CalculationCenter 7

[mrMikee]

As I looked over posts in the spreadsheet forum, I started to wonder why more people don't use a program like CalculationCenter (CC2) from Wolfram Research. I admit I am not very experienced with Excel and have not used it much. Most of my calcualtions over the years has been with BASIC and VisualBASIC, but during the last year I am using CC2 more and VB less.

If anyone is interested in this topic please respond. I am curious about what others have experienced with calculations and various software answers. In other words, an overview, some personal opinions, perspectives, and so on.

A brief background on CC2. It seems to be a lite version of mathematica but with some special commands, and costs only $295. Mathematica, Maple, and Matlab are very expensive, especially for people like me who have to buy their own software. Even Mathcad is getting expensive at $1200.

I guess what I'm saying is that I like CC2, but would like to know what other engineers think.

-Mike

 

[Gearhead]

hi

There is a addin which sells for $49 called Mathlook For Excel which will display formulas and assist in renaming. It also will display associated formulas as one formula.
try googling MathLook For Excel

 

[SacreBleu]

For those who are concerned with "tampering" of Excel, I have few war stories concerning "tampering" with canned commercial software, even down to the level of using white-out on the printed output sheets.
So even if Excel can be easily "tampered" with, I don't even feel 100% confident with anything else.
Amen.

 

[IRstuff]

Hah! The Pentagon issued its report on the death of the Italian agent in Iraq at the hands of US servicemen using the equivalent of white-out in PDF format. Much to their collective chagrin, almost everyone quickly figured out how to bypass that.

TTFN

 

[SacreBleu]

IRstuff- where did you learn that?

 

[IRstuff]

That was reported on NPR Monday morning this week

TTFN

 

[miecz]

For me, one major advantage of MathCAD is that it handles units; inches, psi, ksi, kN, MPa... Many times my supervisor has given me a job, saying, "Here, design this component with this excel spreadsheet. We've used it for years on many jobs, so we know it's correct." I'd test the spreadsheet, and more than half the time the test would fail. Most of the time the error had to do with the units, because excel doesn't carry them.

The other major advantage of MathCAD is the ability to make the formlation look just like the code formulation. There's no question that a formula is correct if it looks identical to the one in the code. It's very hard to have faith in the cryptic formulation in excel.

 

[Gearhead]

TK does all of the above plus has backsolving and the 7th edition of Roark. and costs less.
If you want the formulas like mathcad in excel spend $99 and get MathLook for Excel.

 

[GregLocock]

OK, so you are a TK fan. We get the message.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[mrMikee]

A big part of making a decision to purchase any of these programs is to look into what is available as add-ins or 3rd party programing. I know that sometimes I have jumped into a project that I could have purchased and ended up re-inventing the wheel.

-Mike

 

[HgTX]

To back up a topic or two and get more irrelevant...

IRStuff, the equivalent of "whiteout" in PDF. I assume that's things like putting big white boxes over parts one doesn't want to show.

Is there any way to get a new PDF from that modified PDF that captures the modified image other than saving the PDF as a bitmap and then re-PDFifying it, which loses all the ability to select text?

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[IRstuff]

I don't think so, at least, not without the original source document.

The correct approach is to fix the problem in the original application, e.g., Word, then PDF it. Of course, this results in a bitmapped document, but the alternative was obviously much worse for security.

In fact, it would seem that these guys somehow violated security rules by not printing out, blacking out(?) and then scanning the document, then PDF. This procedure is the accepted means of sanitizing classified documents. The electronic transfer of unclassified material from a classified computer would require a byte by byte examination of the resultant file to ensure that classified data did not get accidentally incorporated. Had they done that, the PDF would have never gotten distributed, since the hidden classified material would have been readily apparent.

TTFN

 

[mrMikee]

As the one who started this thread I thought that I should post an update on the status of CalculationCenter2.

An upgrade for CalculationCenter2 is now available and is called Mathematica CalcCenter3. It costs $595. As you might have noted in my original posts and the reason I brought up the issue in this forum, was because I thought CC2 was a good alternate for spreadsheets in some technical areas and was a good value. And this might still be true to some degree but a doubling of its price does effect the overall equation. I wanted to let anyone here who was interested know that the program and and its price have changed.

I do wonder why this happened however. Wolfram Research claims that the product has substantially improved. Probably, but is it twice as good? I have no idea. It is possible (and this is just a hunch) that someone thought CalculationCenter left too much money on the table. Since MathCAD is now up to $1200 the mid priced region for this type of software has been left open for other options, CC2 being just one of many.

Anyways, I've ordered my upgrade. I just hope they added some of the things I asked for.

But still, I think it's been an interesting topic.

Thanks,
-Mike

 

[jmw]

Unless there are specific reasons why Excel can't do the job, it is an excellent tool for sharing.

To be sure, as Mr Mikee says, sometimes it takes longer to create the spreadsheet than to do the work by hand but then, if its is a useful spreadsheet one can assume that isome one some where also faces exactly the same problem and can save themselves the problems of writing the spreadsheet if he can borrow yours.

For those of you interested,

http://www.cheresources.com

is currently running a spreadsheet competition. Some submitted spreadsheets are available free to others and some can recoup you some small (maybe not so small?) returns.

Excel also has the ability to react to live data input from process instruments. I'm not saying other program don't, just that you can get a lot of use out of a program you get anyway with your Office setup. Then too there are some pretty good Excel forums and add-ins available. (Be nice if some of you guys can suggest some good free add-ins).

Myself, I am pretty simple minded and most all of my spreadsheets make extensive use of the "IF" function which can be pretty powerful but I do find the confusion between forms menu and VB a pain when it comes to using drop downs etc.

My real big issue is with graphing. With multiple variables I would like a scale per variable but in Excel, once you've used up primary and secondary axis options there is a problem.
At this point I wonder about whether Excel could be more flexible (i.e. probably more prone to crash) or if there is a more appropriate program.
For a one-off requirement any investment may be too much and I guess this applies to us all.

A big question is, how about the LINUX alternative? does any one have experience of that?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[mrMikee]

An advantage to Excel is that it is almost free in that most business PCs come with MS Office installed.

-Mike

 

[GregLocock]

I've used the spreadhseet in Open Office on Windows (also available for Linux), for a serious project.

It's not ready for primetime in my opinion, in particular the graphing was terrible, in the version I used.

I've been told to use Gnumeric, on linux, but haven't so far as I've been working on a project that has left me unwilling to reinstall Linux on my main machine, and I use KDE not Gnome.









Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[WMO]

JMW

You may find this of interest. Info on excel graphing:

http://peltiertech.com/

 

[JayMaechtlen]

re: tweaking PDFs:
If the doc is in standard (text/graphics) PDF, a full version of Acrobat (depending on rev, you may need pro) allows you to edit ('touch up') text, move or delete objects, etc.
Some graphic editors (Corel Draw, Illustrator) can read a PDF, edit it, return it to PDF as text/graphcs.
You only convert it to image at your choice. (and with some effort)
regards
Jay

Jay Maechtlen

http://home.covad.net/~jmaechtlen/