Look far into your future and ask yourself, does this help me? In using Excel though, there is a way to design an engineering standard spreadsheet/tool that will far exceed MathCAD, your reader’s expectations and improve the productivity on the project. Whatever side of the line you find yourself, ask yourself is this the best tool for you, the checker, the reader or the project. If you can do that, many more engineers will be coming to your desk to ask you about your Excel experience, your spreadsheets and your opinions. The key is to understand the defaults, control the defaults, use visuals and show the numbers. In the drawing office though, nine times out of ten, the formula is basic A + B = C so using MathCAD like an abacus leaves me scratching my head. MathCAD is highly ‘user-aware’ and that is a credit.
With only 10 percent of Excel, it is incredible what is achievable in producing engineering standard calculations. It is a pity that Microsoft did not work hard enough to make it ‘engineer’ friendly but I am working on it. In a culture that welcomes 3D and complex analyses, MathCAD can add to the pending confusion of the structural engineer’s role.Įxcel is my recommendation, as a power tool for engineers. It is like using chainsaw to cut butter when a knife will do. These stories abound and always will but I believe MathCAD is a poor choice as a power tool for most plumber engineers. Using MathCAD, an engineer 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. I see a term used in an equation and I cannot find its definition, or value, 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. Checking MathCAD reports are dull and time-consuming and formulaic-driven. I can cut fourteen pages of MathCAD to one page in Excel. I do not need accuracy but sometimes I will revert to the scientist approach for the sticky bits, however I still prefer Excel over MathCAD any day. A long word for something many engineers overlook but need to know in Excel!
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That is only true if one knows how to use Excel to do just that use the concatenate formula. When I see the calculation I want to see the numbers at play that reassures me more than seeing the formula. Seeing the numbers I can check the units, the order of magnitude, and the relevance of the parameters. A plumber engineer approximates, uses experience, is practical and reasonable. A scientist engineer focuses on accuracy, details, formulae and precision between reality and calculations. There’s two kinds of engineers, the scientist and the plumber. If truth be told, in a profession where the only mathematical excitement may be an occasional square root as a practicing engineer, I haven’t yet found a power use for MathCAD. I must admit I would never use it to calculate the theoretical wind load to be applied to a piperack in StaadPro. The MathCAD software library is loaded with engineering examples so it seems a natural extension of oneself as an engineer.Īs an engineer, I have used MathCAD in pursuit of research, calculating free-convective heat transfer properties or the Boussinesq Bulb of Pressure. It might be that it adds value intrinsically to the experience, the engineers enjoys using it because it is supported by many examples. I understand some of the reasons, it may be something learned at university and the interest kept alive. One of the interesting habits I’ve seen along the way through my career is the abnormal attachment some structural engineers have for MathCAD.
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