Best engineering/mathematics software package?

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

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Joined
30 Dec 2003
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2,254
Hi,

I am considering purchasing a student license for an engineering/mathematics package... Due to the prices involved I want to make sure I get the one that will best suit my needs and will be able to assist most in University courseworks etc. I am studying "Electrical and Electronic Engineering".

I am after something along the lines of Matlab, Mathcad, Maple, Mathematica, etc... Are there any that are notably better than others? I have used most briefly, and can access many at University however I'd quite like to be able to use it on my home computer. Lecturers have no preference between packages.

Which one would you suggest? And what is the best way to get it? Eg, I heard last year that it was cheaper to buy a Matlab book with the student CD however I can no longer find this.

Cheers.
 
MatLab is probably your best bet. I use it quite a lot in 2nd year Mechanical Engineering. I can simulate simple fluid mechanics problems, stuff like computational fluids. Comes in handy all the time.
 
RastaManBob said:
Hi,

I am considering purchasing a student license for an engineering/mathematics package... Due to the prices involved I want to make sure I get the one that will best suit my needs and will be able to assist most in University courseworks etc. I am studying "Electrical and Electronic Engineering".

I am after something along the lines of Matlab, Mathcad, Maple, Mathematica, etc... Are there any that are notably better than others? I have used most briefly, and can access many at University however I'd quite like to be able to use it on my home computer. Lecturers have no preference between packages.

Which one would you suggest? And what is the best way to get it? Eg, I heard last year that it was cheaper to buy a Matlab book with the student CD however I can no longer find this.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Matlab
 
They taught us Matlab in engineering school, but I use Maple at home on my Windows and Linux boxes. Why buy expensive software licenses when you can use Free alternatives to great effect? :)
 
Certainly speak to people at the university, they will know better what you need than any of us!! Having said that, Matlab's great. I use it pretty much every day.
 
We're seemingly always getting told to use Matlab at Uni (Aerospace)

You can simulate loads of stuff, we're currently using it for control systems
 
Surely you should check with your uni to see which will be covered in your course? It doesn't really make sense to get Maple if your course uses Matlab, as you'd have to get used to both.

For what it's worth, Maple is generally used for Maths courses rather than Engineering.
 
We use Matlab and MathCad. IMO Matlab is worth learning because its such a versatile piece of software and if it doesnt do what you want, write it yourself within it.
 
Thanks for all of the replies.

To those that have said to ask the University; I have and different lecturers suggest different packages but all agree that it doesn't really matter which is used (For any given coursework) and work produced using any of the packages will be accepted.

With this in mind, I'd rather get whichever is seen to the best, or most useful generally... Matlab certainly seems to be coming up top on here though, that's for sure...

Cheers :)
 
Matlab is incredibly powerful. And if I recall - HUGE - it had tons of add-ons and scripts and allsorts. Also infinitely programmable to whatever you want in terms of number crunching - seem to remember it'd happily plot 3D tea-pots given the right scripting...

I'm now an electronic engineer and don't really use it any more - then mind you I'm not a specialist who needs to model things to that kind of depth.
 
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