Mathcad Tips

Mathcad Contest Idea - January 2022 Plane Truss Mechanics Can you use Mathcad to solve this problem?   This comes from page 88 of “An Introduction to the Mechanics of Solids,” by Stephen H. Crandall, Norman C. Dahl, and Thomas J. Lardner. This was the text for the first mechanical engineering class (2.01 Mechanics) that I took my sophomore year at MIT way back in 1989. You can find the book for as little as $5 on Amazon. It shows three different solutions for the problem, including: closed-form solutions involving equilibrium of forces and the beam-deflection equation a computer program called IBM STRESS Castigliano’s theorem which solves via elastic energy. Any introductory mechanics text or a Schaum’s Outline should guide you to a solution. As with the other contests that will follow this one, the point is not the answer to the problem, but your execution of the solution. Some ideas you may consider including in your worksheet: Allowing the user to change the material via a Combo Box Input Controls. Depicting the results with a Chart Component, such as the truss in the deformed shape, or the deflection at D due to changing input loads. Making the problem more open-ended, such as using matrices and programming for different geometry and loading. Note that these are just ideas; I have not tried any of these. Maybe you can explore different approaches. The problem is simply a starting point. This is an excellent problem for a team to solve, especially for civil and mechanical engineering students. How would you tackle this problem in Mathcad?   Find the Mathcad Community Challenge Guidelines here!  

A Mathcad user for 25 years, Professor Valery (‘Val’) Ochkov takes to the mountains when not involved in developing training and educational software for fossil and nuclear power plants.  He’s shown below in the Chimbulak region of Kazakstahn.   Val has long been involved in the Mathcad community! See the photo of the “Mathcad Clock.”       This is from a post back in 2010!  Beyond answering questions, Valery is also known for using math equations to create designs and authoring Mathcad trivia challenges for other community members to participate in. Some of the more entertaining challenges might be the Hare and Snell’s law and the Problem of Cockroach Races.  The Bicycle Post where Valery quizzes the community on how to solve “How many strokes with a bicycle pump need to be done to inflate the tire to 5atm” also inspired engagement. When asked for hobbies that don’t involve hiking boots, Val assured us his hobbies really are writing books and articles about Mathcad.   He’s now deeply interested in using Mathcad for STEM education, the subject of his latest book, 2⁵ Problems for STEM Education 2 (2020). He says collaborations with community members were critical to developing the material.  Way to go Mathcad Community!  Keep Collaborating! Keep engaging and great things like a book is born!            

https://www.engineering.com/story/my-top-3-engineering-nightmares-expert-shares-the-truth-on-software-selection   Anji Seberino, the head of our PTC Mathcad Application Engineer team, recently took some time to interview with engineering.com about her top 3 engineering nightmares accumulated from her own experience as an engineer. From missing units to debugging custom code to trying to reverse engineer IP stored in crazy, inherited spreadsheets, you too have probably faced these issues in your time in the industry when not everyone is using the right software and processes.   Let us know what you think of the interview!

I'm sharing a recent long-form interview that PTC's CAD/engineering calculations general manager, Brian Thompson, had with engineering.com: https://www.engineering.com/story/video/for-power-mathematics-retire-the-spreadsheet Alongside with the video interview, there is also a written transcript. You don't have to share any of your own information to access it.   For Power Mathematics, Retire the Spreadsheet   Brian talked through a wide variety of topics, including why engineers and research scientists across many various industries choose PTC Mathcad and how those customers use it, the old and painful days of trying to perform complex calculations in spreadsheets, and some glimpses into the future of Mathcad.

