# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Other Discussion and Support > Education & Science >  Chemdraw with ubuntu hardy or alternatives

## ZeldaFan

Does anyone know if its possible to run chemdraw or any other chemoffice application under wine in ubuntu hardy? If not, does anyone know of any alternatives that can compete with such an application. I've tried GChemPaint, and its the best option I've seen so far, but it still doesn't cut it. Does anyone know of any other programs that work as well as chemdraw?

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## xadder

If you check out the 3rd (sticky) point on this forum you will quyickly find a link to:


http://wiki.Ubuntu.com/UbuntuScientists

Lots of options, but what's best depends on your needs. Searching on this forum should find some older discussions though.

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## ZeldaFan

I've checked out those programs before, but none of the programs have really been up to par with chemdraw. It's just annoying because whenever I need to use chemdraw, I now need to boot up into windows although I prefer to use my ubuntu installation in general.

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## alexandremrj

Hello Zelda,

i'm an organic chemist so i might give some pointers:

why do you need chemdraw? Calculation of properties, NMR predictions or simply drawing?

For drawing i was able to install Chemsketch under wine and it worked mostly fine. I now use Marvinsketch that is written in Java and it's the best for me.

If you need any help just say so

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## ZeldaFan

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Yes, I simply need chemdraw for drawing. So, which do you recommend, Marvinsketch or chemsketch? Is there a substitute for the entire chemoffice suite in general too? Some other programs in the suite are useful too, but its annoying having to boot into windows.

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## alexandremrj

Hello,

i prefer Marvinsketch - the fact that it's Java means that I can use it in Mac, Windows and Linux (which means i can use it at the work computers).

This is the download link:
http://www.chemaxon.com/marvin/download.html

This download gets you all the tools including the properties calculator and the 3D viewer, which means it's good to replace almost chemoffice - mains problem is that it doesn't calculate NMR - for that I use a predicton machine (SPINUS) in www.dq.fct.unl.pt/spinus/

Main issue - you need to be running the Sun Java in Ubuntu. At least for me it didn't work with the OpenSource one.

Hope this helps and let's know what you think.

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## ZeldaFan

I was checking out marvinsketch with the online tryout and it worked absolutely amazing. Thanks so much for telling me about it. Is the whole suite of applications they offer free or is it just marvinsketch? Just one thing though, I was attempting to download Marvinsketch, but apparently need to register to be able to. When I attempt to register, however, it doesn't accept my email domain (gmail) for some reason. Do I need to have a .edu email or something of that sort to download Marvinsketch for free?

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## alexandremrj

The whole suite of applications if free if you use them for an individual, i don't know about the rest.

For the download you must register in the ChemAxon forums but i'm registered with my gmail and have no problem.

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## ZeldaFan

When I attempt to register at the forums, it explicitly states not to use an email from domains such as yahoo, hotmail, gmail etc. You can check the attached thumbnail attachment to see what I am talking about. If I still proceed to fill out the form with a gmail email, it notices and does not let me register. Any ideas?

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## alexandremrj

http://www.chemaxon.com/register.php..._0_06-linux.sh

Try this link to register on the forums and download, it doesn't say anything about gmail - although this whole situation is strange

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## ZeldaFan

I tried that and it still isn't working unfortunately. However, I just used a bugmenot username/password and it worked fine! I downloaded the marvinbeans package and it installed seamlessly. It works great on my ubuntu installation, thank you once again. Just wondering, have you installed the entire JCHem suite or just the marvin packages? It seems like I would have to request a license to download the entire Jchem suite, so just wondering if it is really worth it or not.

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## alexandremrj

Hello,

I use only the packages: MarvinSketch, MarvinSpace and MarvinView because that is all that I need.

I know the rest of the packages are licensed but I don't know what are the terms.

I'm glad you liked it and it's good to have other alternatives to chemdraw, enjoy.

P.S: I'm not affiliated in any way with ChemAxon,  :LOL:

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