What is the best way to use tables?
Should I create spreadsheets and import the values from the spreadsheet?
or
Should I create matrices and save them as snippets and copy them into the current calculation then hide them?
or
Is there a way to import from other SMath calcs where I can create large Matrices?

Maybe this is preference? Is one easy/better than the other?

Thanks again!

Wrote

What is the best way to use tables?
Should I create spreadsheets and import the values from the spreadsheet?

That is easy with importData.ODS() and ImportData.XLSX() (documented in the pdf Handbuch)

Wrote

Should I create matrices and save them as snippets and copy them into the current calculation then hide them?

There is no comfortable matrix editor, therefore, I do not recommend that. Snippets have the inherent risk of outdating.

Wrote

Is there a way to import from other SMath calcs where I can create large Matrices?

That is possible with include(). Again, I would recommend to use external files.

In Buchmayr (2002), you find under mcd-files/mcd_K8_Bauteil&Werkstoffauswahl a mathcad file for generation of Ashby style material property charts with corresponding data files (csv format). I believe that this can be reproduced in SMath Studio.

Hmmm, for some reason my post response disappeared.

First thank you for the response.

A few follow up questions:

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Snippets have the inherent risk of outdating

What do you mean by this?

In following situation what would you suggest?
I'd like to make an excel workbook with multiple worksheets which contain different material properties and sections. So say a concrete sheet, steel, masonry, etc. I would be using this data workbook for calculations on a few different computers so I'd like to make relative references to the data workbook (spreadsheet).
Also I'm thinking I would make snippets that I would use in my calculations. So for example:
You create a new calculations smath page. You need to design a steel beam. You go to snippets and select steel beam. This adds the calculation to the page. You input your design forces, then select a beam size. The calculation finds all the necessary beam properties in the data workbook/spreadsheet which is in the same folder as the smath calculation (relative reference). Then I add another snippet this time say for a concrete member and so on.

Does this seem possible?


Also regarding Buchmayer - I wish I spoke German and my ancestors are probably disappointed in me.... but is this just a large database of section properties?

Thanks again!

Wrote

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Snippets have the inherent risk of outdating

What do you mean by this?

If you make corrections to your snippets, then these changes only affect sheets which import the snippet after the correction. Documents of different age may contain different versions of the same snippet. If that is ok (or even required for documentation purposes), then you are fine with snippets. If not, then you might consider include(), which dynamically includes definitions from sm-files (but does not execute them, as I understand).

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In following situation what would you suggest?
I'd like to make an excel workbook with multiple worksheets which contain different material properties and sections. So say a concrete sheet, steel, masonry, etc. I would be using this data workbook for calculations on a few different computers so I'd like to make relative references to the data workbook (spreadsheet).
Also I'm thinking I would make snippets that I would use in my calculations. So for example:
You create a new calculations smath page. You need to design a steel beam. You go to snippets and select steel beam. This adds the calculation to the page. You input your design forces, then select a beam size. The calculation finds all the necessary beam properties in the data workbook/spreadsheet which is in the same folder as the smath calculation (relative reference). Then I add another snippet this time say for a concrete member and so on.

Does this seem possible?

I think this is possible. If you are not going to combine different snippets in a single document, you might generally use template files.

I am considering a similar project based on the german FKM Richtlinie design code.

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Also regarding Buchmayer - I wish I spoke German and my ancestors are probably disappointed in me.... but is this just a large database of section properties?

The example I mentioned is on material data (metals, ceramics, polymers...), not on sections. But many suppliers provide data tables for sections, which can be read into SMath.

Martin, thanks again for entertaining my questions.

When you say template files, what are you referring to?

It seems the main difficulty is that in order to "perform work" (i.e. findrows()) on the table you must import the table. So say for example the steel beam example. I must first import all the sections to be able to look for the correct section selected. I must also only import this table once or it will start to slow down the page.

Do you know if there is a way to have a dropdown list. And not only a dropdown list, a dropdown list that is populated from an external file. i.e. I would like to have all the steel sections load into a dropdown list.

Anyway let me know how your progress goes.

Attached is an example for a steel beam. The small issue is that this calculation may be repeated many times on a page.

Edit:

FYI there are errors in the design procedure. Only intended as an example

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Data Table Beam Example.7z (776 КиБ) скачан 186 раз(а).

Hi Ioan,
I'm exploring how to accomplish your request, but I'm a little bit busy this month so it's not matter of days....

