The Importance of Effective Documentation Behind Successfully Engineered Products: Successful product development companies effectively capture and protect their intellectual property (IP). IP includes the intangible assets that go into the development of a product and/or service. They are valuable in proving ownership and as well as providing leverage for future products. However, the analyses that support and validate those products and services are often stored on personal hard-drives, thumbdrives, and lab notebooks. This spread of data storage makes it challenging for companies to successfully manage the development of their IP. With increasing design complexity, it is crucial to document and capture key analyses used to determine which, how, and why design decisions were made. It is rare for a product to be developed entirely from scratch, without relying on any existing IP. Many successful products result from the redesign of earlier products. Yet during conversations about product development processes, customers often remark, “We find ourselves re-engineering our own products, products that we designed and built.” In these situations, engineers might as well start from scratch. Mission critical IP, which was created and then lost, now must be recreated. Reuse of analyses saves time and money. When engineers re-design, re-create, or re-engineer IP, they abandon the benefits of reuse. This is the most apparent when a company develops a new product that is a variant of an older model. Re-deriving calculations is unproductive. Merely saving the calculations, whether it be a lab notebook or digital documents, is not enough to solve this problem. New engineers and teams tasked with the re-design must navigate through mazes of data and calculations. This often leads them to give up and start from scratch. Being able to leverage prior work requires implementation of standards and processes that everyone follows. Mathcad®, the engineering calculation software from PTC, can be used to optimize product design. More importantly, it captures this information and provides a way to formalize the aforementioned standards and processes. Combining computation with supporting text and graphics in one platform makes Mathcad worksheets easily readable and comprehensible. This readability, coupled with a powerful math engine for data analyses, makes Mathcad an automatic documentation tool that allows engineers to communicate with both internal and external stakeholders. This white paper outlines PTC’s vision for best practices to standardize engineering calculations in a product development system and highlights Mathcad’s role as the critical communication tool to document the valuable IP behind every successfully engineered product. Learn more about Mathcad>>PTC's Solution for Engineering Calculations http://www.ptc.com/product/mathcad/?utm_source=slideshare&utm_medium=EngCalcWP&utm_campaign=Social%2B

1. White Paper
Standardizing Engineering Calculations
in a Product Development System
The Importance of Effective Documentation Behind Successfully Engineered Products
Executive Summary Reuse of analyses saves time and money. When engineers
re-design, re-create, or re-engineer IP they abandon the
,
Successful product development companies benefits of reuse. This is the most apparent when a company
effectively capture and protect their intellectual develops a new product that is a variant of an older model.
property (IP). IP includes the intangible assets Re-deriving calculations is unproductive. Merely saving the
calculations, whether it be a lab notebook or digital docu-
that go into the development of a product ments, is not enough to solve this problem. New engineers
and/or service. They are valuable in proving and teams tasked with the re-design must navigate through
ownership and as well as providing leverage mazes of data and calculations. This often leads them to give
for future products. However, the analyses that up and start from scratch.
support and validate those products and services Being able to leverage prior work requires implementation
are often stored on personal hard-drives, thumb- of standards and processes that everyone follows. Mathcad®,
drives, and lab notebooks. This spread of data the engineering calculation software from PTC, can be used
storage makes it challenging for companies to to optimize product design. More importantly, it captures this
information and provides a way to formalize the aforemen-
successfully manage the development of their
tioned standards and processes. Combining computation with
IP With increasing design complexity, it is crucial
. supporting text and graphics in one platform makes Mathcad
to document and capture key analyses used to worksheets easily readable and comprehensible. This read-
determine which, how, and why design decisions ability, coupled with a powerful math engine for data analyses,
were made. makes Mathcad an automatic documentation tool that allows
engineers to communicate with both internal and external
Intro stakeholders.
It is rare for a product to be developed entirely from scratch, When companies leverage Mathcad’s analysis and documen-
without relying on any existing IP Many successful products
. tation capabilities with a data management systems (such
result from the redesign of earlier products. Yet during conver- as Windchill®, PTC’s Product Management Lifecycle software),
sations about product development processes, customers often the result is an organized way to manage their calculations.
remark, “We find ourselves re-engineering our own products, With this infrastructure in place, a group, department, and
products that we designed and built.” In these situations, engi- corporation can put a process around it and begin to
neers might as well start from scratch. Mission critical IP which
, standardize their engineering calculations. This white paper
was created and then lost, now must be recreated. outlines PTC’s vision for best practices to standardize
engineering calculations in a product development system
and highlights Mathcad’s role as the critical communication
tool to document the valuable IP behind every successfully
engineered product.
