PTC Mathcad vs. TurboCAD

It is great for any manual calculation. You can lay it out as you would on paper, but the math is calculated instantly, similar to how it is in excel. It is superior to either method for most engineering calculations. Being able to copy-and-paste is very helpful for considering multiple scenarios. In some situations where you need to do the same calculation on an array of numbers, Excel is still faster.

Incentivized

TurboCAD is well suited to a smaller budget, it is by no means the best there is but for the money, it fills the gap. Being an AutoCAD & DraftSight user I find the user interface a little old and the lack of common drafting industry shortcut keys a bit of a hindrance. However this product, TurboCAD gets the job done, other packages like DraftSight do not even come with an active 3D option on the cheaper end, standard license whereas TurboCAD does, even though it's a little clumsy to use.

Incentivized

• Conversion of measurement units (Imperial and Metric)
• Easy to use for writing detailed engineering worksheets
• Formulas can be written in the expanded form which facilitates verification
• Spell Checker feature is life saver.

Incentivized

• Produces accurate drawings to scale, and with several ways to show the "views" to people in need of them at our factory.
• Relatively easy to use, once you understand the toolset. You can draw anything with it.
• Sending files to CNC machine shops to produce parts is easy with this program.
• Sending to mold making companies works out well. Just ask them what file format they want and TurboCAD can give it to them.

Incentivized

• Some of the math and text formatting aspects are a little cumbersome.
• Converting from older Matchcad versions to the newer Mathcad Prime platform could be made easier. It should be a direct import function.

Incentivized

• Some of the load times are lengthy is there a way to streamline this?
• Path Hatching and Object Trim could use a hot key
• More intuitive layer management system

Incentivized

Higher-order math, despite symbolics, become tedious and variable nomenclature isn't as forgiving as other programs. Due to it's sheet-like nature, the greater the complexity the more bothersome the screen usage becomes. But it's a trade-off between a sketchpad-like interface or lines and lines of code. Pick your poison but MathCad was our choice.

Incentivized

TurboCAD does all of the things we need it to do and some. The wide variety of options to create specificity in each of our projects is a large plus. The reason it was given a 9 is because the learning curve can be a little steep and sometimes certain processes are not as intuitive as they could be

Incentivized

MathCAD is easier to learn and faster to start with. It has more user-friendly interface and conventional style toolbox and GUI. It is really good for the beginners and those who are afraid of complex math.

Incentivized

3DS Max is the one I use the most, the other two are good choices also. They have more online tutorials for helping learn them.

Incentivized

• Speeds up calculations (especially when corrections need to be made near the beginning).
• Ability to re-use old calculations as a template can save significant time.
• You can use consistent formatting for all calculations, allowing for more organized, clear calculations.

Incentivized

• Ability to render quotes.
• Ability to supply complete drawings.
• Easy to use interface provides a faster design time window.

Incentivized