Essential PTC® Mathcad Prime® 3.0

A Guide for New and Current Users

Brent Maxfield

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780124104105
• eBook ISBN: 9780124104587
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Engineering
• Index: Computer Science

Learn how to use PTC® Mathcad Prime® 3.0, one of the world's leading tools for technical computing, in the context of engineering, science, and math applications. Quickly harness the power of PTC Mathcad Prime 3.0 to solve both simple and complex problems. Essential PTC® Mathcad Prime® 3.0 is perfect for college students, first-time users, and experienced Mathcad 15 users who are moving to PTC Mathcad Prime 3.0.Updated from Maxfield's popular Essential Mathcad, this book introduces the most powerful functions and features of the new PTC Mathcad Prime 3.0 software and teaches how to apply them to create comprehensive calculations for any quantitative subject. Examples from several fields demonstrate the power and utility of PTC Mathcad's tools while also demonstrating how users can eff ectively incorporate Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets into the software.- Learn the basics faster: Chapter 1 introduces many fundamentals of Mathcad, allowing the reader to begin using the program in less time.- Learn PTC Mathcad tools in context: Incorporates many applied examples and problems from a widevariety of disciplines.- Thorough discussion of many PTC Mathcad tools: Units, arrays, plotting, solving, symbolic calculations, programming, algebra, calculus, differential equations, reading from files, writing to files, and incorporating MS Excel spreadsheets.- Includes a link to PTC with instructions on how to purchase the PTC® Mathcad Prime® 3.0 Student Edition (The Student Edition software is intended for educational purposes only.)

Part I

Building Your PTC Mathcad Toolbox

Outline

Introduction

Chapter 1 An Introduction to PTC^® Mathcad Prime^® 3.0

Chapter 2 PTC^® Mathcad Prime^® 3.0 for Current Mathcad 15 Users

Chapter 3 Variables and Regions

Chapter 4 Simple Functions

Chapter 5 Units!

Introduction

Your PTC Mathcad tools are stored in your PTC Mathcad toolbox. Your PTC Mathcad toolbox is the place where you will store your PTC Mathcad skills, which will be discussed in Parts II and III. You first build your PTC Mathcad toolbox by learning about the basics of the PTC Mathcad program and the PTC Mathcad worksheet. The chapters in Part I teach about variables, expression editing, user-defined functions, and units. These chapters create a foundation upon which to build. They create your PTC Mathcad Toolbox.

Chapter 1

An Introduction to PTC^® Mathcad Prime^® 3.0

Abstract

The intent of this chapter was to get you up and running with PTC Mathcad by introducing key PTC Mathcad features. It is also intended to whet your appetite for the information covered in future chapters. The best way to gain an understanding of the concepts introduced in this chapter is to practice. If you have not done so already, open the PTC Mathcad Tutorials and go through the tutorials mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.

Keywords

PTC Mathcad programming; variable; simple expression; grouping; editing; equal signs; regions; functions; units; arrays; subscripts; plotting

If you are a current Mathcad 15 user, glance quickly through this chapter to learn about some of the new features of PTC^® Mathcad Prime^® 3.0. Much of it will be review, but there are things to be learned. Chapter 2 will contain a much more in-depth review of PTC Mathcad Prime for current Mathcad 15 users.

This chapter is intended to quickly teach you some fundamental PTC Mathcad concepts; we will only touch the surface. In later chapters, we will get into more depth, and build on the concepts covered in this chapter. This chapter also teaches techniques to create and edit PTC Mathcad expressions.

Chapter 1 will:

• Show how to do simple math in PTC Mathcad.

• Teach how to assign and display variables.

• Explain how to create and edit math expressions.

• Demonstrate the grouping highlight for editing expressions.

• Discuss the use of operators.

• Briefly discuss the PTC Mathcad ribbon tabs.

• Introduce and define math and text regions.

• Introduce built-in and user-defined functions.

• Introduce units.

• Introduce arrays and subscripts.

• Discuss the variable ORIGIN.

• Describe the difference between literal and array subscripts.

• Introduce range variables.

• Introduce X-Y plots.

• Encourage completing several PTC Mathcad Tutorials.

Before You Begin

If you don't already have PTC Mathcad installed on your computer, take a few minutes to download and install it. This will allow you to follow along and practice the concepts discussed in this book. It will also give you access to the PTC Mathcad Help and the Getting Started ribbon, which includes some PTC Mathcad Tutorials.

Essential PTC Mathcad Prime 3.0 is based on the U.S. version of PTC Mathcad Prime 3.0. It is also based on the U.S. keyboard. There may be slight differences in PTC Mathcad versions sold outside of the United States.

It is suggested that you read and do the exercises in the PTC Mathcad Tutorial before or just after reading this chapter. You can open the PTC Mathcad Tutorial from the Getting Started tab in the Get Help in PTC Mathcad group (Getting Started>Get Help in PTC Mathcad>Tutorial). This opens the Tutorials in the PTC Mathcad Help Center. In this window you will see a list of PTC Mathcad exercises. You may choose to do them all, but for the purpose of this chapter, focus on the following topics: Entering and Evaluating an Expression, Editing an Equation, Defining and Evaluating Variables, Ordering Regions and Applying Labels, and Defining and Evaluating Functions. This chapter cannot replace the experience gained by completing the PTC Mathcad Tutorials.

If the Getting Started tab does not appear on your Ribbon Bar, click the round

button in the upper left of the PTC Mathcad window, select Options, and then select the Options tab at the bottom of the dialog box. If the Enable Getting Started Tab does not have a check, click the box to enable it.

PTC Mathcad Basics

Whenever you open PTC Mathcad, a blank worksheet appears. You can liken this work...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: Building Your PTC Mathcad Toolbox
• Part II: Hand Tools for Your PTC Mathcad Toolbox
• Part III: Power Tools for Your PTC Mathcad Toolbox
• Part IV: Creating and Organizing Your Engineering Calculations with PTC Mathcad
• Appendix 1. PTC® Mathcad Prime® 3.0 Keyboard Shortcuts
• Appendix 2. Keyboard Shortcuts for Editing and Worksheet Management
• Appendix 3. Greek Letters
• Appendix 4. Built-In Constants and Variables
• Appendix 5. Reference Tables
• Index