Item: PTC Mathcad
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MathCad is our department's engineering calculator. We have built a library of common equations to be solved for our products which we employ with the development of each and every new product we design. It is presently used only within our Engineering Team at our Design Center as it contains proprietary functions built on years of testing and experimentation.

Pros and Cons

MathCad has a relatively easy to learn and easy to use programming language.
It is easy to deploy and manage seats of MathCad.
Documentation and support are reasonably strong.

Since Prime, MathCad has improved its user interface. It still, however, lacks the visual qualities that could make it more efficient.
While able to integrate and pass values back to solid 3D models, this process isn't always reliable or easy.

Return on Investment

Positively, MathCad works extremely well as an easy-to-program engineering calculator for most basic equations.
The learning curve for someone new to math-based software isn't terribly steep. But custom functions and techniques are not intuitive.

Alternatives Considered

MATLAB

Unlike MATLAB, MathCad has an interface that resembles more like a sheet of paper rather than a line-by-line coding tool. This enables are more intuitive math building process. However, some may argue that debugging a complicated MathCad program takes more effort than something written in MATLAB as the lack of a linear progression of thought could be lost in the MathCad program. Yet, the use of symbolics makes MathCad the go-to choice for new users in our organization. In fact, legacy MATLAB programs have been re-written in MathCad for this very reason.

Likelihood to Recommend

MathCad is well-suited for the documentation and execution of engineering mathematics. However, as a program becomes more complex the coding structure decreases in efficiency and one may wish to write custom code using an established machine language. Scenarios where copious amounts of data need to be transferred in and out of MathCad also are less efficient than other means but better than, say, MS-Excel.

Usability

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.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to use Consistent Feel confident using	Slow to learn Lots to learn

Easy Tasks

Basic equations/functions
Interlinear documentation

Difficult Tasks

Matrices
Nested statement.

PTC MathCad- an engineering calculator playground

Overall Satisfaction with PTC Mathcad