Mathcad as an Automation Server

Mathcad's Automation Interface provides a way to use Mathcad as an OLE Automation server from within another Windows application, including Mathcad itself. An Automation server is a Windows application capable of exporting OLE objects via the clipboard.

Using Mathcad's Automation interface, you can:

• Send data dynamically to Mathcad from another application.

• Use Mathcad to perform calculations or other data manipulations.

• Send results back to the original application.

The basic steps to using Mathcad as an OLE Automation server are as follows:

1. Insert a Mathcad Document as an OLE object into an Automation client. (An Automation client is an application in which you can write a program or macro to interact with an Automation server. Microsoft Excel 5.0 or higher, for example, is an OLE Automation client.)

2. Set up data to pass to Mathcad and/or places to put data retrieved from Mathcad.

3. Write a program using the client application to define and retrieve variables in the Mathcad Document object.

See the Developer's Reference for more information about Automation in Mathcad.

Add-ins

There are several applications for which the Automation client interface has already been created. These are called Add-ins. An Add-in allows you to insert a Mathcad object into another application, such as Excel and VisSim. Visit the Download area of the Mathcad Web site at http://www.mathcad.com/ for available Mathcad Add-ins.

When you click on a Mathcad object embedded in another application, the menus in the other application change to the Mathcad menus, and you can work with the worksheet as you would within Mathcad. There is only one menu command available when you are editing a Mathcad object that is embedded in another application:

File > Save Copy As

This prompts you for a new name under which to save the current worksheet. Gives you the option to save a file as a worksheet, an old version worksheet, or an RTF file.

Notes:

• The Automation Interface supersedes the DDE interface supported in Mathcad 5 and 6.

• To use another application inside Mathcad, rather than Mathcad inside another application, use a component.