ChemDoodle is an innovative 2D chemical drawing application designed and developed by Kevin Theisen. Created by a computational chemist, ChemDoodle is an intuitive tool for drawing chemical structures and figures. It is instantly accessible to every user and works on every operating system with Java 1.5+ installed.
ChemDoodle and this associated website are owned and operated by iChemLabs, LLC. All questions and issues with any of our products and/or websites including this one should be addressed to customerservice@ichemlabs.com.
Likewise, this website is governed by the iChemLabs Terms of Use, and iChemLabs Privacy Policy.
All questions and issues concerning the ChemDoodle application should be placed in the ChemDoodle Forum at iChemLabs.com or sent by email to customerservice@ichemlabs.com. Please provide as much detail as possible so we can understand and resolve your issue.
ChemDoodle is a complex product that required thousands of hours of development. We can't afford to just give it away, so valid copies of our software must be activated. Therefore in order to use our product, even during the trial period, we require product activation. This involves requesting an activation code which will be verified with our server when you install ChemDoodle. During activation, no data whatsoever is obtained from you or your computer. ChemDoodle simply makes contact with our server to verify that this is a valid activation code; one that was legally requested and stored on our server.
When you download the trial version, you get the full product; no nagware, no adware, no broken features. When you request a trial code, we ask for your email address so that we can send the trial code. We save your email address and the IP address from which you requested it along with the trial code so that you can activate your product later. We save the IP address so that we can avoid scripters who, as you know, will attempt to download many codes. Therefore, repeated requests from the same IP address are blocked.
When you purchase a permanent code, we also do not collect any personal information. All payment processing is handled by PayPal. When you purchase an activation code, they send us information on product purchased, amount paid, your name, your address, and your email address. PayPal never sends us your financial information (i.e., your credit card information). We discard everything PayPal sends us except your state, and your email address. We save your state because we're required by law to collect sales tax in New Jersey, and we save your email address so that we can send you your activation code. When activating a permanent code, as with a trial code, no data or information is collected from you or your computer during activation. Again, the only communication with our server is to send the code for verification.
We have designed our product with the utmost concern for ease of use and privacy. Not only do we not collect any information from you, we don't even want it if you were willing to provide it. The simple fact is if we don't have your information, then it cannot be compromised by us.
We want to assure all of our customers that we do not collect any personal information from you or your computer during product activation.
We use Open Babel to convert chemical file formats for importing. Open Babel is provided in binary form with ChemDoodle, and can be found in the external/OpenBabel folder. We made no modifications to the Open Babel code. Since our product is not open source, we cannot and do not link our product with the Open Babel libraries. Instead, as allowed by the license, we make a system call to the babel program to convert the file and pipe the standard output to ChemDoodle to affect file conversions.
Open Babel is licensed under the GNU GPL license, a copy of which is included in the external/OpenBabel folder. You can get source or binary forms for Open Babel here. You can read about Open Babel licensing and restrictions here.
You only need to download and install ChemDoodle once. After installation, all updates should be obtained by using the auto-update feature of ChemDoodle (click on Help, then Check For Updates). If you do decide to download and re-install for any reason, make sure to back up your ChemDoodle/settings folder first. If you discard your existing installation or drag a new installation over your existing installation, you risk losing your preferences file, requiring you to reactivate ChemDoodle.