OPTIMIZE. 5 Smart Ways to Use Excel for Engineering. Starting Today

Transcription

1 OPTIMIZE 5 Smart Ways to Use Excel for Engineering Starting Today

2 foreword Excel is the most common tool used by engineers of all disciplines around the world every day, yet there is almost no training available in Excel for engineering applications. Those who master Excel can stand out from the crowd and gain the respect of their peers in the engineering community. This short e-book provides actionable tips to help you: Solve challenging engineering problems Communicate clearly through spreadsheets Get more done, faster Add value to your engineering team Be a leader in your workplace Good luck! Best Regards, Charlie Young, P.E. EngineerExcel.com P.S. If you found these tips useful, let me know! You can contact me via the information on the last page. 1

3 table of contents 01 keep track of units with custom number formats 04 change units with the convert function 02 name cells to improve formula readability 05 use evaluate formula to track down errors 03 modify scatterplots from the formula bar

4 keep track of units custom number formats When you use data in the wrong units the results are disastrous. Just ask these guys. Most engineers keep track of units in their spreadsheets by entering them in a separate cell next to the data. But there s an easy way to store the units right in the same cell as the data. By using customer number formats, numbers and text are displayed together and the cell can still be used in calculations. 3

5 keep track of units example: adding units to a number with a custom number format Select cell you want to modify and open the Format Cells dialog Select Custom from the list on the left Under Type, insert the units in quotation marks. 4

6 name cells preserve your sanity Whether you are looking at someone else s spreadsheet or one you created previously, understanding the logic of an existing spreadsheet can be painful. The hardest part is decoding (or remembering) what value was contained in a particular cell, row, or column. Equations written in terms of variables are much easier to understand than those written with Excel s cell notation. The good news is that it is easy to write equations in terms of variables in Excel. 5

7 name cells example: creating an easy-tounderstand formula with named cells Select the variable cells and enter the variable names Enter the formula in the appropriate cell, using the variable names instead of cell references. 6

8 modify scatter plots via the formula bar use the formula bar to quickly make changes to charts You ve probably created countless charts in Excel using the GUI. Chances are, like many engineers, you always use the GUI for editing your charts too. But did you know that you can use the formula bar to make changes to your charts? The formula bar offers an easy way to make changes to scatter plots quickly. This feature can be used in many different ways: Quickly update the x- and y-data selection Change the name of the series Change the order in which data series appear in the chart 7

9 modify scatter plots via the formula bar use the formula bar to quickly make changes to charts The formula format for a chart series is fairly easy to decode. It contains four parts: Series Name X-Data Y-Data Series Position The formula looks something like this: =SERIES(Name, X-Data, Y-Data, Position) Let s look at an example. 8

10 modify scatter plots via the formula bar example: expanding a data selection Selecting the data series in the chart below reveals that not all of the data in the x- and y-columns has been selected. The formula shows that the x-data is contained in cells A2:A8 and the y-data is contained in cells B2:B8. By changing $A$8 to $A$11 and $B$8 to $B$11 in the formula bar, all of the rows of data are included in the chart. Of course, this example is trivial, but you can quickly see how this capability opens up enormous possibilities. 9

11 convert function let excel find the conversion factors Excel has a little known built-in function that can convert units from one measurement system to another. Chances are, that throughout your engineering education and career you have committed a few* unit conversion factors to memory. Unfortunately, no one can remember them all. You could look them up in a book or even online. But an even easier solution is to let Excel s CONVERT() formula do the work for you. *ok, it s actually a lot 10

12 convert function example: using the convert function =convert(number, from_unit, to_unit) Enter the formula using the format shown above. A complete list of recognized units is available here. Excel converts the number from an existing unit system to the one you have specified. 11

13 evaluate formula find and fix an error #VALUE! #DIV/0! The likelihood of an error in a cell increases with the complexity of a formula. Unfortunately, its that very complexity that makes the error that much harder to track down. Fortunately, Excel is equipped with a builtin tool to help you find the root cause of spreadsheet errors. The formula evaluation tool allows you to go through each operation in a complex equation to find the particular step or steps causing the issue. 12

14 evaluate formula example: finding the source of a #DIV/0 error Select the cell with an error. Then, from the Formula tab, select Evaluate Formula. When you click Evaluate, Excel evaluates the underlined expression. Continue clicking Evaluate until you find the error. Here, the source of the division by zero error is readily apparent. 13

15 about the author Charlie Young is a licensed professional engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering whose engineering simulations have been featured at multiple international technical conferences. In his decade plus experience as a practicing engineer he has learned to harness the capabilities of Excel to gain insights into engineering challenges and increase productivity. 14

16 thank you contact information For more info, please contact: Charlie Young, P.E.