Mathcad – a new springboard for integrated engineering design
Hatch Africa, the EPCM engineering, project and construction management consultancy specialising in mineral processing, mining, energy and infrastructure, is currently striving towards interoperability and integration for its software tools. Johan Palm, a senior engineer in the Project Delivery Group, is driving the implementation of the Hatch Calculation Toolkit in South African offices, a global system that uses Mathcad as the starting point and integrator of engineering design.
Mathcad started to be used in Hatch’s Mississauga office in Toronto more than 10 years ago. “About four years ago, our global structural director made the decision to adopt Mathcad globally in preference to calculation spreadsheets,” explains Palm. The Brisbane office developed an engineering calculation toolkit (HatchTools) that uses Mathcad at its core, allows for calculation format standardisation and the management of a global calculation library. The HatchTools system is part of Hatch’s global collaborative
design strategy.
“Engineering calculations done in Mathcad can naturally be validated because its visual format mimics normal paper-based calculations. This allows any engineer, working anywhere in the world to customise and improve formulae and the design of standard calculations in the library to suit a specific project design requirement. Improved calculations can then be added to the global library and numerous contributions then allow the calculations to mature over time, the Wiki principle,” says Palm.
