catenary

Last Updated: July 14, 2003

catenary is a program to generate graphs of catenary curves, which are the curves produced by fixing the two ends of a string, and letting the string hang freely.

Downloads

Click here to download the Windows executable (184k)

If you get the message "MSVCRTD.dll was not found" when you run the program, then you also need to download MSVCRTD.DLL (392k). Put it in the same folder in which you place catenary.exe.

Note: This program has been tested on and runs on Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows ME.

To read PDF files, you will need a copy of Adobe acroread.

Changes in version 3.1

Fixed bug in computing depth.
Added curve preview region.

User Interface Overview

Here is an image of the user interface to ccycloid on the left, with a sample of the output on the right:

catenary UI catenary example

Typical use of the program would be to set the length and depth, and click "Create Curve" to create a PDF file for the graph of the catenary. Note that as you change the width, height, and percent, the curve in the curve preview region will change. The curve drawn here is meant as a rough preview for shape, and is automatically redrawn to be of maximal size within the curve preview region. If your machine is slow, unselect the Redraw check box to disable updates.

What follows is a description of the entire user interface:

Click on Create Curve to create a PDF or PostScript file.
Click on exit to quit the program.
Select millimeters or inches (millimeters are the default)
Length, Depth: set the length and depth of the catenary. The length is the distance from the left vertical line to the right vertical line in the figure; the depth is the distance from the bottom of the curve to the top of the curve (the height of each vertical line).

You can either click the number with the mouse and edit it, or you can click and drag over the number, and the number will increase as you drag to the right and decrease as you drag to the left.
File name: the file to be created.
Auto File Name: check this option if you want the program to create the file name for you. The name will by 'catenary' followed by the width and height of the catenary.
Percent: 100% is one full period of the catenary. Currently, values greater than 100% just extend the horizontal line on the bottom.
You can either click the number with the mouse and edit it, or you can click and drag over the number, and the number will increase as you drag to the right and decrease as you drag to the left.
Caption: check this if you want a title on the plot
Letter, Legal, A4, A3: check the type of paper you expect to print on.
PDF, PS, DXF: check which type of file you want to create.
Status: messages about the creation of the file will appear here.

Hints on Printing

Depending on your printer, etc., you may need to select the print options "Landscape" and "Print as Image". Do not select "fit to page".

Credits

catenary was written by Stephen Mann for Tom King, and is based on ccycloid, a program written for Quentin Playfair. The user interface was written with fltk. This program is completely unsuported. A linux version is also available on request.