Free Molecular
Visualization and Modeling Software
Caution: Some of free software listed here is Open Source in the strict
sense,
meaning that all derivatives are required to be free with open source
code. If you plan to use the source code (not just the executable
program), read the copyright restrictions carefully.
Titles Subjects Authors: Detailed Compact HOME
An ever expanding range of 3D structures derived from the 2D structure catalogues of the so-called "diversity suppliers" is being produced. A total of around 1.25 million "drug-like" structures is available now.
The programs are distributed under a cost-free license to academics and other not-for-profit organisations (i.e. charities). Industrial and government organisations are charged a (relatively) small fee (currently 2500 UK pounds) for a perpetual site license. The databases are distributed for no cost to all users.
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Visualization of chemical 3D structures on the web comes with problems
because the web browser cannot display chemical structures without the
help of additional software. If you create a page with a 3D structure of a
molecule and the visitor of your page does not use this special viewer
software for displaying molecules it cannot get the whole information of
the page which should be meditated.
PDB2MultiGIF takes the 3D structure and generates an animated image which can be displayed using any browser. Thus every visitor of your page can get the whole information. It has many controls including size, number of frames, speed and axis of rotation, and if you wish, you can supply your own view as a RasMol script. |
| Bohne A. PDB2MultiGIF: a web Tool to Create Animated Images of Molecules J. Mol. Model. 4 (1998) 344-34 | |

Calculator Plugins are modules of Marvin and JChem applications
which perform calculations based on chemical structures.
Separate Calculator Plugins currently cover a range of calculations and
physicochemical predictions. The plugin format is open to third party
development, within ChemAxon we have ongoing plugin development,
currently available plugins:
Free for teaching and academic research through ChemAxon's Academic Package. Introduction, terms and application available from http://www.chemaxon.hu/forum/viewpost570.html#570

JChem Base is a Java tool for the development of applications that
allow for the search of mixed structural and non-structural data. JChem
Base can integrate a variety of database systems (Oracle, SQL,
Access, etc) with web interfaces and fully supports all ChemAxon technology.
Via the JChem Cartridge many JChem functions, such as structure searching or property predictions are directly available from within Oracle's SQL.
The system includes Marvin, a fast substructure, similarity, and exact
search engine using 2D hashed fingerprints. Structures are stored in
database tables. Structural and non-structural data can be combined.
SDF, SMILES, etc. can be imported and exported. There is API with low
and high level classes. Key features:
To find out more please visit this implementation: http://www.jchem.com/index.html?content=examples.html or download and evaluate from our website
Free for teaching and academic research through ChemAxon's Academic Package. Introduction, terms and application available from http://www.chemaxon.hu/forum/viewpost570.html#570

Fragmenter is the virtual building block creation component of ChemAxon’s Java based chemical software technology.
Fragmenter cleaves molecules to generate fragments which retain their associated cleavage route information.
Using the cleavage route information, the library of fragments generated can be used as building blocks to more easily create small molecule libraries during lead discovery and optimization.

