Mathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations. First introduced in 1986 on
DOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computations. Mathcad today includes some of the capabilities of a
computer algebra systemA computer algebra system is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. The core functionality of a CAS is manipulation of mathematical expressions in symbolic form.-Symbolic manipulations:...
but remains oriented towards ease of use and numerical engineering applications.
Overview
Mathcad,
Parametric Technology CorporationParametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
's engineering calculation solution, is used by engineers and scientists in various disciplines – most often those of mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering. Originally conceived and written by Allen Razdow (of
MITThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
), co-founder of
MathsoftMathSoft was founded in 1984 by Allen Razdow and David Blohm to provide mathematical programs to students, teachers, and professionals. The company became most famous for its Mathcad software, a powerful application for solving and visualizing mathematical problems...
), Mathcad is now owned by
PTCPTC may refer to:In education:* Pilot Training College, a JAR Flight Training Organisation fully approved for commercial pilot training....
and is generally accepted as the first computer application to automatically compute and check consistency of engineering units such as the
International System of UnitsThe International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
(SI), throughout the entire set of calculatons. Mathcad today includes some of the capabilities of a
computer algebra systemA computer algebra system is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. The core functionality of a CAS is manipulation of mathematical expressions in symbolic form.-Symbolic manipulations:...
, but remains oriented towards ease of use and simultaneous documentation of numerical engineering applications.
Mathcad is oriented around a worksheet, in which equations and expressions are created and manipulated in the same graphical format as which they are presented (
WYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
) - as opposed to authoring in plain text, an approach later adopted by other systems such as
MathematicaMathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
and
MapleMaple is a general-purpose commercial computer algebra system. It was first developed in 1980 by the Symbolic Computation Group at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada....
.
Mathcad is part of a broader product development system developed by PTC, and often utilized for the many analytical touch points within the systems engineering processes. It integrates with PTC’s other solutions that aid product development, including Creo Elements/Pro, Windchill, and Creo Elements/View. Its live feature-level integration with Creo Elements/Pro enables Mathcad analytical models to be directly used in driving CAD geometry, and its structural awareness within Windchill allows live calculations to be re-used and re-applied toward multiple design models.
Summary of Capabilities
The Mathcad interface allows users to combine a variety of different elements (mathematics, descriptive text, and supporting imagery) into the form of a worksheet, which is naturally readable. Because the mathematics are core to the program, the math is inherently live, dynamically recalculating as value upstream are altered. This allows for simple manipulation of input variables, assumptions, and expressions, which in turn update in real-time. The examples below serve to outline the scope of Mathcad’s capabilities, rather than to give specific details on the individual product functionality.
- Utilize numerous numeric functions
In mathematics, a function associates one quantity, the argument of the function, also known as the input, with another quantity, the value of the function, also known as the output. A function assigns exactly one output to each input. The argument and the value may be real numbers, but they can...
, across examples such as statistics, data analysis, image processing, and signal processing
- Automatically manage units
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
throughout the worksheet, preventing improper operations and performing automatic unit-reduction
- Solve systems of equations, such as ODEs
In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation is a relation that contains functions of only one independent variable, and one or more of their derivatives with respect to that variable....
and PDEsIn mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables...
through the use of several methods
- Find roots of polynomials and functions
- Calculate and manipulate expressions symbolically, including within systems of equations
- Create parametric 2D and 3D plot
A plot is a graphical technique for representing a data set, usually as a graph showing the relationship between two or more variables. The plot can be drawn by hand or by a mechanical or electronic plotter. Graphs are a visual representation of the relationship between variables, very useful for...
types, as well as discrete data plots
- Leverage standard, readable mathematical expressions
In mathematics, an expression is a finite combination of symbols that is well-formed according to rules that depend on the context. Symbols can designate numbers , variables, operations, functions, and other mathematical symbols, as well as punctuation, symbols of grouping, and other syntactic...
within embedded program constructs
- Perform vector and matrix
In mathematics, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions. The individual items in a matrix are called its elements or entries. An example of a matrix with six elements isMatrices of the same size can be added or subtracted element by element...
operations, including eigenvalues and eigenvectors
- Perform curve fitting
Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to constraints. Curve fitting can involve either interpolation, where an exact fit to the data is required, or smoothing, in which a "smooth" function...
and regression analysisIn statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables...
on experimental datasets
- Utilize statistical and Design of Experiments
In general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
functions and plot types, and evaluate probability distributions
- Import from, and export to, other applications and file types, such as Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
and MathMLMathematical Markup Language is an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide Web pages and other documents...
