In this section, you will learn how to use the templates and minimize the energy. Click to see a video demo . In order to play these videos, you should have flashplayer plugin installed. You can download the plugin from

1. Open both ChemSketch and 3D Viewer
Start Menu -> Programs -> ACDLabs Freeware 10.0 -> ChemSketch
Repeat the above step and this time open Start Menu -> Programs -> ACDLabs Freeware 10.0 -> 3D Viewer

2. ChemSketch has a variety of molecular templates. The following example is using the template window to demonstarte the energy minimizing structure.
a. Choose File -> New from the top menu bar to get a blank workspace.
b. Choose Templates -> Template Window. Investigate the contents of the Template Window by clicking on the various tabs on the left hand side of the window. Note the pulldown menus associated with each of the tabs. The pulldown menus provide additional options for each category of molecule. Take Vitamin B12 for example: In the Template Window, click on Vitamins. Move your cursor over the Vitamin B12 structure until a box appears. In the workspace, place your cursor in the middle of the screen and click the mouse button once. A line drawing of the Vitamin B12 structure should appear.

3. Choose Tools -> 3D Structure Optimization and click "No" in answer to the question about removing hydrogens. Click "No" when asked if stereo bonds should be replaced with single bonds. The calculation may take a few seconds, depending on your computer.

4. In the bottom left corner of the screen, click "Copy to 3D" so that molecules will not be rendered in 3D veiw.

5. To minimize the geometry, click on near the upper right of the screen. Notice the energy gradient readout in the bottom center of the screen. The optimization process may take several seconds, depending on your computer.

6. Let's say you wanted to create an assignment for your students and include some drawings from this program.
a. Open a new Microsoft Word document (or other word processing program) on your computer.
b. In the 3D Viewer, change the background color to white.
c. From the pull down menus at the top, choose Edit -> Select All and then Edit -> Copy. This places the drawing on the clipboard.
d. Go to your Word file, and choose Edit > Paste. You should see the drawing appear. Click on the picture, and you should see a box around the molecules as shown below:

11. Save the file
On the top menu bar, click File -> Save As. In the Save As window, navigate to a location to save the file where you can retrieve it later (probably the share drive). In the "File name" line, type "Methanol" and choose "MDL Molfiles (*.mol)" in the "Save as type" line. Later, we may perform calculations on methanol using a different program.