Reactor is the virtual reaction engine of Chemaxon's JChem technology. It supports "smart" reactions (generic reaction equations combined with reaction rules) generating chemically feasible products even in batch mode. The professional version of the tool includes support for multi-step virtual synthesis and filtering of chemically feasible molecules which are not of interest.
Key features:
To find out more about Reactor please visit our public implementation or download JChem Base (containing Reactor) from our web site.
Free for teaching and academic research through ChemAxon's Academic Package. Introduction, terms and application available from http://www.chemaxon.hu/forum/viewpost570.html#570
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This site provides access to a chemical and safety relational database developed in 2003 at Nebraska Wesleyan University. The site is designed specifically for local users but access to the database content is not restricted. This database has many features similar to chemfinder.com and the NIST webbook. The major difference is that the content of the database is determined by local interests and needs and is cross indexed to hazard information (specifically NFPA ratings). For example the database presently contains chemical and safety data for materials used in lab experiments in our first and second year chemistry courses.
The database can be searched by CAS numbers, molecular formula, chemical names, or by specific (NFPA) hazards. Included in the database are files of Chime-pdb files [Chime plugin required for viewing], MSDS's, NFPA ratings (graphic view), and 2D graphics of the molecules. In addition local users can cross-index an unlimited number of web-links to other material (such as IR, NMR, UV-vis and MS spectra, experimental data, potential maps, animations, etc) to each molecule in the database.
ConSurf identifies, in Chime (actually, in Protein Explorer) the most conserved residues, and the hypervariable residues, based on a multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree. It work on any protein for which a 3D structure is available. ConSurf is completely automatic. All you have to provide is the PDB code for a 3D structure. Optionally, you can provide your own multiple sequence alignment. Image at left: enolase -- click on it to see the ConSurf Gallery.
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XdomView
(Version 2.1)
XdomView is a chime-based visualization tool that maps the domain boundaries of the input PDB chain, obtained from protein structure classification databases (CATH, SCOP, NCBI, 3DEE and DALI) to its tertiary structure. It also runs BLAST2 for the input PDB chain sequence against all protein sequences in the ExInt* database and maps the intron positions and phases of aligned search results on the input protein's 3D structure. Xdom is a useful visualization tool for scientists working on gene and protein evolution and structural modeling and classification. Contact
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Ghemical is a computational chemistry software package released under the GNU GPL. It means that full source code of the package is available, and users are free to study and modify the package. Ghemical is written in C++. It has a graphical user interface (which is based on GNOME), and it supports both quantum-mechanics (semi-empirical and ab initio) models and molecular mechanics models (there is an experimental Tripos 5.2-like force field for organic molecules). Also a tool for reduced protein models [1] is included. Geometry optimization, molecular dynamics and a large set of visualization tools are currently available.
Ghemical relies on external code to provide the quantum-mechanical calculations. Semi-empirical methods MNDO, MINDO/3, AM1 and PM3 come from the MOPAC7 package (Public Domain), and are included in the source distribution. The MPQC package (GNU GPL) is used to provide ab initio methods: the methods based on Hartree-Fock theory are currently supported with basis sets ranging from STO-3G to 6-31G**. The MPQC code is not included in the source distribution. In order to use the MPQC-based ab initio methods in Ghemical, you must first compile and install the MPQC program for your system, and then compile Ghemical using some specific settings that link the programs together. Ghemical also contains the OpenBabel package for import and export of many different file formats (as well as other tasks).

