How do you document your calcs? 3

[mikhelson]

Pretty much everyone on this forum has to do this day in and day out. What do you use to document your calculations? MathCAD, spreadsheets, LaTeX...? Are you satisfied with the tools you use? Can you copy & paste your calcs in the report, or do they require additional editing?

Thanks!

 

[swivel63]

they normally require editing if i'm submitting computer input/output/design. when it's mathCAD or excel, it's already done....same with hand calcs.

 

[GalileoG]

The design office that I am working for does not have MathCAD. I do pretty much all calcs by hand. It can be repetitive, but I keep everything on file even the ones that have changed (I just write void across the page.) If the calcs are to be submitted electronically, I scan my hand calcs and include them on the Word file.

Clansman

If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound, and the house which he has built has fallen down and so caused the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to death." Code of Hammurabi, c.2040 B.C.

 

[kslee1000]

How much time? For staff engineers, it's about 85% or more of your time. Joked one time from my professor. But it's not far off.

Documentation can be any forms, depending on natural of work you are performing. Hand writing, word, spreadsheet... Usually engineering calculations and the accompanied sketches are attached to the main report as appendix. But each page shall be properly signed, dated with revison indicated, and each sub-section shall be clearily identifiable with its own title/subject line. Each company does it on little different way, but pretty much the same.

 

[BAretired]

Document carefully. Use lots of diagrams. Make sure the design philosophy is clear to the reader.

BA

 

[dik]

I generally do these on quadrule paper (not office standard) along with sketches and punch them and put them in a binder. At the end of the project/work, I make a *.pdf of the notes and stash them on my laptop and on the server at the office.

Dik

 

[Bobber1]

Of course, I used to do the majority of my calcs by hand. Then I realized I could type faster and now everything is in Microsoft Word. I would love to try Tedds to do this but I can buy Risa 3d for the current price of Tedds.

 

[Clyde38]

I use Excel with the add-on ExcelCalcs. .

see

http://www.excelcalcs.com/

[link

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

]

[/url]

 

[blackmaddog]

I prefer Mathcad with hand sketches. I have found that the ability to create templates and copy from previous calculations is a big time saver. Also the ability to see the equations is very nice (vs hidden in a spreadsheet).

Does anyone have an efficient method to add electronic sketches in Mathcad? Working with images from scans is a pain in Mathcad.

 

[271828]

blackmaddog,

Aside from inserting scans and electronic drawings, there is a way to create dynamic drawings on the fly in mathcad. It's not practical for routine hectic design office usage, but if you want drawings badly enough, it can be done.

Go over to collab.mathsoft.com and get on the mathcad forum. Do a search for "turtle" as in "turtle graphics." I don't know of a suite of functions for this, so you'll have to write your own. I actually did this last year for a software development project, but the info is proprietary, so I can't upload it. I'd say it took me 3 days to write the functions to draw lines, arrows, text, etc.

 

[kslee1000]

On the very first day on pushing for all "MathCad", I quit my job for the simple reason - too old and to painful to learn a program that wouldn't line up right following typing, and do simple sketch intuitively.

Don't get me wrong, I can use and do not against it. Just feel it needs improvement. Also, I was merely a small fish in an office which has more than thousands of younger, smater engineers, who are proficient on it.

 

[mikhelson]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

blackmaddog:
did you consider sketching in CAD and then importing into MathCAD or whatever you use for reports? I know that MathCAD interfaces with AutoCAD.

 

[miecz]

blackmaddog,
Although it's easier with Autocad, it is also possible to insert drawings from microstation to Mathcad.

 

[mudflaps]

Ok - I can hear the laughing now but, I still use Lotus 123 with imported stardard sketches (usually *.PIC or *.CGM files, *.BMP files work but inflate the file size too much). I've been doing this for 20 years now and the best kind of "one use sketch" I've found is a small yellow post-it note. It can be moved from print to print and the yellow color doesn't get picked up by most copy machines.

The plan checkers seem to like the obvious human intervertion into the spreadsheet environment with pencil arrows drawn from the sketch to calculated items. They tend to like knowing a human brain is guiding the calculations instead of simply punching in numbers and blindly accepting the results.

OLD Ca SE

 

[271828]

mudflaps, I wouldn't laugh at all. I remember in 1993 when I first went from bluescreen wordperfect and quattro pro to word and excel in windows. My thought was that my productivity went way down and I couldn't believe how slow it was moving about with a mouse as compared to a prompt and read setup. 16 years later, I'm still pretty well convinced that a fast keyboard user will always be better off with some sort of a prompt and read system. Unfortunately, not a single program I use is offered on anything but Windows, so it's moot.

As for the original question, I no longer do calcs on a day-to-day basis. The last time I did (4.5 years ago), the notebooks were filled with a combination of key plans and diagrams and computer printouts--nothing fancy. There'd be a few pages of manual calcs for this or that weird problem that we had no program for.

 

[csd72]

Hand calcs as they are usually quicker.

 

[graybeach]

I review a lot of calculations for things like cofferdams, unusual brackets, jacking points, etc. I look especially close at things where people could be hurt or expensive equipment could be damaged. Just saying it's PE sealed so it's ok doesn't fly because my agency has liability if something goes wrong.

Hand calcs are the best because you know the person actually put thought into the specific task at hand. Recently I had to review calcs for a heavily loaded bracket. All the consultant provided was about 15 pages of RISA output that really only checked a cantilever for a point load at the end. For something like this I want to see that the entire load path has been checked. Mathcad and excel can be ok too - I just need enough information so I can follow what was done. If the calc involves structural analysis I want to see the entire input file and the all the calcs behind the input.

I look at it this way - I want to have enough information on hand to allow me to recreate the calcs if I needed to.

 

[peinapod]

I use and have had great success with MathCad. I don't like it's interface with AutoCAD and other programs. So, I use Adobe to take a snapshot pdf of whatever I need and paste it in MathCAD. RISA interfaces well with MathCAD. I also will leave blank space for hand sketches after printing. I do not like that I can't left or right justify. It would be so easy to program this into the software. I can't understand why it hasn't happened. All they would need is snaps. I also don't like that they use squiggly underlines under variables that they have as defaults (e.g. g or the e). However, these are minor discomforts compared to the benefits.

I had to laugh at the bluescreen Wordperfect reference. That brought back memories. A friend of mine changed his Word background to have a blue screen. Awesome.

 

[blackmaddog]

peinapod,

To getrid of the squiggly lines go to Tools, Preferences, Warnings Tab, and uncheck the "Show Warnings ..." box. This drove me nuts too when we upgraded versions.

Do you insert graphics from RISA into MathCAD or ...?

 

[miecz]

blackmaddog

To answer your original question, I do nearly all my work in MathCAD. Most sketches are autocad files, where everything is drawn white on black. Some of these, with minor modifications, become contract details. My only problem is that sometimes, when I open an old MathCAD template, the autocad sketch won't open. I guess it's looking for the Autocad executable for when it was saved.