I find the original question perplexing. In my experience, Mathcad is an elegant spreadsheet environment that merely performs the arithmetic for you. Since the user is entering all the equations, I don’t consider this a situation where the software is doing all the design. As you may have guessed, I am very pleased with Mathcad and use it often. My only regret is that it does not easily permit me to place diagrams into the spreadsheets. I know that I can scan a sketch into the computer and then place it into the file, but that is rather time consuming and does not lend itself to easy modification.
I do fear engineers that rely on software too heavily. A recent experience I had when I was asked to review another engineer’s work for my client is a good example. He had a major software vendor’s product that promised to design a cantilever retaining wall. There was a bug in the program, and the solution to the 20+ ft high retaining wall adjacent to a RR track was to supply minimum steel (in this case #7 @ 12 inches) rather than #9 @ 6”, which he detailed after I brought the problem to his attention. In my opinion, he should have taken out a pencil and checked it himself when he saw it on the drawing because #7 @ 12” just looks too light. But either because he was in a terrible hurry, was out of budget or possibly because he didn’t know any better, he did not do this. Fortunately, I caught the mistake, but his client suffered some delay and don’t know that he will work for that client again.
Good question, but I don’t think Mathcad, Excel or any other spreadsheet is the real problem.