Best program for calculations in mechanical engineering

[Quazoosl]

Hi all,

The company I work for only uses excell to do calculations. For most simple calculations Excel works fine and for calculations that have to be repeated a lot of times Excel works great once you really get to know all it's possibilitys. As a mechanical engineer, having to name units in seperate cells, transform every time you go from kilo to Mega and having to doublecheck everything because excell wouldn't know what a Newton is gets quite annoying though. Also excel's disability to plot graphs (without first having to explain what dots it should be connecting) is a quite tiresome. Because of all this a lot of my colleagues I'm trying to figure out what would be the best software we could be using.

Wishlist
I'm basically looking for a program that (in order of importance):
[ul]
[li]Can be used algebraricly (define quantities, define formula(s), get answer for unknown quantity/quantities[/li]
[li]Understands (metric) units[/li]
[li]Works fast (requires a minimum amount of mouse usage)[/li]
[li]Is able to plot graphs of functions[/li]
[li]Works intuitively[/li]
[/ul]

MathCad
I have some experience with a very early MathCad version (2001i) and I've tested MathCad prime 1.0 for a short while. In general I really like the way units can easily be converted and calculated with. In 2001i I especially liked that (once I knew what keys to use) I could really work fast and keep on typing formulas. Whilst I really liked the speed in which it could be used, the thing I really missed in 2001i was a bit of intuitive design and ease of use. When I used Prime 1.0 in my opinion they really tried to copy the microsoft way of interacting with the software in stead of making it as intuitive as advertised. Yes it looks good but working with quantity for example names I found to be really really timeconsuming. When I wanted to enter a single quantity or a several quantitys into an equation like F[sub]1[/sub]=10*N in 2001i I only had to type"F.1[spacebar]:10N" if my memory is correct. With mathcad prime I had to do something like type "F", select subscript with mouse, type "1", deselect subscript with mouse and so on. If there is an easyer way it surely feels like the developers tried really hard to hide it from me... Does anyone know if Prime 2.0 has improved on this? Perhaps we should be using a later pre-prime version like 15? We don't really need the full power of this program, but I really like it's approach.

Mathematica
I've seen some demonstrations of Wolfram Alpha's mathematica and this looks quite promising. Then again, so did mathcad Prime 1.0 untill I started using it. Perhaps this could be a good alternative?

Other programs?
Are there other programs that I haven't heard of and we could be using in stead?

At the moment I'm guessing MathCad 15 would be our best option. I'd like to hear others experiences first though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Since I'm not a native speaker I'd appreciate feedback on my (British) English

 

[Quazoosl]

That sounds great, I'll give express a try!

I'm testing evaluation versions of both maple 16 and MC15. Although Mathcad works quite well Maple seems to be able to meet all of my requirements with the greatest ease. It just works so much more intuitively than mathcad.

 

[fel3]

I find Mathcad pretty intuitive and Express is much easier to use than my old Mathcad 8. I just took a look at the Maple website and it does look very easy to use and it obviously has a lot more power than Express. But, it's also very expensive, even more than Mathcad Prime. For occaisional users like me, free is MUCH better.

==========
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[IRstuff]

Unfortunately, they elected to make the basic SOLVE block a "premium" feature. Aside from the transparent use of units, Given-Find is probably one of the more useful functions.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[jhardy1]

@IRstuff:

"Unfortunately, they elected to make the basic SOLVE block a "premium" feature."

Well - the whole point of "Express" is to be a teaser - if they gave you access to the most powerful tools, there wouldn't be much incentive to buy a full licence!

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

 

[IRstuff]

Yeah, but the problem is that if I can't even try out the simplest one of them, what would entice me to get the package?

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[jhardy1]

I think you get a 30-day full trial licence, after which it reverts to the limited Express licence, so plenty of opportunity to test out whether Mathcad Prime 2 is for you. It's a pretty good offer, really!

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

 

[fel3]

IRstuff…

Funny you should mention the solve block. I was working on one yesterday in Mathcad 8 (modifying an old document for a new project) and decided to try it in Mathcad Express. OOPS!

Earlier this year I downloaded the one-month trial of Mathcad Prime 1.0/Mathcad 15. At ~$1.4k I had no plans to buy it, but I wanted to try it out. When a PTC rep called a couple months later to "make the sale" I told him that I couldn't justify the price for a program I used maybe 10 hours a month and that Mathcad 8 was continuing to serve my needs. I suggested that PTC re-adopt the old Mathsoft model of a two-tier program with reduced features for a reduced price. I told him I could justify a $300 program without programming and certain other features. I told him what I used and didn't use in Mathcad 8 (e.g. I haven't done a DifEq since college and that was long before Mathcad and I almost never use symbolics). The solve block is one of things I told him I used fairly often. I still think a $300 version with an intermediate set of features and functions would hit the sweet spot for most Mathcad afficianados.

