TL;DR This button exports a simple ordered list of the variables as they are defined and a unique hash of the calculation. Use it to compare versions.
Mathcad Compare Worksheets Utility
The Mathcad compare worksheets tool has its limitations, especially for large sheets where a small insertion near the front shows everything as 'moved'.
This makes the comparison tool ineffective. One needs to see which maths regions have actually changed, rather than cosmetic movements.
When a large workshhet is being developed of a multi-option project, many variants of the worksheets are created. It can be difficult to track (in retrospect) what happened, especially if some intermediate 'not quite finished' variant is discovered to have value. This sheet offers some help.
This worksheet provides a component (button) that will export all the maths regions, in calculation order, both to an internal Mathcad matrix, and to an external text file.
Importantly, you can select which information is important to you, and the complicated formulas are summarised by a CRC16 hash. So all you see [need to see] is the variable being computed, and it's summary hash, in worksheet order. e.g.
'Definition', 'ExportType', '0xAF2D'
'Definition', 'PosX', '0x89AF'
'Definition', 'PosY', '0x305'
'Definition', 'i', '0xACB8'
'Function Definition', 'MathStrings', '0x7D6C'
'Function Definition', 'DefMathStrings', '0x249F'
By comparing the output from say two older version files, particularly using a comparison tool (Beyond Compare, kdiff3, MS Word even) you can see which file / worksheet introduced new variable of changed calculations, thus eliminating the confusing cosmetic changes that the MathCAD Compare tool gives.
Limitations:
- The button itself isn't classed as 'maths' so output variables defined by buttons are not noticed.
- Graphs are also 'cosmetic' rather than a 'result'.
Summary:
A simple button to export a linear summary of the worksheet for comparison between worksheets.
Philip Oakley
