From my own experience, in creating XLRotor I wanted a comprehensive analysis tool for rotordynamics where user productivity is paramount. It was absolutely essential that the program execute lightning fast, be extremely easy to use, and avoid the use of model size reduction so as to always deliver maximum accuracy.

I’m confident that engineers who use XLRotor will be very pleased with the software and the results it delivers.

—Dr. Brian T. Murphy, PhD, PE

Files

Several programs which you might find educational and useful are available for free download. The first three are MathCAD balancing programs for single speed influence coefficient balancing. You type in original vibration vectors, vibration vectors with trial weights added, and the trial weights themselves, and the correction weights are computed automatically. The 4th file is a MathCAD file of 2 plane multispeed least squares balancing, where the response data is read from data files. Since these are MathCAD documents, all the formulas are displayed which greatly aids in understanding exactly what the program is doing. There is also a document for calculating the split of a desired balance weight between two locations (e.g., holes). All these documents should work with all MathCAD versions 6 or later, on a PC or Macintosh (except the least squares one, PC only, version 7 or later).

• single_plane_single_speed.zip (1,527 bytes)
• two_plane_single_speed.zip (1,723 bytes)
• three_plane_single_speed.zip (1,784 bytes)
• 2p_multispeed_balancing.zip (38,036 bytes, MathCAD v7 or later, PC only)
• two_hole_split_calculation.zip (1,272 bytes)

The following Excel workbook file contains a data base of common bearing lubricants, with density and viscosity and thermal properties. The file also displays graphs of these properties versus temperature.

• Lubricant_properties_calculator.XLS(84,480 bytes. Right-click, and go to Save File, or Save Target).

• Enhanced mouse cursor
• Zoom and pan of chart scales
• Copy/paste chart scales between charts
• Edit all series formats for one or more charts

To download Chartool, click here (chartool.zip 177,496 bytes, last updated December 28, 2012). This zip file contains one Excel addin file, and one Word document. Chartool works with Excel 2003 or later. The VBA source code is viewable within the addin.

FindInFiles is a utility for Excel VBA development which searches the currently active VBA project for a string, and lists all lines containing the string (along with module name, routine name, and line #). You can then double click a line in the list to jump to that line. This allows searching for strings at the start and end of lines which the Excel VBE cannot do. Download by clicking here (findinfiles.zip 63,394 bytes, last updated Aug 27, 2003). This zip file contains one Excel addin file. The VBA source code is viewable within the addin.

Smooth_curve_bezier_example_file.xls solves one of the long standing mysteries of Excel. This file demonstrates that it is possible to compute a curve that matches the one Excel draws for its "smooth curve" feature on xy scatter charts. This algorithm is also used in Chartool to enable its cursor to follow Excel's smooth curve. Download by clicking here (smooth_curve_bezier_example_file.zip 23,750 bytes, last updated Mar 15, 2003).

There are a great many other outstanding Excel specific sites on the web. Here are links to some that have helped a great deal in the development of XLRotor.

John Walkenbach's site includes a very complete list of Excel related sites of all kinds: http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/index.htm

Rob Bovey's company, Application Professionals, site includes several free utilities: http://www.appspro.com/

Stephen Bullen's site: Office Automation, Ltd..