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Blockpad 4
- Thread starter phamENG
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- #4
GregLocock
Automotive
It's Russian. It phones home.
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
- Thread starter
- #5
Because the $47/ month price tag was enough to get me shopping around.
I realize it's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not certain it's worth it for me.
I'm not worried about it being Russian. Do I think the Russian government is doing reprehensible things? Yes. Doesn't mean I think the devs at SMath are doing them.
I realize it's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not certain it's worth it for me.
I'm not worried about it being Russian. Do I think the Russian government is doing reprehensible things? Yes. Doesn't mean I think the devs at SMath are doing them.
Looks promising. After playing around with it for 20 minutes, I'd say it's definitely serviceable.
I just saw on LinkedIn that HQ is in New Orleans. Not a typical location for a software company!
Under Drawing, they show being able to connect sketches to the input. For example, dimension the width of a part in the sketch; click on the dimension number and that can serve as input for the calcs. I'm not aware of another program that does that without coding.
Because it has a price and is obscure, if I develop a tool with it, I can't share that tool with a subconsultant that I bring onto the project. Might be a consideration.
I wonder if all equations have goofy colored shading. I played around with some of their examples and could change most the things I wanted to change, but I couldn't figure out how to change that.
I was a little disappointed that an equation must have everything either regular or italicized. Semi-standard in technical writing is numbers, greek, and functions are regular and English variables are italic. This might be an example of it still being a little rough.
The function examples are only one line functions, like turning one expression into a function. I wonder if one could write multi-line functions like in Mathcad. If not, then that might reduce the ability to re-use previous work.
I used Mathcad a lot from 2005 to 2016 and then tried Smath for a little while and didn't like it. It was just clunky enough that it got on my nerves and I was always a little nervous about malware. Then the geopolitical situation changed and I deleted Smath altogether. That was even before they started charging for it. LOL
I use GNU Octave for a lot of program development, but it's not visual at all. Just coding. The main reason I don't fully commit to Octave is it's slow to input and output, like that part is from 1992. For output, I end up typing stuff, like: disp(["Available Strength = " num2str(Rc,3) " kips"]) Then there are steps to turn the output into a pdf or html for reporting. That's not terrible, but it is clunky and slow compared to other options. I just remembered the biggest problem for me, which is there's no fast and easy way to embed a figure in the output. That means every input/output is only text. That is a gigantic disadvantage for design, even compared to Excel.
I just saw on LinkedIn that HQ is in New Orleans. Not a typical location for a software company!
Under Drawing, they show being able to connect sketches to the input. For example, dimension the width of a part in the sketch; click on the dimension number and that can serve as input for the calcs. I'm not aware of another program that does that without coding.
Because it has a price and is obscure, if I develop a tool with it, I can't share that tool with a subconsultant that I bring onto the project. Might be a consideration.
I wonder if all equations have goofy colored shading. I played around with some of their examples and could change most the things I wanted to change, but I couldn't figure out how to change that.
I was a little disappointed that an equation must have everything either regular or italicized. Semi-standard in technical writing is numbers, greek, and functions are regular and English variables are italic. This might be an example of it still being a little rough.
The function examples are only one line functions, like turning one expression into a function. I wonder if one could write multi-line functions like in Mathcad. If not, then that might reduce the ability to re-use previous work.
I used Mathcad a lot from 2005 to 2016 and then tried Smath for a little while and didn't like it. It was just clunky enough that it got on my nerves and I was always a little nervous about malware. Then the geopolitical situation changed and I deleted Smath altogether. That was even before they started charging for it. LOL
I use GNU Octave for a lot of program development, but it's not visual at all. Just coding. The main reason I don't fully commit to Octave is it's slow to input and output, like that part is from 1992. For output, I end up typing stuff, like: disp(["Available Strength = " num2str(Rc,3) " kips"]) Then there are steps to turn the output into a pdf or html for reporting. That's not terrible, but it is clunky and slow compared to other options. I just remembered the biggest problem for me, which is there's no fast and easy way to embed a figure in the output. That means every input/output is only text. That is a gigantic disadvantage for design, even compared to Excel.
- Thread starter
- #7
milkshakelake
Structural
Connecting sketches with dimensions is something I've been looking for, for a long time. I've resorted to doing it in Excel with VBA, which is incredibly clunky for me. The Newton Excel Bach person (forgot the username) disagreed with me in the past and said it's very doable, but it's just my own lack of experience and skills; the learning curve is quite high.
