Welcome
Being both a natural products chemist and a computer programmer I was looking for a unique yet useful subject on which to design a web site (my first) that combined both my interests. Googling one day I was struck by the total absence of sample ACD/Structure Elucidator ".gnr" files. Thus 2DNMR.com a personal web site devoted to the "Elucidator" was born on the 1st of October 2005. I hope you find the site interesting and excuse my informal practical style to the subject.

Dr Shaun Tennant

Introduction
I have been using the Elucidator since version 5 (circa 2002) for natural product structure elucidation. Having declined ACD’s offer of training (maybe that was not a good idea) I found that the Elucidator has a steep, but preventable, learning curve. My intention with this web site is to convey my experience with the Elucidator to help users avoid unnecessary frustration. There are really only a very small number of tips & tricks or strategies to learn that will get you quickly solving structures with the Elucidator.

Although there are three structure generators in the Elucidator I will only discuss the Correlation Spectroscopy Based Generator that uses 2D NMR data. Also, the NMR processor and Structure Elucidator are separate programs but the Elucidator is so dependant on the processor I will not distinguish between the two.

Brief Philosophy (skip if you like)
2D NMR based structure elucidation has traditionally been performed manually by chemists. The strength of a skilled chemist is in the rapid identification of familiar substructures and elimination unlikely structural elements. The downside to this is that other possible solutions may not be considered (human bias). Furthermore, as an elucidation problem becomes less constrained the number of possible solutions increases exponentially and can exceed even the most experienced chemist. Computer assisted structure elucidation address these issues by removing bias, considering all solutions, speeding up the elucidation process and reducing the knowledge base required. In many ways 2D NMR structure elucidation is evolving analogously to crystallography that was once also a skiled and labour intensive method.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Microbial Screening Technologies Pty Ltd for giving kind permission to release sample GNR files and Advanced Chemistry Development Inc for involving me in their beta testing program.

Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not represent that of either my employer, Microbial Screening Technologies Pty Ltd, or those of Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. All errors, prejudices and plain stupid ideas are mine - you have been warned.