Gene Construction Kit software review



Gene Construction Kit, GCK for short, is a commercial software mainly for making schematics of linear and circular DNA sequence (see screenshots on the right). There is a Windows and a Mac version.

Pricing

 * typical academic single license just under $1000
 * non-academic license ~$1800

PROs

 * good graphical overview of sequences
 * switch to DNA sequence
 * import features from NCBI (starting v3.0)
 * non-expiring license

CONs

 * v3 files cannot be opened with v2.5
 * slow development; no Mac Intel version as of 2010-11
 * couple annoying bugs/feature shortcomings:
 * • some older GCK files cause v3 to hang; solution is to copy paste into new file and save in GCK3
 * • opening the font menu can take several seconds if you have many fonts installed; should be in a separate window not to slow down mouse movement every time one moves past the Font command in the Format menu;
 * • search only takes 255 chars; not enough for many DNA searches

Links

 * Textco GCK product homepage