Visual tools 1

[SKIAK]

I make a lot of spreadsheets. One thing that I don't like about Excel is I haven't found a good way to produce diagrams that show whats going on (say cantilevered retaining walls, showing the wall to scale, soil profiles, pressures, ect. ). Its not really important but I thought it would help people who use it correlate between what they think its doing and what it is actually doing. I was expecting to dump the info into CAD but after looking online and my limited coding knowledge I thought that might be too time consuming. Any suggestions or good references to check out?

 

[RWF7437]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TLp4OSxPhY

 

[MechEng2005]

I would also like it if Excel could do that. However, the best I have been able to do is make a drawing in CAD and then paste it as a picture into the sheet to show what is going on. Or make a sketch using the standard MS drawing tools, which isn't something I'd wish on my enemies.

-- MechEng2005

 

[Clyde38]

This spread sheet works with several simple shapes. .

[link

http://www.linkedin.com/in/clydehancock

]

[/url]

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Visio??

 

[GregLocock]

I work with a Japanese company that sends everything, including photos, as a spreadsheet.

It works, but makes for enormous files.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[SKIAK]

RWF7437 - Holy cow, somebody definatly had some time on their hands. I'll just direct people who use my spreadsheet there; they'll be too bedazzled and forget what they were doing anyways. Problem solved.

I usually make a CAD drawing that I insert in my spreadsheets that defines input measurements and such. That works OK, I was hoping to have something somewhat interactive. I've tried using the Excel graphs but that is just way too much work to try and get everything to scale.

I'm interested to see your spreadsheet Clyde38 but I have 2003. I'll try downloading the compatibilty pack.

We don't have Visio but it seems like an odd program... has anybody used it?

 

[MintJulep]

When the need arises I draw a sketch (anyone remember those?) on a piece of paper, scan it and insert it as a picture.

 

[SKIAK]

Sketch? Sorry, I don't understand hip-hop... although I think that accomplishes the same as a CAD drawing.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I used Visio briefly when it was new, ages before Microsoft bought it. As diagrams grew in complexity (and not very much), it brought any computer then extant to its knees. Something about maintaining a lot of linkages in the data using a high level language, I think.

Computers are a lot more powerful now, maybe you'll get lucky.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[yakpol]

SKIAK,

Here's a solution to keep you plotting scaled drawings in Excel.

Make chart area square and add a diagram of a single line, a diagonal of a square which will insure equal horizontal and vertical scales. Just a few formulas requred.

Xmax,Xmin, Ymax, Ymin are maximum and minimum coordinates of everything on the chart.
dx = Xmax-Xmin
dy = Ymax-Ymin

first point of diagonal
x1 = if(dx>=dy, Xmin, (Xmax+Xmin-dy)/2)
y1 = if(dx>=dy, (Ymax+Ymin-dx)/2, Ymin)

second point
x2 = if(dx>=dy, Xmax, (Xmax+Xmin+dy)/2)
y2 = if(dx>=dy, (Ymax+Ymin+dx)/2, Ymax)

Should work!

P.S. To beautify the chart make this line invisible.

Yakpol

 

[RWF7437]

If you want to try a cheap, as in free, alternative get OpenOffice 3.0. It has a speadsheet that works like Excel and a sketching tool. It can import pictures ( .jpg e.g.) as well as drawings from several other programs. It will save all this in .xls format.

good luck

 

[IRstuff]

One possible kludge, if you have Mathcad and Smartsketch, is to embed the Smartsketch object inside the Mathcad object embedded in Excel. This should allow you to send stuff from Excel to Smartsketch via Mathcad, and vice-versa.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[Clyde38]

SKIAK,
I got this spread sheet from

http://www.interactiveds.com.au/

I saved a copy in 2003 format, you can see if it works. .



[link

http://www.linkedin.com/in/clydehancock

]

[/url]

 

[IRstuff]

Visio can replace SmartSketch in the "kludge," but Visio comes with VBA, so it should be possible to pass information between the two, without resorting to Mathcad as the intermediary.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[SKIAK]

I'm pretty impressed by their spreadsheet.

Thats a good idea for the diagonal, yakpol, I'll try that.

Does anybody know an easy (ha!) way to make a .DXF (or whatever you could get into CAD) file? I've done some C++ back in the day but never VBA and I'm a little intimidated, and since it doesn't really improve the calcs I shy away from dumping time to figure it out...

 

[MechEng2005]

There was a way to insert a spline in Solidworks using an Excel spreadsheet to define points. It was about 4 years ago that I did it though, and haven't used SW for about 2 years now though, so I don't recall anything beyond that.

-- MechEng2005

 

[IDS]

There are a series of posts on my blog about scale drawings from coordinates in Excel, including examples for download with open source code. The most relevent link is given below; the other posts should be accessible from there.

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.co...in-excel-7-creating-drawings-from-coordinates

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[SKIAK]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I'll go with the diagonal like yakpol suggested for now. Its easy to put in there and it pretty much works. Seems odvious now, don't know why I didn't try that before.

 

[TomBarsh]

I find myself doing this today...making sketches in Excel to illustrate the calculation (and to document this so I won't have to keep making little pencil sketches when I use this spreadsheet again). Like SKIAK I do this fairly often.

In the past I have fiddled extensively with using VBA to draw scaled drawings in Excel. This can get complicated when getting fancy with scale factors, locating the picture right where you want it on the sheet, etc. This can work well, but I found it to be more of a tool looking for an application. The biggest problem was the lack of control over curved lines. I even tried to learn how to draw using lower level commands from VBA but this is beyond my meager programming talents and is not trivial. But the lack of good tools for curvy lines is apparent.

(What I really miss is the macro feature in AutoSketch for Windows 1.0. With that you could generate the geometric points using Excel, then run the macro in AutoSketch to automatically get the drawing.)

But I frequently sketch in Excel using only my eye for sizing, etc. This is just like sketching by hand on a sheet of paper. I find it helpful to sometimes increase the magnification to 200% or even 400% so I can get lines flush at corners, etc. It's also helpful to use the "group" command to lock things together when done so that you can move and size the sketch easily. I also use "heavy" line weights to emphasize the object, and lighter weight lines for dimensions. And it's easy to add text using the text blocks.