Are the Extension Packs worth the money? 1

[Wittenborn]

Hello all,

I have been tasked to looking into the MathCAD extension packs for our company. In the very near future, we will be involved with a consulting project that will require the use of multivariable diff. equations, and partial differential equations. These equations would all be linked together in one big system of equations for a body.

I am looking through all of the extension packs offered for MATHCAD, and from a first glance, the only one that looks like it could relate to this new project is the Solving and Optimization extension pack.

We are currently using Mathcad Professional 2001, and it appears that the stand alone program can do everything we need it to.

My question to all of you experienced mathcad users is:

Given my problem, is the purchase of the solving and optimizing extension pack worth the money, or will we be able to use the stand alone software package?

Any comments are welcome!


Regards,
Grant
Aerospace Engineer

 

[IRstuff]

Usually, the extension packs come with a DLL with new functions that can become incorporated into any new worksheets.

If you have need of such a function, then the extension pack might be worth it. You might be able to get in contact with Mathsoft and have them print out what the new functionality entails and you can then make the appropriate decisions.

TTFN

 

[Wittenborn]

Thanks IRstuff,

While I have not used MathCad for partial or ordinary differential equations, it appears that I can use the standard MathCAD program to enter a system of differential equations. Is this correct?

Regards,
Grant
Aerospace Engineer

 

[IRstuff]

I saw that you posted your question on the Mathcad Collaboratory.

As for the basic Mathcad, yes, there's a number of options, see Mathcad help for v11.2:

Differential Equation Solvers
There are a variety of Mathcad functions for numerically solving ordinary differential equations (ODE), partial differential equations (PDE), and systems of ODEs/PDEs. ODE solvers solve for unknown functions of one variable, and PDE solvers solve for functions of two variables (so-called 1-D PDEs). The Odesolve and Pdesolve functions are used within solve blocks, allowing for natural notation, and are the easiest to use and interpret. The command line functions can be used within programs for iterative calculations.

Solving ordinary differential equations

Odesolve(x,b,step)

rkfixed(y,x1,x2,npoints,D)

Specialized ODE command-line solvers

Bulstoer(y,x1,x2,npoints,D): extra accuracy for smoothly varying systems

Radau(y,x1,x2,npoints,D), Stiffb(y,x1,x2,npoints,D,J), or Stiffr(y,x1,x2,npoints,D,J): extra accuracy for stiff systems

Rkadapt(y,x1,x2,npoints,D): faster and more accurate for systems with both slowly-varying and rapidly-varying intervals

For each of these solvers, using a lowercase function name instead of the uppercase will solve for only the last point on the integration interval, which can save processing time and reduce memory consumption. Unlike their uppercase equivalents, you don't specify the number of points in the result. Instead, you specify the level of accuracy and allow these functions to generate a solution having the required number of elements.

Two-point boundary value problem solvers

bvalfit(v1,v2,x1,x2,xf,D,load1,load2,score)

sbval(v,x1,x2,D,load,score)

If you do a search in the Collab, there have been numerous postings on rkfixed, rkadapt, etc.

TTFN