Hi Mathcad community members,   For those of you who don't know me (some do), my name is Andrew McGough and I'm the product manager for Mathcad here at PTC. I have talked to some of you in the past individually, but I don't get to participate as much as I'd like on the community. I hope this announcement is the start of me being able to be more active here.   I would like to share with you that PTC is announcing the end-of-sale for the following versions of PTC Mathcad, effective December 31, 2021:   Mathcad 15  Mathcad Prime 1.0 – Prime 6.0     Effective January 1, 2022, the only version of PTC Mathcad available for subscription will be PTC Mathcad Prime 7 and future versions of PTC Mathcad Prime. After December 31, 2021, PTC will no longer have the right to sell or distribute software versions moving to end of sale due to a third-party component contained in those versions.    I appreciate the passion of our Mathcad userbase, so I would like to pass along some additional information on a helpful offer. If you currently have a subscription license and wish to continue using your current version of PTC Mathcad while you evaluate Mathcad Prime 7, we are offering a multi-year renewal option that will give you the ability to use your current version for up to four additional years. If you decide to take advantage of this offer, it is important to place the order prior to December 7, 2021 to ensure no issues in booking the order or the subscription start date. PTC may decline or be unable to process orders received after that date. Please contact your PTC account representative or PTC partner for more information.    Please bear in mind that the use of old versions of software does introduce implicit risk in areas of security, hardware, and software platform support.    PTC will continue to provide technical support access, phone assistance and expert input for versions of Mathcad that have reached end-of-sale. PTC will not be able to issue new licenses or provide access to software downloads for end-of-sale versions.    Our customers in English-speaking countries received the End-of-Sale announcement on February 17, 2021. Our global customers are receiving the localized communication now.    We have put together multiple resources for you to answer your questions. Please refer to our FAQ for more information. We know this is a big change so the Mathcad team will be monitoring this thread for feedback.   Best regards,  Andrew McGough,  Product Manager, PTC 

We received an email inquiry which I had forwarded to a Mathcad product manager. I thought it may be useful for others, too, so instead of just emailing the response to the customer, I am posting it here as well.   ------- We need to convert .mcd to .mcdx...We have Prime 6.0.0.0 What do we need and how much does the program cost to do this conversion. ------- The .mcdx file format is Mathcad Prime. The .mcd file format is for earlier versions of the legacy software, later versions of the legacy software use the .xmcd file format.   If this customer uses Mathcad Prime 6.0 there is a converter that comes with the software they can use to convert all .xmcd and most .mcd files to .mcdx - ‘most’ .mcd as we only go back as far as something like legacy Mathcad 7, which was late 90’s I think.   From the Input/Output tab in Mathcad Prime 6.0 they can find an ‘xmcd/mcd converter’ button - clicking that will open the converter. They will need the latest version of Mathcad 15.0 (M050) for that to work, and they can download that currently from the support software download site (Prime 7.0 converter does not need Mathcad 15.0 for the converter to work). -------- Hope this helps! For additional questions, don't hesitate to open a Support ticket!  

Are you making the most of your engineering calculation software? Join a free webcast exploring the fundamentals of data analysis. Presented by Anji Seberino, PTC’s leading Mathcad expert, the online event takes place Thursday, June 25 at 10 am PDT and 1 pm EDT.   REGISTER NOW!   Anji will focus the session on the basic principles of analyzing data in Mathcad. You’ll learn about Interpolating data Filtering data Fitting data to a curve   This webcast is part of the weekly education series for engineers who want to learn more about PTC Mathcad as a powerful alternative for engineering calculations. Visit the registration page to view weekly topics and sign up today to join in.  

Are you making the most of your engineering calculation software? REGISTER NOW for a free webcast that explores solving and optimization. Presented by Anji Seberino, PTC’s leading Mathcad expert, the online event takes place Thursday, June 18 at 10 am PDT and 1 pm EDT.   Anji will focus the session on solving linear and nonlinear systems. Plus, you’ll learn how to set up and solve optimization problems.   This webcast is part of the weekly education series for engineers who want to learn more about PTC Mathcad as a powerful alternative for engineering calculations. Visit the registration page to view weekly topics and sign up today to join in.   REGISTER NOW!  

