Structure Software

If your only reason for using SFS is editing structures, there is a whole bunch of FREE software for drawing chemical models that is better than what SFS has to offer:

• JChemPaint — useful for 2D chemical models. (open source, requires Java)
• ISIS/Draw — Free of charge software from Elsevier-MDL, requires registration. This is the editor that's part of Beilstein
• ACD Labs ChemSketch 8.0 Freeware — includes 3-D modeling and some databases. A very good product for free.(registration required)

Important facts:

• NDSU and UND both share access to SciFinder Scholar?
• Together, only FOUR people at both institutions (out of about 20 thousand people) can use the software at the same time.
• SciFinder is easily the most expensive database product that the library subscribes to. (It costs the library directly more than $20,000 per year, and that doesn't count departmental contributions.)
• Researchers at NDSU use SciFinder to conduct research that brings in vital money to the campus and state.
• Currently just over one in three attempts to use SciFinder Scholar are unsuccessful.
• If people continue to use SciFinder for other purposes than searching its databases (i.e. using the structure editor), the library will have to restrict access to the resource in the future. This will probably impact undergraduates the most in the future.
• There is better chemical modeling software out there for free!!