Engineer Software

<p>As an engineer, what programs do you constantly use? I know that EE's use MATLAB, and MechE's use Autodesk, but what about the other engineering fields? Also, are MATLAB and Autodesk only limited to those two fields? My sister goes to A&M, and she told me that Maple is the most used for math classes. Actually, she told me that she doesn't know of anyone who uses MATLAB. I was quite surprised when I heard this, especially since I'm trying to teach myself MATLAB.</p>

<p>Please list your major if you list programs that you use while in or out of college.</p>

<p>biomed and mechanical uses matlab too</p>

<p>MechEs use SolidWorks</p>

<p>I had never used Maple, though my school had it installed and one professor recommended using it once. Any assignment that required software, required MatLab. </p>

<p>AutoDesk is a company, not a piece of software. They produce an entire suite of software, probably a dozen or so different ones. Assuming you're talking about AutoCAD, it's not limited to ME's. It's the predominant software for CE's in school and in the industry, unless you're working in transportation engineering, where many use Microstation. </p>

<p>School-Civil Engineering:
AutoCAD
SAP2000
MS Project
HEC-HMS
MS Excel
SimVision
MatLab </p>

<p>I know some otehr CE students (some at other schools) who use STAAD, eTabs, Pontis.</p>

<p>Within civil engineering, the sub-disciplines are so different that there's very little overlap so I listed what I've used/seen in the two fields that I've worked in.</p>

<p>Traffic Engineering:
HCS
Synchro
SimTraffic
VISSIM
CORSIM
Adobe Illustrator
AutoCAD
MS Excel</p>

<p>Construction Management:
Timberline
MC^2
Prolog
AutoCAD
Revit
Maya
MS Excel
MS Project
Primavera</p>

<p>I included some software that my colleagues use on a regular basis even though I don't use it. </p>

<p>MS Excel, though I guess not technically engineering software, is what all engineers can't live without. You will save lots of time if you know the ins and outs of Excel. I also included Illustrator and Maya even though they're technically not engineering, but they are used frequently by engineers. Presentation is important!</p>

<p>MS Excel is a very useful piece of software and its good to be familiar with it.
I'm a BME and I use MATLAB and Excel</p>

<p>Well, I'm glad that MATLAB isn't as limited as I thought. I'm on the BME route, so I'll continue teaching myself. I guess I will also familiarize with Maple; my sister said it helped her a lot on differential equations hw. Do BME's use any 2D or 3D programs to draw stuff out for whatever purpose?</p>

<p>Sorry for the double post, but I can't edit my last post.</p>

<p>What books would you guys recommend for a beginner to learn about MATLAB? I'm currently going by "MATLAB For Engineers and Scientists" by Brian Hahn and Daniel T. Valentine. I searched around in Amazon, and noticed that it got average ratings. However, "MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications" by Amos Gilat seems to have the best ratings for an intro to MATLAB book. I know that it's fairly new, but has anyone used this book? I'm just wondering if it's worth the $77.95.</p>

<p>What software/compiler (Java or C++) do people in CS use the most?
I'll be in CSEngineering this next fall and I want to have a better idea of what you guys use.</p>

<p>What is a good book to learn AutoCAD 2008?</p>

<p>Is there a reason you're trying to learn Matlab on your own? Does your school offer a course in it? I'd recommend doing that instead.</p>

<p>AutoCAD for Dummies is probably sufficient. I flipped through it once and it seems to cover all the basics if you're just trying to get your feet wet.</p>

<p>
[quote]
SimTraffic

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That sounds like something even Will Wright could make into a lot of fun.</p>

<p>I'm a materials engineer and there isn't really a require program to use. I have to do a lot of work with Excel, mostly due to the amount of moderately simple data manipulation. At times I've written programs in C++ and Visual Basic to do larger-scale handling of data.</p>

<p>I've used both Maple and Mathematica for my homeworks. I used to be a die-hard Maple fan, but their recent switch to Java has been nothing but headaches for me, and their help documentation is frustratingly poor, so I switched over the Mathematica and have found it to be somewhat intuitive. My girlfriend and my old roommate, both which are ECE majors exclusively use Matlab.</p>