I'll play around with it and see if it solves my woes about sketches. Hopefully it has some kind of programming or iterative process built in for things like P-M curves and member optimization.
It can be an advantage, because employees can't realistically take the work with them.
I'll play around with it and see if it solves my woes about sketches. Hopefully it has some kind of programming or iterative process built in for things like P-M curves and member optimization.
271828 said:
It can be an advantage, because employees can't realistically take the work with them.
- Thread starter
- #10
Just watching some videos and reading guides, it has non-linear equation solvers and logic blocks. Not sure how well it would work for optimization, but maybe.
As for the shading - that's just a visual to make it easier to use. It goes away when you export to PDF.
I'm nearly sold. It looks to do most of the things that I want Excel to do, and is much more user friendly than SMath. Time to get some real work done, and next 'custom calculation' I need to do I'll download it and build it in the trial to see how I like it.
As for the shading - that's just a visual to make it easier to use. It goes away when you export to PDF.
I'm nearly sold. It looks to do most of the things that I want Excel to do, and is much more user friendly than SMath. Time to get some real work done, and next 'custom calculation' I need to do I'll download it and build it in the trial to see how I like it.
Lomarandil
Structural
Pham, one other consideration I was looking at last week is Maple Flow. Haven't played with it yet to see how user friendly or robust it is, but the perpetual license caught my eye.
- Thread starter
- #12
my free license expired 7/21, so I apparently didn't think it compared well with Mathcad.
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
- Thread starter
- #15
Looks like MapleFlow is $1495. Compared to the $18/month for Blockpad, it would take 7 years to 'pay it off'. That's assuming Blockpad prices don't climb unreasonably and ignores any potential maintenance costs for MapleFlow.
Blockpad also offers a lifetime license at $950. A little over 4 years for that one, also ignoring maintenance (I read somewhere that it's about $100/year, but I'm not sure.)
Blockpad also offers a lifetime license at $950. A little over 4 years for that one, also ignoring maintenance (I read somewhere that it's about $100/year, but I'm not sure.)
Maple has been around forever, so it has the advantage of being well refined. It's also like a sledge hammer for the kind of work most of us do.
Its price would also be stable. Where did you see $1495? How did you determine Maple Flow is the correct variant?
Its price would also be stable. Where did you see $1495? How did you determine Maple Flow is the correct variant?
@phamENG: MapleFlow is $1495 CAD = $1100 USD (approx) so compared vs. Blockpad's perpetual license the ROI = 1100/18 = 61 months = 5+years
Lol. I just went through the same exercise.
There's always the option of back-installing the older 0.99 version of SMATH.
LINK: MapleFlow price
LINK: Blockpad price
Lol. I just went through the same exercise.
There's always the option of back-installing the older 0.99 version of SMATH.
LINK: MapleFlow price
LINK: Blockpad price
- Thread starter
- #18
milkshakelake
Structural
Looking at MapleFlow videos and documentation, I didn't see anything about being able to make scaled diagrams (for example, a steel plate with dimensions). Can it do that?
- Thread starter
- #20
I don't think it does. Point to Blockpad.
I'm also excited about the idea of "Blocks." You can create custom calc modules to be reused in future calculations. So you can make a beam analysis module that gets dropped into your steel beam, wood beam, and concrete beam design sheets. Pretty slick. More importantly, it could be used for dynamic load chasing. Create a block for floor joists, a block for beams, a block for posts, etc. Then drop them in as you work down through the building, automatically linking everything together. (I realize that Sizer and Forte do this already, but Sizer is NOT user friendly, especially for linking reactions through a building, and Forte is pretty limited in scope.)
I'm also excited about the idea of "Blocks." You can create custom calc modules to be reused in future calculations. So you can make a beam analysis module that gets dropped into your steel beam, wood beam, and concrete beam design sheets. Pretty slick. More importantly, it could be used for dynamic load chasing. Create a block for floor joists, a block for beams, a block for posts, etc. Then drop them in as you work down through the building, automatically linking everything together. (I realize that Sizer and Forte do this already, but Sizer is NOT user friendly, especially for linking reactions through a building, and Forte is pretty limited in scope.)
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