Why does the Symbolic Toolbox fail when running on a MATLAB Student Version Automation session?

When running a program in normal mode, the Symbolic Toolbox functions properly; however, when running in Automation mode, I receive a MEX-file entry point error.

To see this behavior, type the following symbolic equation in a Student Version of MATLAB in an Automation session:

a=sym('x+x^2+3/x')

Here are the errors generated:

 Mex file entry point is missing.  Please check the (case-sensitive) 

 spelling of mexFunction (for C MEX-files), or the (case-insensitive) 

 spelling of MEXFUNCTION (for FORTRAN MEX-files).

 ??? Invalid MEX-file

 Error in ==> c:\matlab\toolbox\symbolic\@sym\sym.m (char2sym)

 On line 385  ==>       [S,err] = maple(x);

 Error in ==> c:\matlab\toolbox\symbolic\@sym\sym.m

 On line 91  ==>    S = char2sym(x);

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This bug has been fixed for Release 14 (R14). For previous releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

If MATLAB is launched from the $MATLAB\bin\win32 directory, this directory is added to the MATLAB path and the maple.dll file that resides here is called in place of the maple.m file in the Symbolic Toolbox.

You can work around this problem by changing to a directory other than the $MATLAB\bin\win32 directory prior to calling the SYM function.