---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Matthew Parker <matt.platinumso...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 7:53 PM Subject: Calc for engineering To: i...@documentfoundation.org
Hello, I write regards the focus on calc for office use. Why not engineering, astronomy etc? I am using it for Solar calculations and to develop a dashboard for instant quotations and engineering clacs. Attached are some screen shots. The sun tracking sheet takes the position of the Sun's incline and azimuth every 15 min for a whole year. One month is about 30 columns and 1400 rows. The file is already 20MB and my computer cannot handle more. As an electrician, and pretty good trigonometry I attempted this file based it on an astronomy calculator published by NOAA whom gave me permission to use as I wish for business. See http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html My suggestion: Look at PLC programming in industry. It stands for Programmable Logic Controller. Some programmers use code but for electricians we use ladder logic because it looks like wiring. What to look at: The functions; counters, timers, shift registers, etc, etc and what I really need for my solar software LATCHING CELLS!!!!!!!!!!!!! These functions and more introduce the dimension of TIME which PLCs need absolutely to run machinery. Also known as sequencial control it introduces the dimension of TIME E.g. When limit switch I34 is active, turn off O56 (a motor driving a conveyor) and start timer T1 (while a paint tin is filled for example) which then turns on the conveyor again when timed out. OK, no need to go all out but please consider the function for Latching and sequencing through such latch function. With latching cells I could have 1 sheet for one month of sun tracking, not 12 sheets since I could use the same sheet for all 12 months. As you may see in the NOAA spreadsheet, it has one cell to change the date. If I could latch the results of January to a table I could change the date on the sheet to Feb, latch those results and move on, etc, etc, Perhaps - =if($B$1="January", A1, LATCH) which is; if B1 = "January" then insert the results of A1 otherwise latch then pull down or across or both for multiple cells since B1 is locked with $ symbols. A drop down menu could change month in B1 or as I would need: A sequencer function - = CYCLE(B1,A1:A12,If(.....)) which would run one cycle of each month from range A1:A12 through cell B1 If whatever button is pressed or condition is set. Just hypothesising. Anyway, I could crunch my 20MB spreadsheet into 1/12th the size. PLCs use a "watch dog timer" to cycle through the program before taking the next step otherwise I might get May data in my September table. In Utopia, if there was total functionality of a PLC in calc one could automate an entire office building with input and output modules and leave MSO looking rather ancient BUT the trick is however, PLCs just use software as a HMI and rely on solid logic and military grade electronics to actually run the program to insulate from crashing. But at least consider latching functions and a few sequencing controls. It would really really multiply the capacity of calc for as many times one could recycle their large data tables with different inputs. Please reply with thoughts on this concept. P.S. What can I do to make my program run effectively? I tried having 12 files open at once and linking to my dash board file but the links do not work. Matt Parker www.platinumsolarservices.com.au <http://www.platinumsolar.webs.com> PLATINUM SOLAR SERVICES REC 13198 ABN 890 1930 6213 Ph. 0466 96 2222 *matt.platinumso...@gmail.com* -- Matt Parker www.platinumsolarservices.com.au <http://www.platinumsolar.webs.com> PLATINUM SOLAR SERVICES REC 13198 ABN 890 1930 6213 Ph. 0466 96 2222 *matt.platinumso...@gmail.com* -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