<p>There's also some other miscellaneous software such as crystal maker, thermocalc, and a few others which are used by materials people, but that really depends on the kind of research you do.</p>

<p>Oh, and finally, I had to learn Origin for one of the labs I worked in, and I found it's graphing capabilities to be way, way better than Excel's. When I need to make nice plots to put in presentations or papers, I'll always do it in Origin now.</p>

<p>Ken,
Since it's the summer, I'm trying to be productive while I wait to see if I will get any workstudy funds for the summer so I can actually work at a research lab. I've always had MATLAB installed on my computer since one of my family members is a PhD in EE. I thought it's the perfect time for me to pick up some things on the way. My school has just started offering a course in it, the course will start this fall. However, I have no programming experience, so I thought I should at least review some of the basics before going in (I'm going to take the course in the spring). I'm continuing to teach myself since I've been really interested in it ever since I've started studying.</p>

<p>RacinReaver,
Would you recommend a new user to try out Maple or Mathematica? You mentioned that you became frustrated once they switched to Java, but if I wasn't exposed to Maple before would I be as frustrated as you?</p>

<p>I don't think you necessarily would; probably as a new user you'd be better off.</p>

<p>I'd recommend using Mathematica, though, since it seems to be much more widely used, and it's help files are written a lot better. You'll quickly find the help file to be an essential tool when you start experimenting with manipulating equations and wanting to do "quick checks" on things prior to sinking a lot of time into calculating them.</p>

<p>If you're a BME maybe it's better to self-teach yourself matlab as much as you can and take the introduction to programming course in Java or C++ in school, that way you get exposure to some real and more low-level programming, which is important for an engineering student and really important for BMEs who go into instrumentation/imaging/bioinformatics/comp bio/etc...</p>

<p>Also I'm going to disagree with RacinReaver about using Mathematica. Even if it is more widely used, MATLAB is more widely used in the BME world (at least around here at JHU, I've only seen Matlab). That and Mathematica and MATLAB sort of fill the same role and the time learning Mathematica can be better spent learning Java or C++ or something else.</p>

<p>MATLAB and Mathematica are kind of apples-and-oranges, though. If I want to code my own computational engine, I use MATLAB. If I want to know what that nasty, disgusting-looking integral resolves to, I use Mathematica.</p>

<p>I agree with aibarr. I've used both and each has things that it does better. An EE will also use pspice or the MechEs where I'm working this summer use Cosmos.</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions.</p>

<p>Aside from taking the MATLAB course, I plan on taking the intro to programming class as well as another programming class called "Computer Programming with Engineering Applications ". The reason that I'm planning on taking these courses is that if I take classes in the 2XXX range they won't transfer to the school I want to transfer into. So I thought, why not take these classes and learn valuable information? The description for the "Computer Programming with Engineering Applications" course is:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Algorithmic approaches to problem solving and computer program design for engineers. Engineering and mathematically-oriented problem sets will be emphasized, including nonnumeric applications. Searching, sorting, linked lists, and data typing will be introduced. May not be applied toward a major in computer science.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>What programs do you think will be explored in this course? The prereq is Calc II, so it seems like it's a harder class than the other low devision courses. I've tried emailing a professor that teaches it, however, I haven't received a reply.</p>

<p>I'm an electrical and computer engineer. I use:</p>

<p>MATLAB
Visual Studio
Linux
Espresso (logic minimization)
Quartus
Excel (for graphing and certain data manipulation)</p>

<p>And as for the question about that above course, it seems to be a basic algorithms course. Searching (binary search, etc), sorting (bubble sort, quick sort, etc), linked lists, and data typing (classes, abstract classes, inheritance, polymorphism, etc).</p>

<p>quick question - Is chem-engineering less intensive than the other eng disciplines in terms of programming?</p>

<p>From what I saw with my college roommates, no it's definitely not less intensive than other majors in terms of discipline. They used Matlab quite often.</p>