Mathcad Prime 1.0
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Developer(s) | Mathsoft, PTC |
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Initial release | 1986 |
Stable release |
15.0 M045 / November 2015
Prime 4.0 / March 6, 2017 |
Development status | Active |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
Available in | 10 languages |
Type | Computer algebra system |
License | Proprietary |
Website | www |
Mathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations. First introduced in 1986 on DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computations.
Mathcad, Parametric Technology Corporation's engineering calculation solution, is used by engineers and scientists in various disciplines – most often those of mechanical, chemical, electrical, and civil engineering. Originally conceived and written by Allen Razdow (of MIT, co-founder of Mathsoft), Mathcad is now owned by PTC and is generally accepted as the first computer application to automatically compute and check consistency of engineering units such as the International System of Units (SI), throughout the entire set of calculations. Mathcad today includes some of the capabilities of a computer algebra system, but remains oriented towards ease of use and simultaneous documentation of numerical engineering applications.
Mathcad is oriented around a worksheet, in which equations and expressions are created and manipulated in the same graphical format in which they are presented (WYSIWYG) - as opposed to authoring in plain text, an approach later adopted by other systems such as Mathematica and Maple.
Mathcad is part of a broader product development system developed by PTC, and often utilized for the many analytical touch points within the systems engineering processes. It integrates with PTC’s other solutions that aid product development, including Creo Elements/Pro, Windchill, and Creo Elements/View. Its live feature-level integration with Creo Elements/Pro enables Mathcad analytical models to be directly used in driving CAD geometry, and its structural awareness within Windchill allows live calculations to be re-used and re-applied toward multiple design models.