.
- Include references to other Mathcad worksheets to re-use common engineering methods
- Integrate with other engineering applications, such as CAD, FEM
The finite element method is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions of partial differential equations as well as integral equations...
, BIMBuilding information modeling is the process of generating and managing building data during its life cycle.BIM involves representing a design as objects – vague and undefined, generic or product-specific, solid shapes or void-space oriented , that carry their geometry, relations and attributes...
,and SimulationSimulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
tools, to aid in product design, like AutocadAutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design and drafting in both 2D and 3D. It is developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. First released in December 1982, AutoCAD was one of the first CAD programs to run on personal computers, notably the IBM PC...
, Ansys, RevitAutodesk Revit Architecture often referred to as simply Revit is a Building Information Modeling software developed by Autodesk. It allows the user to design with both parametric 3D modeling and 2D drafting elements...
Although Mathcad is mostly oriented to non-programming users, it is also used in more complex projects to visualize results of mathematical modeling by using distributed computing and coupling with programs written using more traditional languages such as C++.
Current Releases
As of April 22, 2011, there are two actively maintained Mathcad releases available to consumers:
- Mathcad 15.0 was originally released in June, 2010. Its first maintenance release was released in November, 2010. Mathcad 15.0 is the next progressive release of the traditional product line, sharing the same worksheet file structure and extension as its predecessor, Mathcad 14.0.
- Mathcad Prime 1.0, PTC’s latest generation product, was introduced in January, 2011. According to PTC, this product intends to deliver more functionality with each progressive annual release, until the Mathcad 15.0 maintenance releases can stop in favor of moving forward with a single, scalable, and functionally-equivalent application. The Mathcad Prime 1.0 interface is more graphically interactive, and has adopted Microsoft’s Fluent User Interface as an approach to task-based organization of the different elements of worksheet creation and interaction.
Computer Operating System Platforms
Mathcad is currently a Windows-only application. Current releases of Mathcad 15.0 and Mathcad Prime 1.0 are supported on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of
Windows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
,
Windows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, and Windows 7. Currently releases are 32-bit applications only, however.
While users do utilize emulation to establish other platform operability, Mathcad’s last officially-supported, natively-installed Mac OS release was on January 8, 1998. This version can still be run on Macintosh computers that support the Mac OS X Classic Environment or
SheepShaverSheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator originally designed for BeOS and Linux. The name is a play on ShapeShifter, a Macintosh II emulator for AmigaOS , which is in turn not to be confused with a third-party preference pane for Mac OS X with the same name...
.
Support
After
PTCParametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
’s purchase of Mathcad in 2006, changes were made to the Mathcad support policy. That change specified non-maintenance bearing licenses were no longer able to receive updates, including bug fixes, without purchasing a maintenance contract. Though disagreeable by some long-time, pre-PTC-acquisition customers, this is PTC’s standard policy for all its other products. The price of a Mathcad maintenance contract for an individual is roughly half the cost of a single-user license upgrade at the time of a major Mathcad release, and grants the user the right to receive major releases in addition to bug fixes, access to engineering content, technical support, self-service license transferring tools, and more.
The Mathcad Business Unit within PTC recently updated their support policy. For Mathcad 15.0 and future versions of Mathcad, the first year of maintenance entitlements and support will be included in the purchase or upgrade price.
See also
- Comparison of computer algebra systems
- Comparison of numerical analysis software
The following tables provide a comparison of numerical analysis software.- General :- Operating system support :The operating systems the software can run on natively .- Language features :Colors indicate features available as...
- PTC:Creo
Creo is a family or suite of design software supporting product design for discrete manufacturers and is developed by PTC. The suite consists of , each delivering a distinct set of capabilities for a user role within product development....
- PTC:Windchill
External links