Athanor by arbastro
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How to paste SMILES as a structure

Choose Edit › Paste SMILES…, paste the SMILES string and press Draw. Or press / and paste it into Quick insert.

On a Mac, Ctrl is Cmd.

SMILES is a line of text that describes a molecule, such as CCO for ethanol. Databases, papers and other programs often give structures this way.

Steps

  1. Copy the SMILES string.

  2. In Athanor, choose Edit › Paste SMILES… in the Main menu.

  3. Paste the string into the box with Ctrl+V.

    Paste SMILES with an ibuprofen SMILES string pasted in.Paste SMILES with an ibuprofen SMILES string pasted in.

  4. Press Draw. The structure is drawn and added beside what is already on the page, ready to edit.

Or use Quick insert

Press /, paste the SMILES and press Enter. Quick insert labels the text SMILES as it reads it. See How to insert a structure by name, SMILES or CAS number.

To go the other way and copy a structure as SMILES, use Edit › Copy as › Copy as SMILES (Ctrl+Alt+C). See How to copy a structure as SMILES, InChI or a molfile.

Switching from ChemDrawChemDraw commands and their Athanor namesMost ChemDraw commands have an Athanor command with the same or a similar name. Type ChemDraw's name into Search everything (Ctrl+K) and the Athanor command comes up, with its menu path and shortcut.

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Last updated Nov 12, 2026