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2. White Paper
Engineers may repeat analyses and other work previously • Engineers implement their own calculations, which
done by others, or even need to recreate their own work, as cannot be followed by others
a result of several reasons:
• Engineers implement their own layouts and formats
• Files are not stored in a centrally available location, which make their work hard to leverage
so access is limited
The following model outlines the different maturity levels
• Files are available, but are not easily readable because in standardizing engineering calculations within a group,
of the lack of notation, prior knowledge of specific department, and/or company. This model is loosely modeled
programming languages, etc. after the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration)
process improvement approach.
The following four use cases represent the different levels in the standardization maturity model
Level 4 Optimized
• Centrally stored/
Level 3 Defined managed content
• Established process/
• Use Mathcad templates
Level 2 Managed • Adopt best practices
workflow for calculations
- Documentation required
• Use Mathcad for most • Employees trained
- Reference sheets
Level 1 Initial calculations in tool
• Employees trained
• Worksheets stored on
• Use whatever tools in process
central server
are available
• Sporadic Mathcad use
Level 1– Initial Implementation of Mathcad Essentially, the design team selects their tools based on famil-
Universal Calculations for Telecommunications iarity and availability. The tools that were used in the last proj-
ect will probably be re-purposed for new projects. And if a tool
Allen works for a telecommunications company. He is a isn’t available anymore, then the team will use whatever tools
member of the base station team and specializes in testing Information Technology (IT) has licensed and are currently un-
power amplifiers. His company has just announced the roll- der maintenance. However, familiarity and/or availability, al-
out of new base stations which feature a new communications beit convenient, may not always determine the best tool.
protocol used by cellular phone carriers.
In the previous base station design project, the design team
Historically, Allen and his team used an assortment of tools at the telecommunications company used a combination
to test the amplifiers. These tools are usually dictated by the of PACAD, Agilent EEsof, and MathWorks™ MATLAB® and
design team, as they are involved in the early phases of the Simulink®. After that project ended, IT terminated the renewal
development cycle. By the time the test team gets involved, of those licenses. Now, as the design team evaluates the best
a lot of analyses have already been performed, so the test software tools for the next project, Allen decides to proceed
engineers are encouraged to leverage existing work, and use in his analyses with Excel. He reasons that everyone has Excel
the same software tools as the design team. on their computers, so it’s a natural common denominator of
software tools.
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3. White Paper
With Excel, Allen quickly runs into some basic limitations. Allen’s biggest hurdle now is to get everyone on his team to
First, he needs to run some basic signal processing routines – use Mathcad since it is very inefficient to maintain two sets of
FFTs, coherence, filtering. All of these require many steps tools to perform the same calculations.
in Excel. Furthermore, it is difficult to track the flow of
information in Excel and visualize how various parameter Evaluation
changes propagate through the analyses. In the meantime,
Allen’s example is characteristic of a Level 1, or initial im-
the design team finalizes on a few specialized tools for their
plementation, in the standardization maturity model. Each
design tool, and chooses Mathcad as the front-end tool to
engineer uses whatever tools are available. Allen uses
aggregate their results. Allen decides that he, too, will adopt
Mathcad because he has it on his PC and because he has
Mathcad for his calculations.
used it before, but his colleagues do not consistently use the
Mathcad provides many of the basic math functions that Allen same tools.
typically uses, plus more advanced signal processing functions
Because each engineer uses whatever tools are available
that are relevant to characterize power amplifier performance.
to them, at one point Allen is forced to choose a common
And while the design team uses specialized software packages
denominator – Excel. In this case, Excel does not offer the
for various aspects of their design, it is easy to pull those results
functionalities that Allen needs. While he can perform some of
into Mathcad for top-level calculations. With Mathcad, Allen
these tasks in Excel, it requires a lot more effort to build up his
can proceed with his test calculations and integrate the work
own functions, keep track of units, and verify his equations.
from the design team, whether it originated as Mathcad work-
sheets or outputs from other software. Adopting of software for specific calculations can be benefi-
cial when developing in-depth analysis of specific applications.
The problem is the large overhead of which includes cost of
maintenance costs and, more importantly, time to train and
ramp-up. Sharing work and results across different software
can be a tedious process. Furthermore, as engineers migrate
from one project to another, the use of these specialty soft-
ware programs can fluctuate wildly, which presents a problem
for IT which needs to maintain the latest versions of multiple
software programs.
