One of the interesting habits I've seen along the way through my career is the abnormal attachment some structural engineers have for MathCAD. I understand some of the reasons, it may be something learned at university and the interest kept alive. It might be that it adds value intrinsically to the experience, the engineers enjoys using it even though it is not appropriate. The software is loaded with engineering examples so it seems a natural extension of oneself as an engineer.
As an engineer, I have used MathCAD in pursuit of research; calculating free-convective heat transfer properties. I must admit I would never use it to calculate the theoretical wind load to be applied to a piperack in STAADDpro.
There's two kinds of engineers, the scientist and the plumber. A scientist engineer focuses on accuracy, details, formulae and precision between reality and calculations. A plumber engineer approximates, uses experience, is practical and reasonable.
I am the 'plumber' engineer. I do not need accuracy but sometimes I will revert to the scientist approach for the sticky bits. but I still prefer Excel over MathCAD any day. I can reduce fourteen pages of MatchCAD to one page in Excel. Checking MathCAD reports are dull and time-consuming and formulaic-driven. I see a term used in an equation and I cannot find its definition without flipping back through pages and searching......sigh....and I don't know what the value is, is it critical I will ask? The engineer shrugs.
Using MAthCAD someone calculates the wind load on a beam is 0.854 kN/m and 0.923 kN/m on a column; I might just apply 1 kN/m everywhere, is that wrong? We have onerous load factors as well because we are so uncertain! I have seen engineers spend a few days developing the little routines to calculate the wind load precisely....when it can be figured in two minutes. These stories abound and always will but I believe MathCAD is a poor choice as a power tool for plumber engineers.
In a culture that welcomes 3D and complex analyses, MathCAD can add to the pending confusion of the structural engineers role.
Excel is my recommendation, as a power tool for engineers. It is a pity that Microsoft did not work hard enough to make it 'plumber' friendly but I am working on it. With only 10 percent of Excel, it is incredible what can be achieved in producing engineering standard calculations.
The key is to understand the defaults, control the defaults, use visuals and show the numbers. If you can do that, many more engineers will be coming to your desk to to ask you about your Excel experience, your spreadsheets and your opinions.
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9 comments:
hi I am lecturer in Engineering college Belgaum karnataka...I want2 know more about both excel and word for civil engineers..Thanx for the work u have done.
I plan to spend more time discussing the issues facing civil/structural engineers, in almost all corners of the globe. It boils down to word and excel and the fantastic opportunity it can give them.
I worked as lead engineer on three workshare ventures with indian offices and on every occasion against impossible odds, we busted the deadlines, produced great work and they went on to secure better projects and became better engineers in their own eyes.It started with changing their attitudes to word and excel and using this to train and grow their skills. For once, the indian team were performing way better than the head office. I dealt with and trained more than forty engineers.
This is a niche opportunity for universities to capitalise, practical and powerful. My third book deals with VBA excel and how this should be taught in universities.
I have just been looking at the counter argument written by Mathcad and I have to say I am unconvinced by their argument.
They present five advantages of Mathcad over Excel and I am afraid I contest the all.
1) Clarity of notation (readability) – I run a website called www.ExcelCalcs.com which distributes an addin called XLC which produces mathematical equations from cell formula.
2) Clarity of dependencies (verification) – again XLC covers this one.
3) Unit analysis (error checking) – I’ll give them this one but when was the last time you added 5 seconds to 10 feet and expected to get a meaningful answer?
4) Breadth of calculation tools (completeness) – I have yet to find problem that Excel cannot readily solve. There is an abundance of add-ins for additional mathematical functions and myriad free solved problems that can be downloaded as Excel files.
5) Engineering-appropriate graphs, image analysis, matrix analysis, and data support – the charts in Excel could be better but it does a fine of matrix alegra and with regard to data support what software cannot read an excel spreadsheet (databases, CAD software and even Mathcad) .
The main reason to use Excel is that everyone has it already so you can send it to anyone and it will be familiar and easily understood. Excel is the common currency for mathematical data read by accountants, marketers, students and engineers. The ubiquitous use of excel is the main reason we should use it.
Sorry I meant to leave a link to www.excelcalcs.com. It aims to helping you make and share calculations with MS Excel. Install XLC and your worksheets will read like text books, they'll be easy to understand and easy to check. Download template Excel solutions from our Repository of solved engineering and maths problems.
John,
thanks for the link and the article. I am wondering if MathCAD is an american trait. It is endemic here in Canada and USA but I find the rest of the world is mostly Excel, or have I got that wrong?
I don’t think MathCAD is an American/Canadian trait – it is as popular in Europe as it is in America but I do not think it is the predominant calculation tool either side of the Atlantic. Engineers use what is available to them and more likely to be Excel than MathCAD. This is why I developed the ExcelCalcs website to give Excel user the benefits of MathCAD-like functionality.
In my mind, the Mathcadists has membership to the flat-earth society!
I recall reading somewhere;
Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating.
I believe in engineering and art, yet I subscribe to the accountant mould, see the numbers.
Others believe in calculating purely, yet subscribe to the scientist mould, see the formulae.
There are two types for sure.
Robert I have just completed a survey of calculation tools at the ExcelCalcs site. I think you'll find the results interesting. It reinforces my suspicion that most engineers use Excel to perform calculations (69.3% in fact). It was surprising to find that more people use pen, paper and calculator than use Mathcad (13.1% and 11.4%). Very few users use Mathematical, Maple or custom programming but maybe we don't need all that maths power (I tend to use free utilities like SageMath Note Book when I have the occasional requirement for algebraic manipulations of formulae). Some 86% of users make calculations regularly and 50% make calculations everyday. only 14% make calculations occasionally. I find the results very interesting because it shows that even if you make calculations everyday you are more likely to use Excel than Mathcad and I guess what we do at ExcelCalcs is bring Mathcad functionality to Excel.
John,
sorry it has taken me so long to reply, I have been stuck in the boondocks without internet access for too long! That was a trial by fire, how I missed it!
Thanks for sharing your survey results with us.
On one level they are remarkably similar to my own suspicions but I do wonder what the results would look like from a mathcadist site for engineers.
I worked in one place recently where I felt Mathcad use was endemic and paranormally too high!
There are pockets out there.
What you do is a great service to engineering and I highly recommend engineers to go and browse the ExcelCalcs site.
What I do is try to prime engineers so they know how to get started and have some measure of confidence in achieving a level of quality in their calculations and spreadhseets that benefit themselves and everybody else. When you are finished with seeing what I do you know how to look for and understand, the infomation from other sites, with a critical eye.
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