Nothing at all to do with sheep...
Nothing at all to do with sheep...
If you’re not aware of what the LET() function is, prepare to be informed (and get out from under the rock you’ve been hiding under!). The LET function was introduced in July 2020, and I must admit it wasn’t until this past week that I actually started using it in anger, and now I can’t stop myself using it. I quite like what you can achieve under certain use cases and I think I’m going to use it a lot…
Well, it’s not often I wake up at 4am and get excited about Excel formulas. Today was one of those days though. There on Google was the recommendation for a link saying on sheet lambda functions are on their way to Excel…. Currently in beta. This is pretty cool, can’t wait to test it out. It almost brings the full power of defining your own user defined functions in VBA to an on-sheet equivalent. Really looking forward to seeing how…
Following on from the previous blog posts in this series that provided functions for calculating the NZS1170.5 seismic coefficient. I’ve added some further functions to the GitHub repository that utilise the previous functions to generate an ADRS curve in accordance with the provisions of NZS1170.5 and the draft Seismic Assessment of Existing Buildings guidelines produced by MBIE in NZ. What is an ADRS curve you might ask, well it’s an Acceleration Displacement Response Spectrum, and they look like the below…
Version tracking Excel VBA code with git…. I’m not talking about uploading your spreadsheets to GitHub and calling it a day…. boring, we can do a bit better than that obviously! I’m talking about extracting your actual VBA code from your spreadsheets and tracking changes to that code using git. Well, that’s a pain you might say, extracting/exporting the code modules from Excel manually each time you make a change. Well, I couldn’t agree more, it would be a major…
In this final instalment let’s use the functions. They should hopefully be self-explanatory with the VBA comments, but there are a couple of subtleties to be aware of.
The functions discussed in Part 1 are outlined below. Click here to go to the GitHub repository with the full code and some extras. Or simply cut and paste from this page.
As exciting as it is calculating seismic coefficients (it’s not), you get sick of doing it by hand and implementing it time after time in various spreadsheets. Theres nothing worse than seeing someone calculate their seismic coefficient wrong on page 2 of their calculations as well, though it always gives me a laugh that they went on and did 403 pages of calculations based on the wrong seismic load…. laugh it happens.
Something that really irks me when checking others concrete designs, is the apparent lack of knowledge surrounding moment or tension reinforcement development. Along with the concept of moment coverage diagrams to prove that all regions of your member have sufficient moment strength. Isn’t this the point of designing the beam….. Arrgghhh!
The other day I learned a useful shortcut in windows, being that the Windows key + SHIFT + S opens up the snipping tool in windows, very handy. This is something I always used to open manually with a search for via the start menu, very cumbersome right. This got me thinking, what other things am I ashamed to admit I found out way after the rest of the world apparently did, and way after I’d like to admit after…
I’m not a fan of the imperial system when it comes to engineering calculations, I make no secret of this. Nothing is easier than multiples of ten in my mind, it just makes sense. As opposed to a 12 here and a 3 there, and the whole mass and weight thing which I didn’t even realise existed…..
Well, this post has been a while coming (since Part 9), not because it took a lot of work. Quite the opposite, more regarding a lack of progress on this project in the last few months! Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes (by this I mean work essentially…. you know how it is… ).
In part 1 we added a single line of JavaScript, it was basic. But hopefully that single line of JavaScript provided some inspiration on how you could make other stamps you might create dynamic, and less specific. In this post we’ll do another example, but this time I’ll show you how to use some data input by the user when you place a stamp to do some calculations using JavaScript.
In my previous post I commented on how Bluebeam could be made a ‘little‘ bit more useful. It wouldn’t be that hard for the developers … surely. However, if you know a little JavaScript and are motivated enough you can make some mark-up tools that are just a little bit smarter.
As far as I can tell, Bluebeam has all but become the defacto standard for electronically marking up PDF’s in structural engineering consultancies. By default, it basically comes with nothing to make your job easier as a structural engineer when it comes to structural specific mark-ups.
In Part 2 we covered the functions for creating coordinates for accurately representing shear reinforcement (stirrups and links) using an XY scatter chart in Excel. In this third and final part, we’ll cover the functions for outputting the minimum lengths of stirrups or links. As mentioned in the first part in this series, estimating the total length of bars and hence weights can be a tedious boring process. These functions take out boring bits, but it’s still not ‘exciting’.
Onto explaining the user defined functions, if you have no idea what I’m talking about go see Part 1.