The Frame4Buckle spreadsheet carries out a buckling analysis of a column or strut, which may be divided into any number of segments with varying cross section details, allowing the analysis of stepped or tapered members. The spreadsheet includes a VBA solver which works well for up to about 20 segments, but becomes very slow for 50 or more segments. Also included is the option to call a much faster external compiled solver, using the ALGLIB library, but this requires the installation of two additional interface files (ALMatrixLib.tlb and ALMatrixLib.dll), and the AlgLib dll file (Alglibnet2.dll). These files are now included in the download zip file: Frame4Buckle.zip, and detailed step by step installation instructions are given at: Frame4; now with added Alglib. The Alglib solver has been tested on systems with 32 bit and 64 bit windows, but not with 64 bit Excel.
Note that if you have already installed the Alglib files to run the Frame4 spreadsheet it is not necessary to change anything. Also if the Alglib files are not installed, or are not working, the spreadsheet should automatically switch to the VBA solver.
Finally, for those with Python and Pyxll installed, I will soon be posting versions of the Frame4 and Frame4Buckle spreadsheets using Python solvers.
In case of any problems with installing the files or running the spreadsheet, please leave a comment here.
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 
I’m trying to run the Frame4Buckle without Alglib, but am getting errors. It usually shows the VBA debugging and the error: “Compile error: Can’t find project or library”. LCase was highlighted one time, UCase another time…
Any ideas? I’m running Windows 7 64-bit with Excel 2013
Thanks,
Dave
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I forgot to mention I’m running 32-bit Excel but 64-bit Windows
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Dave – Thanks for the feedback. The same problem was reported here once before (with the Frame4 spreadsheet), but they fixed it themselves and I didn’t follow it up.
This exact problem is reported here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-customize/ucase-problem/2a170fd6-b594-48aa-972f-cdf05a05b99b
and the solution is to add “VBA.” before UCase and LCase in the VBA code. I have now done that and the new version can be downloaded from:
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/Frame4Buckle.zip
(same link as above).
I’d appreciate it if you could let me know if this works.
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Doug, I downloaded the updated file and it seems to be working now! I’m going to work with it now so I apply it correctly to my situation. Thanks!
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