where is the simulink for mathcad?

[anthonyQueen]

I notice the following:

• Mathcad had ten years ago Mathconnex. Great idea, but it was discontinued.

The M competitors:

• Matlab had Simulink, and it keeps growing.
• Maple had nothing and few years ago came up with Maplesim.
• Mathematica started to develop its own Modelica simulation add-on with v.8.

Comment:

I tried Vissim, but the integration with Mathcad is good in theory and bad in practice. It is done through OLE objects, which drives to errors, problems and idiosyncrasies of all sorts: and file corruption is always behind the corner, as I experienced. Not the most reliable technology, to put it blindly.

Question:

If one needs a front end workspace to put blocks of calculation (standard dynamic models with matrix, no specialized engineering fields) in visual form (wires, plots, "meters" display, etc.) what is the best solution that works with mathcad. If it is Vissim, what combination of versions work best? Any alternative or good practice to show the connection of main variables and key results dynamically?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

There used to be a link between Mathcad and LabView. While what you're asking would be a total waste of what LabView is intended for, they do have a huge selection of wires, meters, etc.

[anthonyQueen]

Hi Fred, thanks for the comment.

I do not have specialized needs, or I/O peripherals to monitor. I tried Labview more than 10 years ago on the mac. We were both in our early youth: and I liked it. Since then though it moved as a software to collect and organize external data, which is not what I am doing. In Mathcad I miss a way to visualize in a summary way, inputs and results using a page or so, with displayed the main connections of the math model.

I saw that in Mathcad there is insert/reference. It could be used to exploit modular work and then organize a summary page. But a program like Vissim if it was working nicely with a reference to .mcd files (and not with OLE embeddings) would be really great with nested blocks, and similar amenities.

But probably I am alone to be annoyed in going up and down a worksheet in search of relevant inputs and outputs. For this reason I think it has been a pity the stop given to Mathconnex. Never tried it. Is this info true?

There even is an adapted MathConnex version, regarding Mathcad11.

Source: http://communities.ptc.com/message/83983#83983

[VladimirN]

Plugin for PTC Mathcad/LabVIEW integration can be found here: http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/forms/index.jsp?&im_dbkey=63485&icg_dbkey=482

[anthonyQueen]

thanks VladimirN. for the link.

There are two drawbacks in my case in using it.

1. It needs at least Mathcad v.13. I try to avoid in WinXP FrameNet versions: and I am happy with Mathcad v. 11.2. Probably with this version the link does not work.
2. Labview has become a mammouth application, geared towards I/O measurement. It takes 5GB and up of HD space. A bit too much for a front hand interface, as I will use it. I would have like a Labview Express version: Vissim for instance in its basic version takes 20Mb or so.

Thanks anyway for the link. I guess that people here are able to use Mathcad also to summarize and present dynamic results. Even in those cases when the worksheets are complex and long. They probably use Area collapses and File References, better than I do. I still believe that a flowchart add-on would be helpful, to present dynamic results and organize formulas.

[StuartBruff]

There are several ways in which the Mathcad interface could be improved, but, unfortunately, I don't think PTC have taken up the spirit of Mathcad and I don't see any indication that it caters particularly well for the "tablet" paradigm.

One way to improve organization might be to have Rectangular Areas (rather than the document-wide version we have at the moment), particularly if each Area could also have inputs & output and also allow other worksheets to be seamlessly dropped into a worksheeet as such Areas.

In addtion, it would be nice to able to put a graphic flow component that allows the user to select the execution order rather go with the default left-right top-bottom order.

A partial solution to your particular problem might be to have multiple windows onto a single worksheet or to have "detachable" Areas, Controls or Regions (this last would be neat ...you could, say, just drag an input or evaluation off the worksheet and have it display somewhere else, then arrange the 'inputs' and 'outputs' where you want, with the worksheet retaining knowledge of their screen position, perhaps with an option to snap them back to the worksheet if they get 'lost' or somebody wants to print/publish the worksheet .... or perhaps even being able to dumping them onto another worksheet or Word document with a link to the source document ....

Most of the above are the subject of long-standing feature requests.

Stuart

[RichardJ]

One way to improve organization might be to have Rectangular Areas (rather than the document-wide version we have at the moment), particularly if each Area could also have inputs & output and also allow other worksheets to be seamlessly dropped into a worksheeet as such Areas.

I brought this idea up at a TC meeting, and PTC was quite receptive. I don't know what that means for the future, but at least it's on the table

Of course, MDAs have beem on the table for a very long time

[ValeryOchkov]

Where is the simulink for Mathcad?

We can ask in future

[anthonyQueen]

Thanks Stuart (and Valery).

Your suggestions seem interesting, though I am not sure to have fully grasped all of them.

Here a link with the add-on for no FrameNet Mathcad versions to communicate with Labview. Not tested (yet!): if one did, please report.

FORUM: http://sine.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/4348

FILE: http://ftp.ni.com/pub/devzone/epd/mathcad.zip

About features for the future, a basic block interface-Vissim like and Stuart's suggestions (all interesting) would be nice. I would also add a tolbar list of used variables in the worksheet (like now in Maple) and possibly an history frame, like in Matlab.