Faster Access To Engineering DocumentsFaster Access To Engineering Documents

Mathsoft Engineering and Education Inc. unveils the latest version of its flagship engineering calculation and documentation software this week, and it's ready for use by large groups. By supporting Microsoft's Sharepoint Portal Server document repository, Mathcad 11 lets users collaborate on complex calculations without routing cumbersome files via E-mail. Mathsoft also plans to offer support for other repositories, CEO Chris Randles says.

Mathcad 11 is pervasive in engineering-driven companies, says Gisela Wilson, director of product life-cycle management applications at IDC. The question is whether the more comprehensive software will appeal to larger companies.

In the meantime, the vendor's existing customers are happy with the expanded release. Engineering documents that used to take up to three minutes to open now open in 10 seconds, says Satish Matani, a structural engineer and project manager at Martin, Chow & Nakabara, a small engineering firm running a beta version of the software. Mathcad 11 starts at $1,000 per user, a 25% increase over the previous version.