Hey folks, as promised, here is my second installment on the topic of Excel vs. Mathcad for engineering calculations. In my first post I talked about conceptual differences between the two products and kept the details light. In this installment I will put a finer point on the differentiations.
WHITEBOARD VS FORMULA BAR
Mathcad is a document that emulates an engineer’s notebook or whiteboard. Using natural math notation, engineers can enter and evaluate their equations the way they learned them, and document or publish them without any extra steps or formatting needed. This ensures that calculations are easy to share and easy to verify for correctness.
In order for an engineer to perform calculations in Excel, they need to learn a cryptic formula syntax, translate their calculations, and enter them in a single line textbox. This is not a mathematical format suitable for publishing or sharing, and it is extremely difficult to review for correctness.
DOCUMENTATION
Mathcad is a robust numerical and symbolic processor, but it is also a word processor with many features that users of Microsoft Word will be familiar with. Engineers can document their ideas, design intent, anything that is relevant, and then easily produce professional-looking documents. With features such as text blocks, paragraphs, bullets, vertical and horizontal alignment, headers/footers, font face/size/style/color selections, page layout, margins selection, letter sizes and more, Mathcad provides engineers a rich environment for creating amazing looking documents.
Of course, Excel is not a word processor. Excel has a tabular interface, making it a poor choice for documenting anything. Engineers who use Excel often rewrite their math in Word using an equation editor (which is for presentation only, it does not calculate). In this scenario the engineer does their math in Excel, rewrites it and documents it in Word. If they change their calculation or input parameters they need to go back to Excel and start the process all over again. This is an incredible waste of time for a highly skilled, highly paid engineer.
UNITS
A significant benefit of using Mathcad is its handling of units. Engineers work with units; they measure time, temperature, velocity, energy, mass, distance, force, pressure and more. Mathcad allows engineers to assign units to their variables and to convert between units simply by reassigning them. Balancing and converting between units is absolutely critical to engineering calculations and Mathcad makes this very simple.
Excel has no facility for units on the terms of the calculations. Since Excel 2007 there is a CONVERT function which can convert a subset of singular units, for instance you can convert miles to kilometers. So you can insert into a cell CONVERT ( Number, From_Unit, To_Unit ) . This is such a limited attempt to support units. It is only for singular units, no support for gravity (m/s^2) or torque or rpms. Excel forces engineers to create conversion ratios and plug these magic numbers into their calculations. These magic numbers are hard to unravel or verify.
CALCULUS
Mathcad has a rich set of calculus functions. Mathcad’s calculus set includes integrals, derivatives, limits, summations and products – all using natural math type and supported by a complete set of trigonometric, hyperbolic, log and graphing functions. Mathcad supports ordinary and partial differential equations as well. Mathcad does calculus numerically and symbolically.
Excel has no integrals, no derivatives, no limits, no differential equations. It is very good at summations due to its accounting roots.
SYMBOLICS
Along with a powerful numerical engine, Mathcad has a very powerful symbolics engine under the hood.
Engineers can use symbolic evaluation to evaluate expressions containing operators, including integrals, derivatives, matrix operations, most matrix functions, summations, and products. When engineers evaluate arithmetic expressions symbolically, results are returned in terms of the symbols or variables in the original expression.
Excel has no symbolic calculation ability.
CONCLUSION
Along with the afore mentioned areas of functionality Mathcad provides math capabilities for Optimization, Design of Experiments, support for solving systems of Linear and Non-linear equations and support for scientific visualization. Mathcad was purposely built for engineers. Excel was built for accountants.
i need to run a program, {(practical.load/n)<(theoretical load)} i need to satisfy this , i know the inputs for loads( practical & theoretical) , i need the value of "n" for which the condition satisfies ( n = whole numbers ) , all this must be in ms.excel…. can any one find solution????
I agree that using clearly readable/legible/understandable mathematical expressions is always the best course of action, but sometimes, one needs to work within constraints of budget, legacy work already done, colleagues’ familiarity with and access to certain software, etc.
I do not think the really useful, hardcore functions/capabilities of MathCAD are available for nearly as low a cost as is the case for MS Excel. I am using MS Excel (and sometimes the OpenOffice alternative, OO-Calc) combined with VBA (or OO Basic) scripting and named ranges for fairly complicated engineering related calculations and this has proven to be an acceptable compromise.
All that being said, loving mathematics, equations and their neat, consistent, reliable, re-usable “live” documentation, I fully agree that MathCAD cannot be beaten and the use thereof should possibly be promoted as a standard/best practice in design processes.
Just thought I would answer your question about WHY anyone would still be using MS Excel (or other spread sheets) …
I have heard this argument many times before. Some even believe MS-Excel is free! There is not a big difference between the cost of mathcad and the cost of MS-Excel. It is measured in hundreds of dollars. Now consider the cost of wasted engineering hours or the cost of engineering errors. Mathcad financially is the clear winner..
I have heard this arugment many times before. Some even believe MS-Excel is free! There is not a big difference between the cost of mathcad and the cost of MS-Excel. It is measured in hundreds of dollars. Now consider the cost of wasted engineering hours or the cost of engineering errors. Mathcad financially is the clear winner..
Companies always buy Office and the Excel is included. So why would they like to spend hundreds of dolloars more to buy another one?
sarsgod,
Please read this blog and the first installment as well. It will clearly explain that Mathcad is not “another one”. Meaning it is not Excel, it is a bigger, badder math tool. It will reduce your time and reduce your errors. And if you are using Excel, recent studies predict your Excel sheets have a 90% chance of containing errors. 90%, that has to give you cause to think .. hmm maybe, just maybe this guy is right. Try Mathcad free .. there is a full version of Mathcad, as a 30 day download and after 30 days it turns into Mathcad Prime Express .. our low end free version. Mathcad Prime Express is limited compare to full version but supports documention, units, arithmetic, algebra, trig etc.
Your missing the point. It is nearly impossible to make a point about ROI to a financier when all they see is the cost of the license. Excel (office) is licensed by the enterprise and is installed in all workstations, therefore I never need to worry about licensing (or having to individually license my multiple computers), upgrading, support,etc. MathCAD is always bought as individual seats and engineers are always on differing version. So there is an incessant need to upgrade (and reargue the usefulness of a design tool with an accountant again and again). 5.0 was my first personal version I bought, upgraded a couple of times (think the last time was 2006) and I can’t tell you how many versions I have used since the early days. We use MathCAD in design files internally and also makes them available as design collateral on our website (again versions are all over the map). MathCAD is a very useful and respected design tool in our engineering community but the lack of a viewer and the defeating licensing model prevents wide adoption across the enterprise. Seems (to me) PTC would want to take the initiative while it is in this position still to make itself indispensable to the design community before either an open-source solution overtakes it or an existing enterprise licensed application extends its capabilities to include live whiteboard math and makes it irrelevant. Can’t believe there is no alternative yet, must be too small of a market.
Micahel,
You’re making my point for me. Mathcad is the better product. I’m glad we are in agreement on that point.
Another point to make is that Mathcad does now have a free viewer. More than a viewer in fact, it does
arithmetic, algebra, trig and geometry calculations. Its called Mathcad Prime Express and its free.
John