I have just been involved in a discussion about the relative merits of Excel vs. Mathcad for engineers. Mathcad set out 5 advantages over Excel and I am afraid I contest them all. Excel is not the accountant’s tool Mathcad would have you believe – it is simply the most effective way for engineers to produce and distribute mathematical information.
| Advantage over Excel Clamed by Mathcad | Counter claim showing that Excel is a better for engineers than Mathcad. |
 Clarity of notation (readability) |
XLC produces mathematical equations automatically from cell formulas. |
| Clarity of dependencies (verification) |
Again XLC covers this one and what's better than Excel's formula auditing tools with its ability to trace precedents and trace dependents. |
| Unit analysis (error checking) |
This is generally trivial and easily handled by our XLC template. |
| Breadth of calculation tools (completeness) |
I have yet to find problem that Excel cannot readily solve. There is an abundance of add-ins for additional mathematical functions and a myriad solved problems that can be downloaded as Excel files from the ExcelCalcs Repository. |
| Engineering-appropriate graphs, image analysis, matrix analysis, and data support |
Excel charts are highly customisable and easy to use. Excel makes a fine job of matrix algebra and with regard to data support what's better than Excel? |
The main reason to use Excel is that everyone has it already so you can send it to anyone and it will be familiar and easily understood. Excel is the common currency for mathematical data for engineers. So if you are thinking about buying or upgrading Mathcad save yourself some money and sign up at www.ExcelCalcs.com where our XLC software will bring Mathcad functionality to the world’s favourite maths software, namely Excel.
ExcelCalcs Service Levels
- ExcelCalcs subscriptions: - Engineers can become more productive with a $90 XLC Pro subscription.
- ExcelCalcs Training: - Engineering is not easy but we can help make it easy by undertaking one of our training courses.
- ExcelCalcs Consultancy: - Going beyond Excel we offer finite element analysis using ANSYS and strain gauge testing services. We provide an efficient and cost effective service to develop your designs and assess equipment under extreme conditions. Review our case studies.
Contact ExcelCalcs by email or phone US +1 617 5008224 or EU +44 113 8152220.
Repository News
The community is as busy as ever producing new calculations and improving existing calculations. See the full list of recent calculations and the most recent additions since our last newsletter are shown below:
| Uploaded | Repository Folder, Calculation link, Author Details and Calculation Version History |
| 2011 Jul. 28 |  New!Juvinall's Fatigue Life Method.xls by JohnDoyle. |
| 2011 Jul. 28 |  New!AISC-LRFD HSS BRACING PUNCH PLATE CONNECTION by boobathi. |
| 2011 Jul. 28 |  UpdateMONORAIL.xls by ATomanovich. File version 2.0 view full version history. |
| 2011 Jul. 26 |  New!Line intersecting circle.xls by JohnDoyle. |
| 2011 Jul. 25 |  UpdateBored Piles For The Analysis of Layered Soil.xlsx by BABACAN. File version 1.3 view full version history. |
| 2011 Jul. 21 |  UpdateExcelFEM xlsb version (for Excel 2007 & Excel 2010) by BABACAN. File version 1.1 view full version history. |