Are you making the most of your engineering calculation software? Join a free webcast that explores using Mathcad and Excel Together. Presented by Anji Seberino, PTC’s leading Mathcad expert, the online event takes place Thursday, June 11 at 10 am PDT and 1 pm EDT.   Anji will focus the session on different methods for importing and interacting with Excel data in Mathcad. Plus, you’ll learn best practices for using Excel data in the following:   Calculations Plots Mathcad programs This webcast is part of the weekly education series for engineers who want to learn more about PTC Mathcad as a powerful alternative for engineering calculations. Visit the registration page to view weekly topics and sign up today to join in.  

Are you making the most of your engineering calculation software? Join us in a free webcast exploring symbolic calculations in PTC Mathcad. Presented by Anji Seberino, PTC’s leading Mathcad expert, the online event takes place Thursday, June 4 at 10 am PDT and 1 pm EDT. Seberino will focus the session on operations available through Mathcad’s symbolic calculation engine. Join in for an introduction to common and useful symbolic operations such as Symbolic solving Laplace transforms Variable substitution This webcast is part of the weekly education series for engineers who want to learn more about PTC Mathcad as a powerful alternative for engineering calculations. Visit the registration page to view weekly topics and sign up today to join in. Register Now!

There's more to this Easter egg than meets the eye.  This Easter Egg was created with a Mathcad Prime 6.0 Surface Plot, all within PTC Mathcad.   Download the attached Mathcad Prime file (EE.mcdx), manipulate the surface plot display, and see if you can find the hidden message.    h/t Anji Seberino!

Join us on January 22 nd , at 1:00 pm ET for PTC’s Virtual Event – Leverage Engineering Calculations in Your Design Process. This webcast will demonstrate how the correct handling and reliable documentation of engineering calculations can greatly impact the success of your project, as well as:   Discuss the challenges in leveraging engineering knowledge in your product design process. Take a deeper look at Mathcad’s capabilities and how it can help solve your engineering problems. Explore how the Engineering Notebook records critical product information in the model itself. Reserve your seat today!

Hi All – I want to announce a critical bug fix release of PTC Mathcad Prime 4.0. We recently discovered an issue where some password protected areas can become corrupted on save/open. This is an issue we feel important enough to fix in a maintenance release. We’ve investigated the issue, submitted and tested a fix and will be releasing PTC Mathcad Prime 4.0 M010 later today. Anyone using Prime 4.0 F000 should upgrade to Prime 4.0 M010 – we’ll be removing Prime 4.0 F000 from download to make sure only the fixed version is available.   We do our best to avoid situations like this but sometimes bugs happen and when they do, we assess them to understand the impact on users. If they’re critical issues, such as this one, we do our best to fix them as soon as possible.   Many thanks,   Andy.

Recently, we announced the availability of PTC Mathcad Prime 4.0. It’s the next step in the evolution of your favorite engineering notebook, with even more tools for precise calculations and straightforward documentation.Join us for a live webcast with Luke Westbrook, PTC Mathcad

Let’s say that you want to run a Mathcad Prime worksheet at a specific time of day without user intervention. For example you need to generate Excel reports overnight, do some computations with the extracted data, and have the files ready first thing in the morning. Using Windows

This video gives a quick demo on how to configure Mathcad Prime with floating license server.

This video gives a quick demo on how to configure Mathcad Prime with locked / Standalone license after receiving the license file via e-mail.  

This video gives a quick demo on how to convert legacy Mathcad files (.mcd, .xmcd) to Mathcad Prime format (.mcdx)

Calculating the trajectory of a baseball, with air resistance.

Relive the Magic with MathcadUse the attached worksheet to generate your own fireworks display in Mathcad.

This is the worksheet that corresponds with the blog post Painting Easter Eggs with PTC Mathcad.   Play around with it and paint your own Easter eggs. Be sure to show us what you create!