ACD/Labs Announces Millionth Freeware Download

Within eight years, ACD/Labs has managed to reach a major milestone: the 17th of May, 2006, marks the one millionth download of ACD/Labs freeware software components and products. 

Coupled with this milestone, ACD/Labs also announces the 600,000th download of ACD/ChemSketch. 

In October 2002, ACD/Labs made the bold statement that they would grow from 400,000 to 1,000,000 downloads within five years, surpassing Moore's Law. 

Now, a short three and a half years later, ACD/Labs have passed their target and continue to add to their download total every day. 

Since 1998, ACD/Labs has been offering a freeware version of their chemical drawing package, ACD/ChemSketch to academic institutions and students. 

Every day another 500 downloads from ACD/Labs’ website distribute the power of this chemical structure drawing package to desktops around the world. 

Other freeware components include ACD/ChemBasic, a programming language for chemists that is designed to extend the capabilities of the drawing package and allows users to deliver additional functionality according to their needs. 

Also available are nomenclature and 3D molecular viewing modules for other software packages such as MDL ISIS, free databases for the ACD/ChemFolder software platform, chemical games for the PC and Palm platforms and many other useful utilities.

Another download is the ACD/I-Lab Add-on for ChemSketch. ACD/Labs has made their predictors for NMR spectra, molecular physical properties, and IUPAC- and CAS Index-based systematic nomenclature available to academic researchers and instructors at affordable pay-per-use or subscription prices through ACD/Labs’ internet-based service, ACD/Labs Online (I-Lab).

The ACD/Labs I-Lab add-on is designed to give users instant access to chemical databases and property prediction algorithms and is used by thousands of chemists worldwide. 

ACD/Labs first made free software downloads available in April 1998, and its popularity has grown to almost a thousand new downloads every day; over 2 gigabytes of software. 

As an example of the scope and reach of advancements being offered, ACD/Labs has extended ACD/ChemSketch to offer integration with the PubChem system.

This integration gives ChemSketch users direct access to PubChem’s structure and substructure searches.

Included in the 1,000,000 downloaded products is ACD/Online Updater, which updates all ACD/Labs software programs simultaneously and obtains the latest bug fixes, import/export filters, and most up-to-date algorithms for your version of the software. 

Antony Williams, Ph.D., VP and Chief Science Officer at ACD/Labs, comments, "When ACD/ChemSketch was made available as freeware, our intention was simple: allow students worldwide, our future scientists, the ability to access some of the tools they may meet later in their career."

"This is also the driver behind our decision to provide ChemSketch site licenses to all academic facilities around the world. Now over half a million people, in literally every country in the world, have availed themselves of our offering."

"We are happy to provide these tools since the community continues to drive the need for our innovations, demand excellence of us, and support our efforts to enable better science through software."