Viewmol is an open source graphical front end for computational chemistry programs. It is able to graphically aid in the generation of molecular structures for computations and to visualize their results. Viewmol has originally been developed by Jörg-Rüdiger Hill and Andreas Bleiber in the Quantum Chemistry Group of Humboldt University with contributions by Arne Dummer, Mariann Krossner, Andreas Bünger, and Andries de Man. Viewmol was named an outstanding product in the German/Austrian Academic Software Award 1993.
The Ramachandran Plot Explorer is designed to make it easy to examine the conformation of a polypeptide - through the interactive
Ramachandran plot (phi-psi angles) and chi-angle tool. Simply click on a residue, then drag the marker on the Ramachandran plot.
An interactive molecular modeling system developed by the the UCSF Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics. It is free for academic and non-profit use and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other platforms. UCSF Chimera development is funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (grant P41-RR01081). Features include:
XCrySDen is a crystalline and molecular structure visualisation program, which aims at display of isosurfaces and contours, which can be superimposed on crystalline structures and interactively rotated and manipulated. It can run on most UNIX platforms, without any special hardware requirements.
XCrySDen has been also ported to MAC OSX (requires X11) and Windows (requires CYGWIN).
XCrySDen also provides a (partial) graphical user interface for CRYSTAL ab initio program, and a visualization system for PWscf and WIEN2k and initio programs.
Molecular (and general) visualising features: XCrySDen possesses more or less all the features that are expected from a modern molecular visualiser:
Crystalline visualising features: In addition to the above described ``standard'' molecular visualising features, XCrySDen comes with an additional set of features that are necessary for visualising crystalline structures. Therefore XCrySDen is able to:
MOLMOL is a molecular graphics program for display, analysis, and manipulation of three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules, with special emphasis on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) solution structures of proteins and nucleic acids. MOLMOL has a graphical user interface with menus, dialog boxes and on-line help. The display possibilities include conventional presentations, as well as novel schematic drawings, with the option of displaying different presentations in one view. The covalent molecular structures can be modified by addition or removal of individual atoms and bonds; the three-dimensional structure can be manipulated by interactive rotation about individual dihedral angles. Special efforts were made to allow for appropriate display and analysis of sets of (typically 20-40) conformers that are conventionally used to represent the result of a NMR structure determination, using functions for superimposing sets of conformers, calculation of root mean square distance (RMSD) values, identification of hydrogen bonds, checking and displaying violations of NMR constraints, and identification and listing of short distances between pairs of hydrogen atoms. MOLMOL is publicly available at no charge, and runs on UNIX and Windows NT/95/98/2000.
MolMol has been cited by over 500 scientific journal articles (search for "molmol" at highwire.stanford.edu). It ranks among the most popular free visualization programs, including RasMol (>700) and KineMages (>450).
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is a
molecular graphics and modeling program for Linux and Windows with a
very intuitive user interface.
Protein Explorer
is free software for visualizing the three-dimensional structures of protein, DNA, and RNA macromolecules, and their interactions and binding of ligands, inhibitors, and drugs. It is arguably the easiest-to-use software of its kind. It is suitable for high school and college students (ages 16 years and older), yet it is also widely used by graduate students and researchers.
More
about what Protein Explorer does.
Protein Explorer makes the power of Chime accessible, offering extensive features both for novices and advanced features for protein structure specialists. Much easier to use, and much more powerful than RasMol. Extensive built-in context-sensitive help, QuickTour, Tutorials. For details, see
Snapshots of Protein Explorer in Action, and
Protein Explorer for Novices/Protein Explorer, Advanced.
The Molecular Interactive Collaborative Environment (MICE) is a Java/Java3D based molecular structure viewer. As a pure Java application, MICE will run without modification on any platform for which Java version 2 and Java3D are available. We have successfully run MICE on Windows 98/NT4.0, Solaris and Linux.
Using a simple form interface, users can users can create custom representations of any molecule in the Protein Databank (PDB), via a network-based scene generator (MSG) that uses MolScript to create VRML representations of the molecule of interest. Once loaded into MICE, the custom view can then be viewed interactively and queried using rudimentary scene interrogation tools.
As well as allowing a user to manipulate and examine a molecule locally, MICE can also share views of molecules across a network. In a collaborative session, multiple users at different geographical locations can view the same representation of the molecule of interest. Any user can take control of the session and alter the view of the molecule, with these changes being seen by all members of the collaboration.
STING Millennium is a web based suite
of programs that starts with visualizing molecular structure and then leads
a user through a series of operations resulting in a comprehensive structure
analysis:
amino acid sequence and structure
positions,with emphasis on bi-directional coupling of sequence and 3D
information
pattern search, neighbors identification,
H-bonds, angles and distances
between atoms are easy to obtain thanks to the intuitive graphic and menu interface.
In addition, a user can obtain:
sequence to structure relationships,
analysis of a quality of the
structure,
nature and volume of atomic
contacts of intra and inter chain type,
analysis of amino acid relative
conservation at specified position among homologous proteins, and
Accessible Surface Area
relationship of relative conservation
to the intra-chain contacts
functional parameters deciphered
etc..
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Such powerful combination of tools is available from a single site, eliminating needs for time-consuming data parsing. As a real treat, STING Millennium offers to the users a compilation of all these data through Protein Dossier module. |
STING Millennium can also be used
as an application that provides a user friendly interface allowing to analyze
several proteins at the
same time. The proteins previously superimposed, can be displayed simultaneously
and then analyzed. A user can compare active sites or any other relevant parts
of structural alignment.
STING Millennium has been developed
from original STING
concept, however, we have completely rewritten all code and made a STING concept
much more versatile. In terms of the system design the package is implemented
using a variety of programming languages, each one better suited to a specific
task:
Chime€ molecular visualization
plugin (MDL inc.) to provide the molecular rendering
Sequence window written in
Java€ that permits a complete control over the plugin and offers a series of
services
A JavaScript interface making
the bridge over the Java-plugin communication, which is specific for Netscape€
browsers
The PERL language is used as
a wrapper for processing web requests
The C++ classes are used for
more intensive programming tasks in structure parameter calculations
STING Millennium has several working
modes permitting its use with:
A single
PDB structure (either from a database or single modeled structure in PDB format)
A structural alignment of several
structures (structures previously aligned with CE or PRISM software)
A PDB structure
along with a sequence alignment, containing the respective PDB sequence.
This offers a way to visualize sequence conservation/variation and correlate it with structural regions in the target protein. The structure can also have its residues colored by an index that indicates sequence conservation (sequence entropy) promoting a rapid identification of the sites subject to differential selective pressure
Several analytical programs developed by our group are listed under the modules entry in the main menu. They perform several tasks providing a powerful combination of tools to analyze the given PDB structure. These modules are:
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The HeSSper data base is being re - generated now. For
this reason, HESPER option on STING Millennium Modules menu is inactive.
As son as the data base is re - generated, this option will become available.
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