Welcome to the magic world of Excel animation!
– All the animated models are created using plain MS Excel and VBA.
– All the Excel files and PDF tutorials can be downloaded from BLOG page.
– All the downloads on this site are FREE and there are hundreds of them.
Hello!
Finding engineering work quite unchallenging lately I decided to start this blog in which to share cool ways of solving engineering problems or just interesting modeling of natural phenomena in MS Excel 2003.
I use cell formulas and VBA in order to take advantage of the ease of “programming” and the native speed of the Excel spreadsheet.
My name is George Lungu and I am the author of this blog. In my daily life I am a circuit designer.
Why bother with this blog?
1. It’s science, it’s physics, it’s electronics, mechanics, games …you name it. You could also suggest future directions of development
2. Engineering is coming back in force and it will rule again. Lots of people nowadays want to either manage or market that’s why we need more engineers.
3. It might be boring at times but it’s very useful stuff. I will give it a sugar coating by producing “live” models with at least some catchy animations and sound effects
4. You can understand most of it with just a high a school background. No computer language is necessary. A little visual basic (VBA) will be involved but you’ll learn that on-the-fly. We do search Wikipedia occasionally here but as a last resort.
5. If you follow this and begin to model your own ideas with your own methods you could build some real understanding of engineering. School is good for acquiring discipline and a background, but only you can teach yourself deep knowledge by personal experience. Learn by having fun!
6. This blog it’s just a lure. The best and most effective teacher lives inside you.
7. The most important aspect: no matter what you want to do, start by thinking and experimenting before reading or asking someone else (no matter who).
Trust me on this one, you are far smarter than you think (if you dare to use your mind).
One month of continuous pondering and experimentation will get you farther than a year of school.
Learn slowly, speed is a big spoiler. The traditional education system is built on speed and superficiality.
“External teachers” were taught one thing: compliance. And that’s what they will teach you.
Trust your “inner teacher” instead. You won’t be disappointed.
Why Excel?
- Excel is cheap and and you can find it everywhere.
- It’s a good environment to do complex programming without being a programmer. It gives you the feel of of a bread board. A donkey could use it…
- As opposed to regular programming languages, Excel is a two-dimensional programming canvass
- Excel has decent built in graphics (I like using 2D scatter plots)
- As a 2D matrix calculator, Excel it’s wickedly fast
- Excel has decent GUI capabilities within the program itself
- Programming in Excel gives you more understanding of physical processes than “black box” type programs such as Matlab, Simulink, Octave since in Excel you build everything from basic formulas
All right, Excel, but why versions to use?
2007 is slow and bugsy. While most of the models should work in most versions, if one is serious about speed, Excel 2003 or earlier is a better choice. In terms or charting speed the new Excel is about 10 times slower than the old Excel (see a 2008 study here). By the same study, with 1023 MB of RAM, the Excel 2007 Line charts take 15 to 22 times as long to redraw as the Excel 2003. The recalculation time is also slower in the new Excel, but only by about 30% (study).
And why Microsoft?
I have to admit that for introductory scientific modeling, Excel is a great overall choice out there. Though I am not against product evolution, I decry the drop in speed (mainly charting speed) in the last versions of Excel. And by the way, while Open Office “Calc” is alright for filling taxes, it is about one order of magnitude slower than Excel for large calculations. I admire the open-source initiatives though.
https://www.mail-archive.com/users@openoffice.org/msg80893.html
I am not sure Alex but you can pose the question on mrexcel forum.
I found something related though:
https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/83978-can-excel-run-text-file-macro.html
https://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming-vba-macros/534151-include-vba-macros-as-text-file.html
Hi George.
Do you know if it is possible to run a macro in excel from a txt file?
For example, write some loops in the txt file, and call them in VB (excel)
Regards
Do you mean something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAhvk6HE_YI
Hi George,
Exactly, I plan to build a solar thermal collector array using a P-mirror and a selective surface reciever. I’d like to play about with some different mirror configurations and reciever shapes (ie. circular and flat). And I was hoping that your circular mirror ray tracer could be modified to achieve this?
Many thanks,
Tommy
Hello George,
I been looking at your spherical mirror tutorial. And I find it very interesting indeed. I was wondering if was possible to modify this for parabolic mirrors?
Many thanks,
Tommy
Hi Tom, my time is very limited now but I should because a lot of people are looking to build reflectors for solar power applications. Are you mostly interested in a program that maps a mirror with certain characteristics for you, so that you can physically build it?
Thanks Fredrik! Things go very slow in the industry indeed.
We are dealing with the insurance right now but at least we are out of hotels and found a decent house instead.
All the best and good luck with your research. When you tell me about a power plantI cannot refrain from thinking at the powerplant in Springfield where Homer Simpson works :-}. Cheers, George
Hello George
I want to start with giving you a great thank you! I am a system engineer in the fields of nuclear power reactor in Sweden. At my spare time am I running a small engineering firm (easier to play around with some R&D that way in this country). For a couple of years ago did i get an idea of a product to motocross and enduro. I am surprised over how long time R&D really takes from mind to the state were you actually have a prototype. Most of the time I get stuck on things that I am lesser good at and it is here were you get into the picture. I have really learned a lot just by studying your *.pdf-documentation and also the excellent nice work *.xls-files. Once again a really big thanks for my new inspiration that you have been giving me!
Best regards and hope that the rebuild of your house is working out really well for you!!!
/ Fredrik
Hi George,
It is interesting to know that there are people like you on earth who are willing to inspire others. What you have done with Excel designs is a revelation of the latent ability in man.
Meanwhile, I am into Finance Management. I do not know how you can help me either by tutorial or referals to other sites so as to gain such wonderful knowledge in Excel application.
You are a blessing to our generation.
Regards
Victor
Victor, thanks for the kind words. For now we need to rebuild, hour house in Colorado has been burned down. All the best, George
Hi George! I’m just passing by to say thank you very much for sharing you wonderful and useful work with Excel! You’re the man!
George,
i miei complimenti per il tuo blog.
é il blog più interessante su excel in internet.
[George, my compliments for your blog.
Is the most interesting blog to excel on the internet]
Grazie, thanks.
Thank you Gio for your kind words! George