To move to the next level in the maturity model, Allen and his
team need to:
• Use Mathcad on a consistent basis across projects
• If using different software from the design team, use
Mathcad to import models that can be compared with
collected data for verification
• Store worksheets centrally on server, so they can be
accessed by entire team
Top: With Excel, it’s hard to follow the steps that Allen took to perform his
analysis, in this case a FFT.
Bottom: With Mathcad, each step is detailed with intuitive math notations.
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4. White Paper
Level 2 – Managed Implementation of Mathcad With units intelligence, Carla doesn’t need to worry about
Collaboration in Architecture, Engineering and Construction converting each individual variable with units from SI to
English. She inputs the Excel formulas into Mathcad as equa-
Carla is a civil engineer at a construction management agen- tions, and Mathcad keeps track of all the conversions and
cy. She designs and oversees the construction of locks used in warns her if there are issues.
water transport. In her latest project, she was asked to look
over the designs of a proposed lock as an independent re- With the ice and wind calculations transferred into Mathcad,
viewer. This lock will be different because it is in a region that Carla can now combine that with the worksheets she had done
is susceptible to both cold weather and earthquakes. Carla with seismic forces. The result is now a generalized worksheet
must include resiliency to seismic forces and influences of ice that allows her to adjust any of the parameters – minimum
and wind in her analyses. allowable temperature, maximum vibration, maximum wind
gusts, and so on. She posts her work back on the company
At Carla’s company, the engineering department keeps all shared drive, where it will be searchable and available for oth-
of their files – requirements, calculations, data files, etc. – on er engineers who work on any projects that involve lock design.
a shared network drive. This makes it easy for Carla to look
up existing work that she can leverage. She already has some
Mathcad worksheets she created for a prior project in which
seismic forces were considered. As she peruses the shared
drive, she comes across the work done by a group based out
of a different branch. Their calculations were done in Excel,
and in the International System (SI) of Units. Carla’s current
project requires that she work with English units.
The calculations done by her counterparts from a different
branch are exactly relevant for her current project as they
include both ice and wind loading effects. Carla quickly re-
alizes, however, that reading through Excel spreadsheets can
be a difficult process – equations are difficult to follow, need to
shuffle between separate files for ice and wind effects. Within
each spreadsheet, the order of steps performed is not obvious,
and trying to determine which variables affect which formulas
is equally confusing. Furthermore, units are tracked in a
manual fashion, and ensuring that all the conversions to
English units are completed is a daunting task. Variables are clearly defined and easily changed for automatic updates
throughout the worksheet. The annotation references which standards are
being used so readers know where the parameters are taken from. Units are
Carla knows that she needs to convert the Excel spreadsheets tracked and easily converted within the calculations.
over to Mathcad to work more effectively. She creates a
Mathcad worksheet for the effects of ice loading, and another
for wind loading. She can compile her results by adding the
ice and wind worksheets as reference files into her results
worksheet. Mathcad’s natural math notation allows Carla
and her colleagues to review the analyses easily. Equations
and data taken from building codes and standards ensure
that the designs are in regulatory compliance.
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5. White Paper
Evaluation Level 3 – Defined Implementation of Mathcad
Improved Processes in Aerospace and Defense
Carla’s group and their usage of Mathcad exemplify a Level 2,
or managed implementation, in the standardization maturity Evan is a systems engineer on the integration team at an
model. They realize the value of Mathcad to perform analyses aerospace and defense company, and currently works on a
and produce worksheets that can be easily understood at high radar program. Evan constantly collaborates with the system
system levels across multiple teams. These worksheets are architecture team on requirements, with the software team
also stored for easy access and reuse. (algorithms for radar mission, signal processing, and control
center), and with the hardware team (receiver/exciter design).
Carla’s company has taken the right steps to store all their This means that while he participates in system specification
engineering work on a centralized server. This makes it reviews and understands the radar’s operability at a high
easy for employees to collaborate on projects and re-use level, he also needs to dive into the software and hardware
existing work. The difficulty that Carla faced was that the details at times, in order to resolve conflicts and limitations in
files available span many different formats. Even though her individual groups.
group has standardized on Mathcad as the default calculation
tool, others in the company have not. Evan regularly uses Mathcad for calculations – both for quick
checks and involved computations with large data sets and
The need for easy-to-understand analysis and units handling complex algorithms. To Evan, Mathcad is a convenient tool
is one of the many benefits of Mathcad. Mathcad allows that allows him to work at the detailed level for analyses, and
engineers to represent their calculations in an intuitive way at the same time, share the results in a presentable way at
much as they would in a notebook, which makes it easy to the system level. Not only is Mathcad available to him and
trace through the calculations and follow the flow of informa- his department, the engineering division also offers training
tion. Being able to add references to a Mathcad worksheet for new users as well as regular in-depth sessions in specific
means that large complex calculations can easily be broken areas, such as statistics, image processing, symbolic math
down into reference worksheets and then incorporated into evaluation.
