IntroductiontoScientific

ComputingTool Scilab

ChaoChiehLanandJianHao Liou
DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering
National Cheng Kung University
NationalChengKungUniversity
2009/09/22

ComputingToolsforMechanismAnalyses
p
g
y
Lowlevel

Mediumlevel

C++Fortran

MathematicaMatlab

Highlevel
g
WorkingModelADAMS

L
Lowlevel:
l l
Generalpurpose

Fastcomputation

Matrixmanipulationiscumbersome

Nodirectgraphicssupport

Difficulttodebug

Mediumlevel:
Matrixmanipulationiseasy Directgraphicssupport
Lessgeneral

Easytodebug

Slowercomputation

Highlevel:
g
Graphicaluserinterface

Youdontknowifthesoftwarecheatyou!

Scilab AFreeAlternativetoMatlab
A Free Alternative to Matlab
Scilabisascientificsoftwarepackagefornumerical
computations.ItwasinitiallydevelopedbyINRIAandENPCin
France.
Scilabisanopensourcesoftware.
Since1994ithasbeendistributed
freely along with the source code
freelyalongwiththesourcecode
viatheInternet.Now,thelatest
edition is 5.1.1.
editionis5.1.1.
Scilabsyntaxislargelybasedonthe
MATLAB language
MATLABlanguage.
OtherfreealternativestoMatlabincludeOctaveand RlabPlus.
3

Scilab Layout
y
Commandwindow:
*.sceisascriptfilethatyoucanstore
youprogram.
*.sciisafunctionfilethatyoucanstore
youfrequentlyusedsubroutines.

Scipad:
Youcanedit*.scefile
and*.scifileshere

BasicOperations
p
Thesimplestwaytoexecutescilab codeistotypeit
inattheprompt,>>,inthegraphicalcommand
window.
Scilabdoesntneedtodeclareavariablebefore
usingit.Nopointersarerequiredeither.
Scilabisacasesensitivesoftware.Forexample
A=[12;34];butaisnotequaltoA
Use;afterthecommandtosuppressoutputtoscreen.
=%pi,imaginarynumber=%i,%e=2.71828
Linesafter// arecomments.Usetosplitalonglineintotwolines.
atan(p/q):2quadrantinversetangent;atan(p,q):4quadrantinversetangent
CrossproductNosuchcommandforScilab.Youhavetowriteitbyyourself.
Cross productNo such command for Scilab You have to write it by yourself
Scilabis1indexing,differentfromC++whichis0indexing.

MatrixManipulations
(1) Therowelementsofmatrixareseparatedbyspace orcomma(,) ;thecolumn
elementsofmatrixareseparatedbysemicolon(;),forexample:
A=[123;456]A=[]
(2)

Themultiplicationandproductofmatrices
ThemultiplicationofAandBisA*B
h
l i li i
f
d i * orA*B
*
theproductofA B isA.*B

A=[]B=[]

(3) Set A is a matrix A is the transposition matrix of A A [

(3)SetAisamatrix,AisthetranspositionmatrixofA.A=[
] A [
]A=[]
]
(4)DenotesthesolutiontothematrixequationAX=B.
if a1*x1+a2*x2=b1 a3*x1+a4*x2=b2
ifa1*x1+a2*x2=b1,a3*x1+a4*x2=b2
SetA=[
],B=[ ],x=[ ]X=A\B

(5)ColonisaveryusefultoolinScilab.
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Programming:LoopandConditionalControl
(1)forforindex=start : increment : end
statements
end

(2) while
whileexpression
statements
end
d

(3) if
iflogicalexpressionthen
statements
else then
elsethen
statements
end

(4)breakitcan
interruptloops.

ProgrammingTipsandUseful
Commands
Put
Putthecommand
the command clear
clear and
and close
close intheverybeginningofa
in the very beginning of a *.sce
sce
scriptfiletodeletepreviousresults.
Putacommand
a command pause
pause inbetweenthelinestoserveasabreakpoint.
in between the lines to serve as a break point.
Put
Usereturntocontinueexecuting.
Usecommandwho_usertolistusersdefinedvariables.
browsevar():anembeddedfunctionwhichyoucanbrowseandeditexisting
variables.
a ab es
fsolve:findazeroofasystemofnnonlinearfunctions.Itscallingsequenceis
[[x]=fsolve(x0,fun,tol),xistheoptimizersolution,x0istheinitialvalue
] so e( 0 , u , to ) ,
s t e opt
e so ut o , 0 s t e t a a ue
whichyoustartingguessatthesolution,funisthefunctionthatyouwantto
solve,andtolistheprecisiontolerance.
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Programming ofFunction
of Function
(1) EditthefunctiononSciPad
(2) cross
(2)
cross isthefunctionname.You
is the function name You
cannameitbyyourself.
(3) fistheoutputofthefunction.u1,
u2,u3,v1,v2andv3aretheinput
2 3 1 2 d 3
th i
t
parametersofthefunction.
(4)Savethefileascross.sci
(5) Loadthefunctionexec(filepath)
andtheyoucanexecuteit
d h
i
(6)Thevariablesdefinedinsidethe
functionarelocal.Theydonot
affectthevariablesoutsidethe
function.

GraphicsPlot
p
(1)xinit: Openanewgraphic.Ifyoudontdothisdatawillbeplottedinthe
samegraphic.
(2)plot(x,y): Usethiscommandtoplotthecurveabouttherelationshipofx
andy,wherexandyarebothvectors.
(3) l t (i 1) Fi d t th l ti
(3)locate(i,1):Findoutthelocationofthepoints(p1,p2.pi)
f th
i t ( 1 2 i)

(a)thepointswhichyouchoose.

(b)thecoordinatesofthepoints.
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GraphicsLineProperties
p
p
(1) Use
Usethecommendged()
the commend ged() to
to
changethepropertiesoffigure.

((2)Choosetheitemthatyouwantto
)
y
changeitsproperties.
(3)Changetypeandwidthofthecurve.
(4)Changethecolorofthecurve.
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GraphicsAxes
Graphics
AxesProperties
Properties

(1)Keyinthelabelofaxes.
(2) Choose the item to adjust the properties of axes
(2)Choosetheitemtoadjustthepropertiesofaxes.
(3)Changethefontsizeoflabel.
(4)Thefontsizeoftheaxes.
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GraphicsExport
Graphics
ExportandPrint
and Print
(1) Choose
fileExport
(2)ChoosetheExport
typeitem,anddecide
thefiletypethatyou
wanttosave.

FilePrintPostscript

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Animationofmechanisms

Slidercrankmechanismdemo
(ex4.3,p140ofCleghorn)

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Animationofcams

(ex8.7,p.397ofWaldron)

Oscillating Roller Follower

OscillatingRollerFollower

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Scilab BrowseHelpandWebResources

Scilabhompage
http://www.scilab.org/
TheinstructionofScilab(1)
The instruction of Scilab (1)
http://msdl.me.ncku.edu.tw/scilab/Site/Scilab_files/cintro.pdf
TheinstructionofScilab(2)
h //
http://mail.nkmu.edu.tw/~crlin/SciLab_Tutorial/SciLab_tut.htm
l k
d
/ l /
b
l/
b
h

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