Alternate Software

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

Has anyone had any experience with "Engineering Equation Solver"?

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I could use MATHCAD or MATLAB but I might as well use excel if I am going to use one of those. I have used EES for a couple of years now and the true power in it is being able to simultaneously solve systems of equations. For example, I could input 5 equations with 5 unknowns and it would solve for all 5 unknowns instantly without any manipulation to any of the equations. It could even simultaneously solve 100 equations with 100 unknowns!! I could pretty much input them as how they were written in a textbook or scientific paper without manipulation. If I was to do that in MATLAB, MATHCAD, or Excel, I would need to then waste a lot of time setting up a matrix to solve and you could imagine how time consuming that would be with 10+ equations/unknowns. EES is able to determine the variables that are unknown and its architecture automatically organizes the matrix and solves it. EES is also very powerful at combining this feature with being able to parametrically sweep design variables.

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Above is a statement from a person asking to have this software made available on his work computer. I don't recall seeing this software mentioned in the previous discussions.

[RichardJ]

I've never even heard of it. It looks interesting though.

Of course, the statement

I would need to then waste a lot of time setting up a matrix to solve and you could imagine how time consuming that would be with 10+ equations/unknowns

is not true when it come to Mathcad (although that would be one possible approach if the equations are linear), but maybe the setup in EES is even easier, or more flexible for differential equations. It says it handles integral equations too, which Mathcad doesn't (so they have to be converted to differential equations, which is possible, but a PITA).

Let us know what you find out

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

FWK: Can EES deal with units?

EES user:

Actually that’s a feature I really like with EES. It can deal with units and give you errors when something is wrong. For example, if you are trying to calculate Wats (Joules/seconds) and for some reason you do Joules/meters then it will give you an error and tell you where you messed up your units. Another example is if you are off by some conversion factor.

[StuartBruff]

In fact, it looked familiar and reminded me of some other software that I'd seen sometime in the past ... after a bit of inspiration I found it, TK Solver; it's still around and also does the solver bit (as you might guess from the name).

TK Solver 5.0 Premium (Standalone) from Universal Technical Systems

Stuart

[RichardJ]

I have heard of TK Solver, although I have never used it.

[HarveyHensley]

‌It looks to me like you have to supply your own conversion factors for each instance of a mismatch. In an unofficial tutorial by a professor, a result that was dimensionly consistent, but that had variables supplied in different units, the result retained all of the units. There was no cancellation or resolving of the units in the result. The professor added a conversion factor. I guess this means the program checks all terms in an eq. for net dimensional consistency but doesn't supply conversions or cancellation.

[StuartBruff]

I'd have to have a play with it, but at first sight it doesn't look significantly easier to use than Mathcad ... at least, not enough to warrant a change, given all the other things Mathcad can do. I downloaded the manual to have a quick skim and I haven't looked at any of the videos.

EES: Engineering Equation Solver | F-Chart Software : Engineering Software

Stuart

[AlanStevens]

Hmm. In the first example shown at the link given by Stuart, EES only seems to provide a single solution set to a set of non-linear equations. Mathcad provides two sets of solutions, as does the (free) Microsoft Mathematics 4 calculator (though this last is restricted to no more than 6 simultaneous equations).

Alan

[RichardJ]

What first example? Stuart's link is just to a generic page about EES.

[AlanStevens]

Sorry. I chose Entering and Solving Equations from that page. It takes you to a video with an example problem.

Alan

[RichardJ]

Thanks. I see. Somewhere on their web page, or in the documentation, or in a video, I noticed that it said EES solves numerically. I think if you don't enter a guess value it uses a default. I don't think it can do symbolic math, so the only way to get both solutions would be to play around with the guess values.

[AlanStevens]

Yes, the video in Guess Values and Residuals shows how it's done.

Alan