to help chemists better organize, manage, search and share chemical structures and data.
ChemDraw Collections
- Create & Manage Collections
- Create Reports
- Reuse embedded structures
- Search
ChemDraw Collections
Create and Manage Collections
Users can create and manage collections of compounds, reactions or drawings.
Once a collection is created, users can manage changes to the collection in bulk by selecting multiple entries, editing them in a ChemDraw editor using a carrousel to move through the selections one at a time.
Users can convert SMILES, InChi or Chemical names to structures using text import, in addition to properties.
Create Reports
Users can create configured reports from collections with automatic formatting of data and export via SD file or Powerpoint document.
Reuse embedded structures
Users can quickly re-use and re-purpose chemical drawings stored on their computer using the file explorer in ChemDraw Collections. One or multiple documents can be selected to have their embedded chemical content displayed in the viewer. These drawings can be copied & pasted into a new drawing, added to a Collection or uploaded directly to Signals Research Platform for chemical indexing.
Search
Search for your chemical content stored in Signals Research Platform including drawings created in ChemDraw+ to quickly add to a Collection.
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