==========
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[IRstuff]

It just seems to me that they could have allowed you to use the SOLVE block for free, as a reminder of how great the program can be. Otherwise, it's just a fancier graphing calculator with units conversions, which is pretty good, but...

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[johnbridge231]

You can consider Wolfram Mathematica as well.

Analysis and Design of arbitrary cross sections
Reinforcement design to all major codes
Moment Curvature analysis

http://www.engissol.com/cross-section-analysis-design.html

 

[IRstuff]

That was mentioned by the OP

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[stanier]

I use Mathcad M15 and have been part of the Beta test team for MC Prime 1, 2 & 3. MC Prime 3 is due next year and should be more like the functonality of MC15. The graphing is something that PTC are working on in earnest so will be better than EXcel I believe in MC Prime 3. Some think MC is a bit cumbersome for muliple problems but I like the simplicity of presentation and units handling. Fault finding is a breeze and the whole math and units are there to see. The maths can be printed to PDF to go into a report or provided to a customer. Parts of the maths can be hidden if you choose to keep the equations under wraps.

I used Tk Solver in a DOS version. The thing I liked about TKS was if you knew 19 of 20 variables it would solve for the 20th. The 20th could be any one of the variables so you didnt have to re jig the equation to get a result. It also handled Boolean algerbra neatly. You could insert a gues and it would converge rapidly. Not sure how the Windows version stacks up. Probably the DOS engine with a fancy front end.

I hate spreadsheets as they are too hard to fault find and errors can creep in and you dont see them.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”
---B.B. King

http://waterhammer.hopout.com.au/

 

[Quazoosl]

@Johnbridge231: Do you have any experience with mathematica? I'd like to know how it works from a user perspective.

@Stanier: Is MCP3 still heavy on the mouse usage? I'll look into that TK Solver you referred to, that program is new to me.

 

[IDS]

I hate spreadsheets as they are too hard to fault find and errors can creep in and you dont see them.

I like spreadsheets because they are flexible, intuitive, powerful, and are the quickest way to verify and fault find the output from other applications. With a couple of add-ins they will do all of the things listed in the OP. That doesn't mean that a spreadsheet is necessarily the best solution for any individual, but I wouldn't automatically dismiss them either.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[flash3780]

I'd recommend that you consider spending some time learning Octave/Matlab. Octave is free, so you should be able to use it wherever you go. It's powerful, you can do anything from solving ordinary differential equations to complex matrix operations to processing gobs of data. It's beautiful, Octave/gnuplot can produce publication-quality charts in 2d and 3d.

[ul]
[li]Can be used algebraically (define quantities, define formula(s), get answer for unknown quantity/quantities
Being a programming language, you can do all of the above in Octave/Matlab. Admittedly, I don't often find myself having any great need for computer algebra software.
[/li]
[li]Understands (metric) units
I'd recommend that you work in a consistent set of units when doing calculations, but there is an Octave package out there for doing conversions which may be helpful.
[/li]
[li]Works fast (requires a minimum amount of mouse usage)
Octave is fast. Matlab is faster. When it comes to mouse usage, you can use whatever editor you want with Octave. I use VIM as my editor; takes some getting used to but it's extraordinarily powerful and customizable. You can set up syntax highlighting and autocompletion. Matlab's editor is also quite good and allows you to set up breakpoints and lots of other nifty features.
[/li]
[li]Is able to plot graphs of functions
Both Octave and Matlab produce publication quality graphs (EPS, PDF, SVG, PNG, TIFF, etc). I sometimes find that Octave/gnuplot makes better plots than Matlab. Here's a plot that I made in Matlab to answer someone's question about Matlab elsewhere in Eng-tips:

[/li]
[li]Works intuitively
I suppose intuitively is relative; powerful tools have learning curves. Still, once you get a handle on the language, the help files (especially for Matlab) are fantastic. If you need to learn how to use a new function, the help file will have a description of the function and usually several examples of how to implement it in code.
[/li]
[/ul]

You might also look into are Python with SciPy, NumPy, & Matplotlib... that's what the cool kids are using these days. Actually, Python is a full-fledged programming language, so it's probably one of the most flexible tools for solving engineering problems out there. I can't say whether it's better or worse than Matlab because I haven't used it nearly as much, but it's open-source, free, and probably worth a try.

Some other good problem solving software:
Excel (Excellent spreadsheet program, mentioned by others)
R-Project (Popular with statisticians; makes excellent plots)
Maxima (Computer algebra)

Good luck in your search. I hope you find some software that works well for you.