Type equation = Show values before = Answer

[BB_14100646]

If I type the equation using variables, Is there a way to get MathCAD to automatically show the values in the equation before it calculates the answer?

For example, I set the variables...

A:=4

B:=3

...then I type the equation...

C:=A+B=

...then MathCAD automatically adds "4+3=7" so it looks like...?

C:=A+B=4+3=7

...Then if I change the variables...

A:=23

B:=45

...MathCAD automatically updates...?

C:=A+B=23+45=68

[DJNewman · Accepted solution]

Closest that I can get uses the symbolic keyword explicit.

Read more: https://support.ptc.com/help/mathcad/r11.0/en/index.html#page/PTC_Mathcad_Help/example_displaying_explicit_values.html#

https://support.ptc.com/help/mathcad/r11.0/en/index.html#page/PTC_Mathcad_Help/example_explicit_calculation.html# 

[Werner_E]

As @DJNewman  already said you would have to use symbolic evaluation with "excplicit". Instead of mentioning each variable separately you may also just use "explicit, ALL".

Unfortunately the arrow and the keywords showing does not look nice in a report.

In legacy Mathcad (Mathcad 15 and below) we had the option to hide the keywords and show an equal sign instead of the arrow.

So instead of

we could make it look like

I vaguely remember having  read here that implementing a similar feature is in the queue for Prime, too. Not sure, though.

[BB_14100646]

I'm very new to MathCAD, so once I discovered "explicit" can be found at "Math > Operators and Symbols > Symbolic > Keywords," it worked great! Thank you!

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

Another thing for the "bring it up to what the old version used to do" file:

  Used to be able to right click on the expression and change the arrow from the symbolic evaluation to an equal sign AND hide the symbolic expression., to get almost exactly what's being asked for!

[SPaulis]

<rant>

@BB_14100646 you are giving us a simple one.  Show us a doozie where the formula runs off the screen and into the next state! 

As an engineer, I really wish that PTC would open up a building code book and look at the sample calculations in there.  They will always find the equation written out, then a line with the substitutions, then possibly a step pausing right before the addition/subtraction of terms, then the answer.  

They don't just do this for fun—there is a 'flow' to the way calculations are presented..  It's not just for the engineer but the reviewer as well.  Especially in documents where you define certain variables pages before, or if you reuse variables.  And pausing before the final addition of terms allows the engineer and reviewer to see the controlling or minor components that make up the final value. 

Yes, we can do all this the long way, but we should not have to conform to PTC, but PTC should conform to the industries that they are marketing to.    Do a word count for "engineering" on the Mathcad homepage.  PTC would serve the industry well if they can facilitate engineering calculations to be simple and have a good flow.   

I know they will get there, they need to sit through our complaints first 😉

<\rant>

[StuartBruff]

Welcome to the club.  I've suggested on several occasions over the decades that somebody at PTC (and before that, Mathsoft, Mathcad's original creators)  should try to prepare a paper suitable for publication in, say, Proceedings of the IEEE or Nature, and gain some insight into what features would be helpful to someone wishing to write such papers.

Mathcad has (had) the potential to be a through-life mathematical development tool that would take a maths-based engineering idea from back-of-the-beer mat stage, through preliminary development, testing, and formal publication.  But I do not think that PTC have any such ambitions for Mathcad Prime or even the one you describe.  I don't actually know what PTC see Mathcad as becoming or when.   There is a roadmap (up to about Mathcad Prime 13), which includes some useful capabilities, but not as many as I would have liked to see.

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Mathcad/Mathcad-Prime-Roadmap-Future/td-p/1010018

Stuart