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

 

[corus]

You can plot functions in excel. Just google for some free downloads. Alternatively if you want some specific calculations done to your own requirements, then write some Visual Basic code for that. Visual Basic Express Edition can be downloaded for free, and is fairly easy to use.

 

[Walterke]

I don't think excel meets his requirements since it
-doesn't understand units
-can't really be used algebraically

I don't use mathcad myself but I seem to remember hearing about it making some big changes between 14 and 15. Make sure you read up on it before you decide which one(if any) you want.

NX 7.5.5.4 with Teamcenter 8 on win7 64
Intel Xeon @3.2GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro 2000

 

[JohnRBaker]

Have you looked at Maplesoft?

http://www.maplesoft.com/

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[xnuke]

Smath Studio is a freeware program that works similarly to the older versions of MathCAD: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.smathstudio.com/[/url]

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[IRstuff]

My preferred tools are Mathcad for calcs and Excel for plotting and tables. However, I'm still on M11, which was the last one I personally purchased. M15 is the last version with the legacy interface, and is deadended, since Mathcad Prime is slated to the be main product. MP fixes a whole bunch of problems inherited from the legacy program.

One tool that's sort of both is TK Solver, which is a tabular format worksheet program, understands units (supposedly, but I've never used it), plots, etc.

http://www.uts.com/ItemDetails.asp?ItemID=0100-50-0010-00

Another option is SMath Studio, which is a free Mathcad alternative, but harder to use in my opinion, but FREE makes up for a lot of sins.

http://www.smathstudio.com/

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[IDS]

doesn't understand units
-can't really be used algebraically

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/daily-download-24-units-for-excel/

The Units4Excel spreadsheet provides:
■User Defined Functions (UDFs) to convert between any listed units, including compound SI units.
■A UDF to evaluate any function entered as text, including evaluation of input and output units.
■Recognition of all standard SI prefixes.
■An extensive list of non-SI units, based on the Wikipedia unit conversion page.
■The ability to add any other units to the list.

I think a lot of it comes down to individual style of working and preferences. For those who like the spreadsheet approach I wouldn't dismiss it because it doesn't have units or work algebraically, because those things can be fixed.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[IDS]

On plotting graphs of functions, this might be useful:

Charting a Mathematical Function with Defined Names

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/charting-a-mathematical-function-with-defined-names/

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[GregLocock]

The learning curve for Mathematica is vertical, and I'm not really convinced it'll do the job for everyone.

As an alternative to the (excellent) Mathcad/Smath paradigm, there's the text and script based approach similar to but not as frightening as Mathematica, Matlab for the rich, and Octave/Maxima/SciLab for the meanies. These have the major advantage that they are easy to read and debug, but the initial learning curve is steeper than Mathcad. Of those 4 I'd be inclined to skip Maxima, the other three are robust and evolving.

They are units agnostic, which may be a deal breaker for you.








Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[Quazoosl]

Thnx for the quick responses guys!

@JohnBaker: Maple doesn't work with units right?

@ the rest: I'll check out your suggestions, some sound very promising


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

 

[JohnRBaker]

Not sure what you're referring to when you ask whether Maple supports 'Units'. That being said, here's a sample from the Maple help document showing one of the pages which addresses 'Units':

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Quazoosl]

What I mean is that when the input is: 1N/1mm^2 the output would have to be: 1*10^6Pa or 1MPa or at least: 1N/mm^2

From the information you´ve given me I can´t really tell if maple allows me to calculate with units.



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

 

[Quazoosl]

That´s probably because of my lack of experience with technical English though.

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

 

[IRstuff]

Really? a 5 second websearch:

http://www.maplesoft.com/support/help/Maple/view.aspx?path=Units

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[Quazoosl]

whoops, didn't try searching it because someone (that works with maple on a daily basis) had specificly told me maple wouldn't be able to do This. Anyway thnx for your input! Maple deffinately seems to be a good alternative now.

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

 

[monkeydog]

IRstuff,
You forgot to end your message with "mate" so Quazoosl would understand you.

 

[IRstuff]

What I had thought to add waws "Trust, but verify"

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[Quazoosl]

@monkeydog: I have to admit that I submitted that last post before previewing it. I still need to get used to these forums and its disability to edit posts after submission. Pardon the slag

 

[fel3]

You should try the very recently relesaed Mathcad Express, which is a FREE, stripped down version of Mathcad Prime 2.0. You can find it at

http://www.ptc.com/product/mathcad/free-trial/?gclid=CN-b_8Tj9LMCFWlxQgod8DwAXg

I posted some additional details in the PTC: Mathcad forum at

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=334626

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

 

[fel3]

BTW, I just downloaded Mathcad Express two days ago and have only had about half an hour to spend with it. It appears so far that the old key sequences work for subscripts (. and [), square roots (\), and fractions (/). I haven't tried them all yet.

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