Chemical information file created by ChemDraw, a molecule editing program suite for Macintosh and Windows platforms; stores molecular data in a tagged binary format; used for storing accurate chemical drawings.

CDX files store information such as atoms, bonds, fragments, arrows, and text. The CDX format is the native format used by ChemDraw. Another format called CDXML (.CDXML files) is used for exporting and exchanging CDX data in an XML format.

A CDX file contains an index of files or other data stored in a database. It is similar to a compact index (.IDX) file, but the leaf nodes at the lowest level of a compound index point to one of the tags in the index. CDX files were introduced in version 2 of Microsoft Visual FoxPro, which is a database management program for Windows.

The compound index is the native database index format used by Visual FoxPro. There are two types of CDX files: Structural CDX file - Automatically opened and maintained by Visual FoxPro when the table is accessed and requires exclusive use of the table. Non-structural CDX file - Not opened or maintained automatically by Visual FoxPro when the table is accessed and new records are added but does not require exclusive use of the table. NOTE: Visual FoxPro was discontinued in 2007.

XML diagram file created by ConceptDraw PRO, a technical drawing program; stores the XML version of a binary .CDD file; used for transferring drawing information in an XML exchange format, which is easier to read than the binary version.

File created by CorelDRAW, a vector-graphics editing program included with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite software package; contains a compressed .CDR drawing file; used to reduce the storage space required for a drawing.

CDX files are useful for sending smaller files over email, or for archiving drawings on external media.