TABLE OF CONTENTS Any time a company opens its product for customization, the consumer wins. Mathcad is one such product. Mathcad worksheets can be used to perform calculations and then can 'hand off ' the information to MicroStation through the use of VBA. Of course, Mathcad is not a Bentley product. And the inclusion of Mathcad in this book should not be considered an endorsement in any way. The same should be said of Microsoft Excel and any other third-party products discussed in this book. That having been said, Mathcad like Excel can be customized and channels of communication can be opened between Mathcad and MicroStation resulting in an integrated solution.
Mathcad includes functionality that allows us to perform calculations (simple and complex) in a sketchpad type of environment. Variables can be used in these calculations and standard mathematical nomenclature is used so our formulas in Mathcad look just like they do in reference materials we may use. Mathcad provides hundreds of operators and built-in functions for solving technical problems. Mathcad can be used to perform numeric calculations or to find symbolic solutions. It automatically tracks and converts units and operates on scalars, vectors, and matrices. Not only does Mathcad understand Units, but it takes care of all conversions from one unit to the next for us (inches to meters, gallons to liters, etc.). And should we need a unit that does not appear in Mathcad out of the box (such as Hands), we can add it to...