Btw as general rule a radio button list is useful for a short list of options (so if you need to use it as selector for steel sections, the control should be chunked in many controls, e.g. section shape and section height...) (Actually I can't see your example, so maybe you have already done something similar )

Best regards,

Davide

Wrote

As they say: if you do not have some bread, you could take some cakes...

That's a little bakery but step by step we'll try to produce also the bread :d


[hide]P.S. someone has to worry about the neck?

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"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"

:-p [/hide]

Thanks again for the replies. I will take a look at your proposed solution.
A couple of quick questions:

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If I may a suggestion is: to take care on overlapping regions.

When you say regions - you mean the box that highlights the area (aka region) of text on the page?
Is overlapping bad? Reason I was doing this was to get everything to fit on one page. And some sloppiness...

Ioan - I'm not sure what type of calculations you are creating but if they are similar to mine do I have the correct process? Meaning importing a table then "performing work" on the table when inside SMath? Also just out of curiosity do you create Structural Engineering Calculations? I'd really like to create a robust continuous beam analysis calculation that I can use in my calc page but I would need to use it repeatedly and it just seems like the file would get too big. I'm not even sure where to start with something like that. You would need a separate page that would act as an algorithm and you would send your inputs to the this algorthm and then they would be sent back for each separate case.

Side question - Why does the "thank" you button not work for me (google chrome browser and/or IE11) I can't see the hidden message!!!!

Another question -

Ioan - I can't seem to use your files as they were created in a newer version and it says that I need a "Math Region" plugin, which apparently does not exist.
Any ideas on what I can do?
Also just so I understand ->
you created a file using wfile then you read the file to the variable. After this are you suppose to delete the origional commands that created the matrix. Or how did you

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Once saved the table, I disabled some commands.

disable the commands? Which commands?

Sorry for so many questions, some day I hope to know enough to really do something... someday...

Ioan -

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1. I'm doing the same kind of Structural Engineering work as you. So I understand well your work.

This is great to hear, I will try to not ask too many questions but I'm sure I will have some. I try to start another thread to try and convey some fundamental questions I have about the best way to apply the program toward structural engineering calculations (although I'm sure they can apply to any engineering discipline).

I have problems opening the file still and I'm curious why this is.
First when I opened the file it informed me that the calculations was created with a newer version, so I downloaded the latest versions of the nightly builds.
Then when I try to open the file I receive this message.


So I downloaded the combobox but I cannot download the math region (why is this?).

Then when I open the program without the math region I receive this message.



Any insight on my problems?

Just for fun: here is table selector based on sliders with selection highlighting by a 2d plot region. No use except being a small programming exercise...

Note: by changing the position of any region, the z-ordering if plot region and matrix seems to be reversed.

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Tabellenauswahl.sm (1 МиБ) скачан 109 раз(а).

Wrote

Any insight on my problems?

That Math Region plugin is a built-in plugin and the required version is embedded in the Nightly build: SMath Studio 0.97.5189 (17 March 2014)

If is the version that you have installed, could be useful to uninstall completely SMath Studio using external tools like Geek uninstaller, to be sure that the further installation comes in a clean environment

Wrote

I don't know why, when the focus is on a slider the plot zone turns invisible and vice versa, being hard to use.

Very strange. As shown in the attachment, the matrix keeps being displayed in front of the plot region when the slider has focus. If I shift any region by just one step, then the plot region comes to the foreground and the matrix disappears. But you obviously mentioned a different problem, which I cannot reproduce.

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Wrote

By putting focus on the slider (as you can see) the plot zone becomes white.
I tried this on two different computers.

The same for me, but you can see the figure shown by Martin if you select both the matrix and the underlying image region and you move a little bit to the bottom the selection.

This one is more robust, no overlapping regions and no quotes any more. Much easier to adjust.

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The bread.... (Ioan's worksheet + ComboBoxList)


edit: numeric optimization of data matrix

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Steel - Member WF Combined Stresses direct.sm (1 МиБ) скачан 170 раз(а).

Very Nice!!

Note:
This worksheet as far as beam design goes is in error. It checks for unbraced length incorrectly.

Where can I find how the Combobox works again.... I'm doing somthing wrong.

How do I tell the combo box what information it should contain?

Thanks!

Wrote

Where can I find how the Combobox works again.... I'm doing somthing wrong.

How do I tell the combo box what information it should contain?

Thanks!

Double click in the active area->Settings (may take some tries)

Thanks Martin I will Take a look at it.

Ioan previously had used wfile and rfile to speed up the proccess of importing tables.

Is there a way to import the table from excel then store it as a matrix in smath then delete the link to the excel file?

Thanks.