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SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software
5

SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

(OP)

I came across what appears to be a very promising mathematics software application, especially for engineers: SMath Studio. This is a symbolic mathematics package with a WYSIWYG workpad interface similar to MathCAD, which I really like. The software appears to be in the development stages, but has been stable for me. Try it out and - if you like it - please let the developers know you appreciate it!

http://en.smath.info

 

tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation
http://hhwq.blogspot.com

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

It's good, though I've found a little bug already. Once it has units and subscripts then I can see it being the program of choice for most.

corus

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Interesting.  

Get this message from workplace firewall.

The link you are accessing has been blocked by the Barracuda Web Filter because it contains content belonging to the category of: Spyware
 

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

2
Yes, the firewall where I work didn't like it either. However, my system remains spyware free, according to S&D.

It seems to handle exponentiation overflows rather too gracefully, leastways it had no problem reporting an answer for the factorial of 200.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Quote:

It seems to handle exponentiation overflows rather too gracefully, leastways it had no problem reporting an answer for the factorial of 200.

Greg - I was just about to say that it seems to give the correct result for exp(200), then I read what you actualy said.

For 200! I get "Result is above max allowed positive number"

(version 0.82, build 3477)

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/
 

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

I ran the for loop example, eg with the counter set to 173
a:=1
for i:1,i<173,i:=i+1
a:=a*i

a=


gives a remarkably small answer

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

I'm excited to have a possible alternative to MathCad, which I have two complaints about (1) it loads and saves very slowly and (2) support stinks.  Right now I either write my own programs in VB or use MathCad.  I'm going to give SMath a real chance to impress me.  The printed output appearance is critical for me, so that is one place I'll go first.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

I've suggested they set up a wiki to handle the support issues.

The bad news is that for anything iterated it is very slow - a 32 element DFT is more than 2 hours of processing (admittedly not necessarily via an efficient algorithm, but Mathcad solves the same problem with the same approach , for 1024 elements, in about 10 seconds). DFT is an n^2 problem in this approach.

 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Greg,

how are you writting your example

"a:=1
 for i:1,i<173,i:=i+1
 a:=a*i"

in Mathcad?

I'm sure it's a stupid question, but I'm not able to "programm" that "for" loop in that form (and at all)...

Thanks in advance.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

the DFT example is not the same as the factorial one. My old copy of Mathcad doesn't have programming, I'd just use

i:2;173

x[1:1

x[i:x[(i-1)*i

for the factorial example.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Thanks a lot, Greg!
I have a new copy of MathCad, but I still don't know how to use the "for" loop in this case...
I've made it "the old way", like you described, but... shame on me, I still have to practice MathCad...

 

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Do you have a domain in which you could start your own wiki?

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Nice yellow button now.  Time for me to actually download, install, and play with this guy.  With the past difficulty I had getting MathCAD licensed after I upgraded my computer, I'm still looking at switching.

Originally I was thinking some form of Mathematica, but now I have options!

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

The big hint is use :eval() inside loops, this forces it to store each variable as a partial fraction instead of an algebraic representation.

The symbolic stuff is better than nothing but way short of Mathcad. The current plan is to use it as a front end to Maxima for symbolics (which rather begs the question why he didn't just use it as a front end to Octave for the matrix stuff?).



 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Greg, I'm hoping you add to the Wiki real soon.  One thing this is missing are some intro tutorials.  I like the examples and knowledge book, though.

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

I have never used any type of math programs before. I have depended on using Excel spreadsheets.

Is this program a good place to start?

Or is there any good reason why I should start using this type of software instead of Excel? The macros (VBA) that I use in Excel are only very simple ones. Otherwise, I seem to do alright with the functions in Excel.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

It reallt depends on what you want to do.  For me, Mathcad is indispensable, since it does unit conversions on the fly, which neither Excel nor SMath can currently do.

Additionally, SMath, and Mathcad, allow you to define variables, so your calculations can be somewhat self-documenting, so that returning to a calculation 6 months later, you can still read it and figure out what you did.

As discussed above, the visibility of the equations may be important for project documentation, while Excel's equations, even when using named ranges and using formulat display is still difficult to read, and Excel cannot simultaneously display the formulas and their results.

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

I've just posted an example on the wiki today, of a real life engineering calculation. If it's the sort of thing you do, then Mathcad or Smath is a good start. If you do analysis of huge data sets then Matlab or Octave is perhaps a better bet.

 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

3
(OP)

.

Big thanks to y'all for looking into SMath Studio and running with the investigation!

.

 

tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation
http://hhwq.blogspot.com

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Greg, how (where) can I access the wiki? (I appologize in advance if my question is too lame...)

Thanks.

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

Greg

Excellent program. Thanks for the link.

Dik

RE: SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software

IFRS... Rather than VB, you should try Delphi <G>...

Dik

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