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University Student: Program Review Request

R.Kendall-UCF
1-Newbie

University Student: Program Review Request

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forums and I want to go ahead and thank everyone for participating in discussions here, because you surely do it on your own acord. I've read many threads that have come up through google when I search for how to do something in MathCAD, and I was hoping to receive some feedback from the community. A little about what I aim to do; I'm a senior in the Civil Engineering program at UCF and am trying to design MathCAD programs/worksheets to solve problems in my two current structure courses in order to gain a higher understanding of the material as well as demonstrate my ability to use programs effectively to potential employers. The two courses I'm refering to are Reinforced Concrete Structures and Steel Structures.

I'm developing these worksheets to serve as potential procedures to help me study for exams as well as to go into a "chest" incase they were to come in handy in the future. The semester just started and the attached worksheet is my first attempt at such a file. My concrete course went over an example of the sort and I worked to produce this worksheet and quickly realized that there must have been a better way to program or formulate certain equations. It is my hope that I may receive valuable advice as to how to refine these worksheets as I continue through the course.

My request to the forum, is to review my worksheet and give me your constructive insight into how I might improve the worksheet. In this case, and hopefully all the worksheets I create, I will attempt to produce the highest quality possible and your insight will be invaulable.

For reading my post this far, as well as any potential responses, I want to thank everyone for taking their time to help me out. I've developed all the figures and diagrams myself in AutoCAD and expect to put a great amount of effot into these worksheets.

Specific to this worksheet: "Singly Reinforced Concrete Beam Section"

There are a couple of areas of interest I have, that i know there must be an easier way.

The first is when I am developing an expression to calculate the Cross-Sectional area of a bar of rebar for an entire cross section of a reinforced concrete beam. The rebar input needs to be the "#, or number" of rebar. each number has a specific diameter which gives it a specific cross sectional area. You then simply multiply the amount of bars by the area of one rebar to receive the "As" value, or the total area of steel.

The cross sectional area of each rebar comes from a table, the image that is attached to the post. I found it difficult to bring this table in, and was forced to use the "max" function with a bunch of "if" statements in order to produce the results needed. Aesthetically, this approach isn't acceptable, as my equation travels three page widths to the right. This is my main concern of the worksheet, and I value your opinions to how to do this more efficiently.

Thank you again to anyone who would like to help me out, I look foward to your responses.

-Ryan Kendall

41 REPLIES 41
MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:wayne)

Wayne,

Would your calculated bar size be sufficient when submitting to a client? i.e. no reference?

Because he could just reference the table.

Mike

Mike,

I was working out how you did everything in the example you made for me, and I have a question.

I figured out the table and feel confortable in understanding how it was created and everything, and I think i understand the notation you used to bring out the values from the table. My question is how do I input the superscript " <0> " used to notate a column of the data to be referenced. If i carrot up and start a <, i believe it is starting a different type of function.

-Ryan

Ryan Kendall wrote:

Mike,

I was working out how you did everything in the example you made for me, and I have a question.

I figured out the table and feel confortable in understanding how it was created and everything, and I think i understand the notation you used to bring out the values from the table. My question is how do I input the superscript " <0> " used to notate a column of the data to be referenced. If i carrot up and start a <, i believe it is starting a different type of function.

-Ryan

This is available from the arrays and vectors toolbar. the hot-key is cntrl-6.

This is available from the arrays and vectors toolbar. the hot-key is cntrl-6.

Do you mean the Matrix toolbar, or do you have different palette names to me?

Mike

Wayne describe how to find the column operator, it's also found on the Matrix toolbar.

Colunms can also be selected another way, see below.

Clipboard01.jpg

Not as elegant, but it can be done other ways.

One can also extract indivual variables from a matrix.

Clipboard01.jpg

Mike

Mike Armstrong wrote:

Wayne,

Would your calculated bar size be sufficient when submitting to a client? i.e. no reference?

Because he could just reference the table.

Mike

Actually, I was correct only up to #8 bars for which the actual diameter is given as bar*1/8".

I expaned the equation in the attached.

However, for checking, it is the bar number (#4, #8,etc, or in metric #10M, etc that is transferred to the plans, so is actualy better for checking. Other equations use the actual bar diameter and detailing (bends), use the nominal diameter.

However, when doing a lot of designs, I think the equation is faster and takes less memory that a component table.

But, either is fine.

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:wayne)

Actually, I was correct only up to #8 bars for which the actual diameter is given as bar*1/8".

I expaned the equation in the attached.

However, for checking, it is the bar number (#4, #8,etc, or in metric #10M, etc that is transferred to the plans, so is actualy better for checking. Other equations use the actual bar diameter and detailing (bends), use the nominal diameter.

However, when doing a lot of designs, I think the equation is faster and takes less memory that a component table.

But, either is fine.

Got it. Cheers Wayne.

Mike

wayne
3-Visitor
(To:wayne)

Guess I forgot to attach the file

Okay, so i put together a new worksheet incorporating various suggestions from everyone. I tried to put descriptions next to my equations and make the units more applicable. I decided to use mike's use of an embeded excel component to produce my steel areas and I used wayne's example of the beta constant. His equation was much neater.

The last issue I have with this worksheet is my final nominal moment calculated at the bottom of the page. I'm multiplying a kip * in and i would like either kip*in or kip*ft as my output when i want to display the moment. in the worksheet, i'm using a custom us system with length changed to inches and force changed to kip. For some reason, the moment is being converted to (lb*in^2) / s^2.

I've looked through my mathcad book and cannot figure out how to change this value to display what i want. any suggestions?

You need to type the unit lbf*ft yourself, mathcad defaults to the lb unit. Click on the result and type the desired units in the box at the end.

Like below.

Clipboard01.jpg

As wayne said, Mathcad will define to the standard unit system.

Clipboard03.jpg

Mike

I think that i have this worksheet completed. Everybody's help was invaluable and I expect to only improve with my next worksheet I create. I would like to thank everyone for their effort and time given to me, i sincerely appreciate it.

-Ryan

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