SMATH 10

[onlym112]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone who is experienced in SMath could tell me if they prefer to use MS Excel or SMath for their calculations and if SMMath can perform continuous iterative solutions like you can in excel e.g. strength of bolts under eccentric loading etc.

Thank you,

 

[NedGan76]

No, I am referring Calcpad.

Cells with formulas inside are not exactly "coding" as we do it in programming languages. In Excel, you can use VBA for that purpose, which is a very powerful option BTW. Also, Excel does not document your formulas to MathType. You need to type them once again on the top. You need some third party software to do it automatically. Calcpad gives you directly a complete Word document with all of your formulas and text. For the example from above, it looks as follows:

You can try it yourself, if you go to

https://calcpad.eu/Worksheet/34/shear-design-of-rectangular-section,

click "Run" and then "Download docx".

Other examples for "coding" based systems are Mathematica or Matlab. Calcpad is not that powerful, but it is simple and easy to use. It is free and also open source. Check this GitHub repo:

https://github.com/Proektsoftbg/Calcpad

 

[Just Some Nerd]

Calcpad certainly seems interesting...one my office would have with it is that it has a larger barrier to entry in that you need to learn to format via code rather than a graphical input. Can see a lot more time trying to catch people up to speed rather than sticking to a SMath/MathCad type input. I do like how clean it looks.

 

[NedGan76]

You do not need to learn to format via code.

Just type your equations and the software will do the job for you. You will see the immediate results in the output window on the right.

I have used both Excel and MathCAD for many years. I could say that coding is way much faster than graphical editing as an input method. So, if you search for speed, this is the right choise.

You need to learn almost nothing to start. Put titles in double quotes " and text in single quotes '. Outisde just write your formulas. I am not trying to convince you to abandon SMath or Excel. I am just pointing out that there is another approach, except those two that is worth to consider. Each one has its own advantages.

 

[GregLocock]

The graphs in calcpad look rather neat. Thanks for suggesting it.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[TLHS]

Calcpad is interesting. I'll play with it. I do like that it automatically just deals with putting stuff in the right place. I'll have to mess with it a bit more.

I think I've converted fully from the latest versions of MathCADs to SMath. I was an SMath holdout for a long time because the hardcoded Courier font selection made everything look like it was from 1994. Now that you can use whatever font you want, it's much nicer.

The killer features for me are:

A portable installation, so you can put it on any computer even locked down company machines.

Snippets. They're sheets that you make that you can insert super quickly into whatever you're working on. Being able to dump in code blocks in three clicks is great. You don't have to have a bunch of templates set up for exactly your situation. You can have a snippet sheet that has your check reporting function in it and drop it in when you need it. You can have a seismic load calculating snippet sheet that you dump into your calc when you need that. I find that I use those a lot more than I tend to copy and paste old work from other sheets in MathCAD.

I wish it defaulted to inserting units when what you've typed matches one. I still haven't gotten the muscle memory of hitting tab after I type in each unit. I also hope they'll add in more formatting options.

 

[FEA way]

Somehow, I've never heard about Calcpad. I tried it and it looks really promising. It's not as good as SMath but, as opposed to other free (and often also paid) software, it supports units and the natural way of displaying formulas (unfortunately only in outputs). More complicated operations (like plotting) likely require some coding since there's no GUI for them (as opposed to SMath) but it shouldn't be a problem. This software is like a more user-friendly version of wxMaxima which I also recommend by the way (another free and open-source software but equivalent to Mathematica, not to Mathcad). SMath is so good that I wouldn't be looking for an alternative to it but I really don't like the recent changes in the licensing model and the transition towards paid software with limited (fortunately not in terms of important functionalities, at least for now) free version.

 

[Ussuri]

I have not come across calcpad either. It looks like it is worth a play.

One of my bugbears with these packages is the lack of the ability to have custom headers and footers, so that the output actually looks like a calculation sheet (I'm maybe a bit anal, but like the computer produced calculations to look at the same as the hand calculation (printed) pads). Can you do that in CalcPad?

There was another alternative that was mentioned on these forums, which was BlockPad, a Mathcad/Excel hybrid. It isn't free though.

 

[NedGan76]

Good point, Ussuri!

Calcpad supports Html inside text comments. This provides almost unlimited capabilities to format your notes as you like. Actually, Calcpad uses Html and CSS internally to render the output. That allows it to be easilly integrated with web sites:

https://calcpad.eu/Worksheet/21/bending-design-of-rectangular-section

There is a starting template file c:\\Program Files\Calcpad\template.html. If you need a custom designed header/footer for each document, you can add it to the template. If you are not familiar with Html, you can send me the design and I can make the template for you.

Another, even easier option is to create a MS Word template, make it default and export the output to Word. It will be filled inside the template. Calcpad does not have its own editor like BlockPad (which I like it BTW), but you can use directly MS Word or Libre Office for that purpose. For me, using Word as a text editor for my calculation notes is much more convenient. Exporting to native Word files is one of the Calcpad's most valuable features.

 

[dik]

My SMath headers all look like (first page only):

It's a template that I use for all my programs in SMath.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Just Some Nerd]

You do not need to learn to format via code.

Just type your equations and the software will do the job for you. You will see the immediate results in the output window on the right.

Sorry, I see a <div> and I assume the worst . While I'm perfectly comfortable with learning new software in general, some of the other members of my company are not so software adept and I am certain will have difficulties learning text based input - though this isn't quite a fault of the software itself to be plain. Alas, Calcpad will probably end up being something I play with on my own time unfortunately, not something I can convince my workplace to adopt.