a master document. Finally, unit conversion and intelligence
gives engineers one less thing to worry about as they hop Most recently, while reviewing an interface control document,
from one system to another. which specifies the communication between two sub-systems,
Evan noticed an inconsistency between the resolution of
a measurement provided and what is called for in the
requirements document. He quickly produced a Mathcad
To move to the next level in the maturity model, Carla and her worksheet to show the changes that need to be made to
company need to: address this issue.
• Standardize on Mathcad, not just for Carla’s group, but To guarantee this worksheet has the same look and feel as
for the whole company others on the project, multiple templates are used to provide
this consistency. Evan first applies the “bug reports” template
• Begin to set up Mathcad templates
to his Mathcad worksheet. This template sets up the header
and footer with fields relevant to bugs-author, ID number,
stage, and the document against which the bug is being re-
ported. Next, Evan applies a “calculation” template, which is
similar to a reference file, but also used to standardize pa-
rameters and equations. When he applies these two templates
to his worksheet, Evan can be sure that he uses the proper
parameters for the radar project in a worksheet that conforms
to the project standard.
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6. White Paper
With the templates implemented, Evan uploads the worksheet Evaluation
to the company’s bug reporting system. He references the
interface control document, the requirements document, and The use of Mathcad in Evan’s program and department
the changes that need to be made to correct the problem. The exemplifies a Level 3, or defined implementation, in the
bug reporting system manages Evan’s worksheet on a server, standardization maturity model. They realize the value of
as well as subsequent changes. Once stored on the server, Mathcad to perform analyses and produce worksheets that
colleagues can easily review Evan’s work, even if they do not can be easily understood at high system levels across multiple
have Mathcad installed on their local machines. teams as well as portable reports to append to specifications
and corresponding bug reports. These worksheets are also
Since the members on the bug review committee did not have stored for easy access and also reuse.
Mathcad installed, they requested that Evan upload a PDF
version instead. Attaching a PDF file to the bug report allows Evan’s department commits to Mathcad for general calcu-
his colleagues without Mathcad to see his work. During the lations. They install Mathcad on all engineering computers,
review, the specification was deemed faulty. The PDF was provide the licenses, and train their engineers in Mathcad.
red-lined to show updated values. Evan took the corrections, The radar program has made further efforts to provide
implemented them in Mathcad, and re-posted the PDFs in templates to use Mathcad in their work-flows. This provides
the system. He also posted the updated Mathcad worksheet convenience for engineers to share their work with team-
into his group’s repository, which stores all files pertinent to mates, and also ensures uniformity and consistency across
analyses and calculations. related calculations.
The worksheets are stored and maintained on a network Storing Mathcad worksheets on a central server enables some
repository which allows group members to quickly pull up conveniences. First, engineers can easily search for and lever-
documents when they need to track changes in bug reports age previous work. Second, with the right implementation,
or specifications. Assuming that IT maintains this repository, engineers can also keep track of different versions of a design
these files can also be used in future radar programs with so that they can easily review the history of changes. Third,
engineers who were not involved in the project initially. using a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform allows
all employees to easily follow specified processes and work-
flows. In Evan’s example, the submission of the bug report
with an attached Mathcad worksheet starts off a chain of
events – review the bug, delegate the right resource to make
the appropriate changes, and verify that the bug is fixed.
To move to the next level in the maturity model, Evan and his
company need to:
• Store and manage all data and Mathcad
worksheets centrally
• Establish processes and workflow for calculations
• Train engineers on the process, not only the tools
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7. White Paper
Level 4 – Optimized Implementation of Mathcad Just as Mathcad integrates with Windchill, it can integrate
Achieve Enhanced Design in the Industrial Sector with computer aided design (CAD) software. The results from
Mathcad can directly feed and drive geometries in Creo®
Terry leads a group of engineers to design and build test Parametric, the PTC CAD software that Terry’s group uses. Uti-
facilities for energy-related products. In addition, her team lizing this integration, as requirements change, the Mathcad
often has to work with two groups that are located in other calculations can be updated and the new values will update
states. Terry’s customers come to her when they need a facil- the CAD models. This means the CAD team does not need to
ity to test their products. Because constructing these facilities wait for the analysts and designers to finalize the geometries.
