Presenting Calculations

[drawoh]

I have just submitted a set of calculations using Microsoft Office 2010. I attached some sketches and views from SolidWorks, as well as a JPEG from my digital camera.

Everything in Microsoft Office was visible on my computer screen. When I tried to print it, everything including and past the PNG files from SolidWorks, did not print. I saved the calculations in PDF format, and I got a complete print-out. Upon closer examination, I see that not all the calculations are being presented. The square root signs are missing. There may be other issues.

The next time I have to do this, I will seriously consider bringing in my Linux laptop, and using LaTeX to do this. Interactive PDFs here we come!

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any other suggestions?

--
JHG

 

[fel3]

Are you using MS Office's Equation Editor to show your calcs or are you using some other method? If you're using Equation Editor, I don't think that's the problem…unless, of course, there is some corruption in your software installation. This sounds more like a printer or printer driver problem or some other incompatibility problem. Regardless, this is not normal behavior.

For years, I have used Equation Editor in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, embedded various image file formats, and created PDFs using Adobe Acrobat and it's drivers. I have never had the problems you described. For an extreme example of the use of Equation Editor (prepared in MS Word and printed to PDF), you can check out a document I prepared on The Four Fours Game at

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81083786/20120125-FEL-Four-Fours

However, rather than just showing your work using MS Office (w/ or w/o Equation Editor), I suggest also having your computer DO the work. For this, I suggest Mathcad. Mathcad Prime 2.0 is ~$1400, which is far more than most of us can justify. However, PTC just release a FREE version of Mathcad Prime 2.0 called Mathcad Express. It is stripped down to be sure, but it still has almost everything I need and it's happier with Windows 7 than my vintage 1994 version of Mathcad 8.0. You can find Mathcad Express at

http://www.ptc.com/product/mathcad/free-trial/?gclid=CPbrt63i9LMCFUjZQgodiGQABQ.

I also posted some more details in the PTC: Mathcad forum at

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=334626

==========
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[MiketheEngineer]

You might try a different font - some are not so friendly??