Chapter 10
Inserting Graphics and Other
Objects
Overview
Inserting Pictures
Inserting Objects
Inserting Objects Computationally Linked to Your Worksheet
Overview
To illustrate your Mathcad calculations visually, you can add:
•2D and 3D graphs
•Pictures based on values in a matrix, pasted from another application, or based on an image file
•Objects created by another application (.AVI files, .DOC files, .MDI files, and so on.)
•Graphics computationally linked to your calculations
Inserting Pictures
This section describes techniques for creating and formatting pictures in your worksheet.
Creating Pictures from Matrices
You can view any single matrix as a grayscale picture by creating a picture region:
1.Click in a blank space.
2.Choose Picture from the Insert menu or click
on the Matrix toolbar.
3.Type the name of a matrix in the placeholder at the bottom of the picture region.
Mathcad creates a 256-shade grayscale representation of the data in the matrix with each matrix element corresponding to a pixel in the picture.
Note Mathcad’s picture region assumes a 256-color model with the value 0 represented as black and 255 as white. Numbers outside the range 0–255 are reduced modulo 256, and any noninteger value is treated as if its decimal part has been removed.
To create a color picture in Mathcad, you must define three matrices of the same size that describe either:
•The red, green, and blue (RGB) components,
•The hue, saturation, and value (Smith’s HSV color model) components, or
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•The hue, lightness, and saturation (Otswald’s HLS color model) components of each pixel in the picture.
To view any three same-size matrices as a color picture:
1.Click in a blank space and choose Picture from the Insert menu.
2.Type the names of the three matrices, separated by commas, in the placeholder at the bottom of the picture region.
By default, Mathcad creates a 3-layer, 256-color, or RGB, representation of the data in the matrices. This setting can be changed, however, through the Properties dialog box and the Picture toolbar. See “Modifying a Picture” on page 111.
Online Help Since the matrices used in picture rendering may be quite large, this technique of creating a picture is most useful when you import graphics files using File Access Functions described in online Help. For example, you can use the READBMP function to read an external graphics file into a matrix, then view it as a picture.
Creating a Picture by Reference to an Image File
Mathcad can create a picture directly from a number of image file formats, including BMP, JPEG, GIF, TGA, and PCX. First, click in a blank space, then:
1.Choose Picture from the Insert menu or click
on the Matrix toolbar.
2.Create a string in the placeholder by typing the double-quote key [“] then the name of an image file in the current folder or the full path to an image file.
3.Click outside the picture region. The bitmap appears.
Each time you open or recalculate the worksheet, the image file is read into the picture region.
Note If you modify the source image file, you must recalculate your worksheet to see the modified image. If you move the source image file, Mathcad can no longer find the picture.
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Modifying a Picture
You can modify the orientation, view (zoom and pan factors), brightness, contrast, and grayscale mapping of a picture in Mathcad using the Picture toolbar. To do so:
1.Click on the picture so you see hash marks around the picture’s border, as shown at the right.
2.The Picture toolbar will pop up. Hover over each tool briefly to see its tooltip.
3.If you resize the picture by dragging on the border, you must right-click on it, then pick Zoom > Zoom to Window to make it fit the resized border
Online Help See “Working with a Picture” in online Help for more details.
Importing a Picture from Another Application
You can copy an image from another application and paste it into Mathcad.
Note If you use the Paste command on the Edit menu or use drag-and-drop from another application, you are pasting a linked OLE object into your Mathcad worksheet, (See “Inserting Objects” on page 112.) When you double-click a linked OLE object, you activate the application that created the object and are able to edit the object directly in your Mathcad worksheet.
You can use the Paste Special command on the Edit menu to paste an image as a noneditable metafile or bitmap. A metafile can be resized in Mathcad without loss of resolution, whereas a bitmap is usually viewed best only at its original size. A deviceindependent bitmap, or DIB, is stored in a bitmap format that is portable to other operating systems.
Mathcad stores the color depth — the number of colors in the image — at the time you paste it into a worksheet. You can safely resave any worksheets that contain color images on systems with different color displays.
Tip When you import images, the image information is stored as part of the Mathcad worksheet, increasing the file size. You may be able to reduce the size of the file by saving it as XMCDZ (compressed XML) format.
Formatting a Image
Resizing an Image
To resize an image region:
1.Click inside the image region to select it.
2.Move the mouse pointer to one of the handles along the edge of region so that the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow.
3.Press and hold down the left mouse button while dragging the mouse in the direction you want the image region to be stretched.