are so expensive, Terry and her team need to capture the The CAD team can now build up their parts and assemblies
requirements and design a facility that’s specific enough in parallel with the analysis and design team adjusting final
to meet those requirements, but at the same time general numbers for the optimal dimensions. With Windchill, Creo,
enough to accommodate similar products. and Mathcad all integrated, Terry can change requirements
in Windchill and have all the calculations update in Mathcad
Terry’s latest support request is to build a test facility to test a
to meet those requirements, and in turn regenerate a new
new design for a wind turbine. She recalls that another team
CAD model with the dimensions output from Mathcad.
within the company built a facility to test wind turbines a few
years ago. She brings up that project in their PLM server to
compare requirements. She opens the Mathcad worksheet
that was used to verify requirements in the old project. She
plugs in new numbers for the new requirements and deter-
mines that the facility can be modified to test the new design.
Terry creates a new project for the new turbine design test
facility and copies over relevant files from the old project. She
updates the templates that will be used for calculations in the
new design. Similar to the previous case study, these templates
contain references to equations and information that Terry’s
group and her collaborators use.
Terry can now utilize all the basic equations defined in the
template, as well as additional analyses she implemented in
her prior work. When she is done, she uses Windchill as the
PLM system to store her files. Her teammates and colleagues
can now review her work, give her suggestions, and or even
update the Mathcad worksheets. Furthermore, the latest revi-
sion of a standard that has just been published makes some
changes to building codes that need to be met. The team in
charge of updating standards upload the newest revision into
Windchill. When Terry opens up her worksheet, these changes
automatically propagate throughout the worksheet. Terry can
easily see if her designs are still valid and meet the codes or if
she will need to make any design modifications.
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8. White Paper
Evaluation
Are you managing a team of engineers?
Terry’s organization has achieved Level 4 maturity, or opti-
mized implantation, in the standardization model. She uses We are bringing best practices in product design and
Mathcad for their calculations, plus, there is a well-defined development to engineering teams just like yours. If you
process in place. This means that Terry and her colleagues are interested in learning more about feasibility analy-
know exactly where to go whenever they start a new project. sis, requirements verification or simply how engineering
teams are using Mathcad to improve their productivity –
With Windchill as their PLM software, Terry can quickly gather a Mathcad representative can show you how.
information she needs, whether it be previously done work,
specifications, or standards. Windchill also allows the whole Contact us today and a Mathcad representative will call
group to collaborate on worksheets in such a way that ev- you to set up a customized demo with a Mathcad expert.
eryone can work simultaneously on related tasks. Because
Mathcad is the software tool of choice, all engineers are
trained in Mathcad and know how to leverage it for analyses.
Check out our Best Practices in Product Development series
They also use Mathcad as a way to document their work and
of white papers:
drive the process that is in place.
Design Studies and Tradeoff Analysis white paper
Different geographic locations and coordination with col-
leagues is no longer an issue. Terry can link to a sheet as a Requirements Flow-down white paper
colleague works on it. As new details are filled in and/or com-
puted, the changes are refreshed in all dependent calculations.
Terry and her team benefit from all the advantages of Mathcad,
which optimizes her design and engineering process. Mathcad is the Industry Standard Software for
Engineering Calculations.
Summary
To learn more visit us at PTC.com/mathcad/
Companies strive to design the best products in the least
amount of time. Success ultimately comes down to bringing
products to market quickly while improving product quality.
Engineering calculations made during product design make
up a company’s intellectual property. Capturing this IP is © 2012, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). All rights reserved. Information described
herein is furnished for informational use only and is subject to change without notice. The
important for reuse and therefore critical in pushing out better only warranties for PTC products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
products faster. accompanying such products and services and nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty. References to customer successes are based upon a
Mathcad gives engineers a way to perform their calculations, single user experience and such customer’s testimonial. Analyst or other forward-looking
statements about PTC products and services or the markets in which PTC participates are
visualize data with charts and graphs, and annotate results those of the analysts themselves and PTC makes no representations as to the basis or
all in one comprehensive platform. Furthermore, Mathcad accuracy thereof. PTC, the PTC Logo, Windchill, Creo, Mathcad and all PTC product names
also enables companies to set standards and processes so en- and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the
United States and in other countries. All other product or company names are property
gineers and their teams can efficiently capture and store their of their respective owners. The timing of any product release, including any features or
IP Reusing and leveraging prior calculations and results help
. functionality, is subject to change at PTC’s discretion.
improve design and streamline process.
J0523-Mathcad Standardizing Engineering Calculations-WP-0712
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