Installation

Installation

This page covers installing the stable ChemDraft 1.0.0 desktop application on macOS or Windows.

Download the release for your platform from the ChemDraft releases page. The macOS and Windows releases share one version number.

macOS

1. Download the DMG from the release.
2. Open it and move ChemDraft.app to /Applications.
3. Open ChemDraft from Applications.

The stable application is /Applications/ChemDraft.app, with application identifier org.chemdraft.desktop. Packaged macOS builds use Sparkle to check for signed updates automatically. You can also use File → Check for Updates…. Plugin data survives ordinary application replacement.

macOS registers ChemDraft documents and lists CDXML as an alternate handler; the latter does not claim ownership of every CDXML file.

Windows

1. Download the NSIS setup program from the release.
2. Run the setup program. It installs per user and does not require administrator access.
3. If SmartScreen appears, read the warning and choose whether to continue. The installer is not Authenticode-signed, so this warning is expected for a manual download.
4. Start ChemDraft from the installed application.

Windows updates use tauri-plugin-updater. The released application checks its signed update feed daily and can be checked from File → Check for Updates…. Updates are offered interactively: ChemDraft does not silently install them.

The Windows installer registers the .chemdraft extension only. It intentionally does not register .cdxml; open a CDXML file from ChemDraft’s File → Open… command or use Windows’ Open with control.

Stable and development builds

If you build from source, do not replace the stable application. A branch build is ChemDraft (dev) with a worktree-specific application identifier, app data, and single-instance lock. On macOS, ./run-app builds a packaged development application and moves it into <worktree>/app/; ./run-app --dev runs a bare development binary. On Windows, pnpm dev is the development entry point.

The separation means testing a development build cannot overwrite your stable documents, settings, installed plugins, or stable installation. More setup detail is in Building from Source.

If installation does not finish

• On Windows, confirm that WebView2 is installed; it is generally preinstalled with Windows 11.
• Keep source checkouts outside OneDrive when building from source, because synchronized build directories can be slow.
• For update or download errors, see Troubleshooting.

Next

• Take the Quick Start tour
• Learn platform differences
• Read about saving and recovery