Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide - Hands-On Demonstration

Overview
This demonstration is designed to give you hands-on experience with Maple 12. By following the step-bystep instructions, you will enter expressions, perform mathematical operations, and create and annotate
plots. Along the way, you will have the opportunity to try many new Maple 12 features, including polar
plots, dials, headers and footers, and the Exploration Assistant. At the end of this document, you will find
links to applications that demonstrate Maple 12's new control systems design tools and CAD connectivity.
To try this material on your own, start with an empty Maple document. Perform the steps found in the left
column of each table below. The results of each step are displayed in the right column for your reference.
Note for non-Windows users: The keystrokes given in this document are for Windows. There will be
differences for other platforms. If you are using a different platform, see Help > Quick Help for the list of
the most common keystrokes.

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Introduction to Maple 12
Steps

Results

Entering Equations
1 Kx2
When you launch Maple you start with a blank
document, with menus and toolbars at the top,
palettes on the side. At the cursor, you can start
typing math. To enter the expression shown on the
right,

1 Cx

Type 1-x^2
Highlight the expression and type " / " The
cursor will automatically bring you to the
denominator.
Type 1+x^2
Note: Notice that the exponents and fractions are
formatted automatically as you type. To get out of a
superscript or fraction, press [right arrow].
Using Context Menus
1 Kx2
You can use Maple's context menus to perform a
wide variety of mathematical and other operations.

integrate w.r.t. x

1 Cx

Kx C2 arctan x /

Place your cursor on the expression, and rightclick. The context menu offers several operations
to choose from according to the expression that
you are using. To integrate this expression,
select Integrate, then x.

4
2

To plot the result of the integration, right-click on

the result, and then select Plots > 2-D Plot.
The context menus are self-documenting. The text
above the arrow shows what operation has been
performed.

K10

K5

0
K2

5
x

10

K4
K6

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Changing the Problem

Mathematics in a Maple document is live. You can
go back, make changes, and re-execute the problem
to obtain a new result.

1 2
x
3
2
1 Cx
/
1K

integrate w.r.t. x

1
4
xC
arctan x
3
3

1 Kx
Go back to your original calculation of
2
1 Cx
2
Place the cursor in front of the x in the
numerator.
1
1K x2
3
Enter 1/3 so the expression reads
1 Cx2
Highlight the entire line, including the plot, then
click the execute button,
, found at the top of

1
0.5

K10

K5

the Maple document.

5
x

10

K0.5

All selected calculations are updated.

K1

Adding a Second Plot

1 2
x
3
1 Cx2
/
1K

In Maple, adding a new curve to an existing plot is

as easy as dragging and dropping.

integrate w.r.t. x

1 2
x
3
Highlight the expression
with your
1 Cx2
mouse, hold down the [Ctrl] key and drag it
onto the plot.

1
4
xC
arctan x
3
3

1K

1
0.5

K10

K5

5
x

10

K0.5
K1

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Plot Annotations

1K

Graphs can be manipulated and customized using

the context-sensitive menus.

1 2
x
3

integrate w.r.t. x

1 Cx
/

1
4
xC
arctan x
3
3

Right-click the plot area and select Axes>Toggle

Gridlines.

1
Select one of the curves by left-clicking on it.
The curve should be highlighted. Then right-click
on it and select Line>Dash.

0.5

Right-click again and select Color>Blue.

To zoom in on the plot, select

from the

Plot toolbar. Left-click on the graph and, while

holding down the mouse-button, move your
mouse up to zoom in, down to zoom out.
To pan the plot, select

from the Plot

K10

K5

5
x

10

K0.5
K1

toolbar. Left-click on the graph and, while

holding down the mouse-button, move your
mouse to pan the plot.
Palettes and Symbol Completion
Maple has over 1000 palette symbols within the
over 20 palette menus. The Expression Palette
contains fill-in-the-blank templates for common
operations such as integrals and derivatives.
Maple also has a Symbol Completion mechanism
which provides an alternative to palettes for entering
symbols such as , N, and Greek letters. When
using symbol completion, you type the first few
characters of the symbol's name, then press
[Ctrl][Space].Maple will provide a list of
possible choices for completion.
In this example, we will use palettes and symbol
completion to create the expression
5
sin
4

e
K2 cos 2 , which represents the field
intensity of an antenna.

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Open the expression palette (click on

"Expression" on the left-hand side of your Maple
a
document) and click the e button. The exponent
placeholder is selected automatically.

5
sin
4

K2cos 2

Start entering the exponent: 5/4 [right

arrow] sin(
To enter , type: theta [Ctrl][space],
then select the symbol from the pop-up menu.
Type the final ), then use [right arrow] to
leave the exponent
Enter the remaining expression: - 2 cos(2
theta [Ctrl][space])

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Interactive Plot Builder

e
Plotting is made easy in Maple. You can use the
Plot Builder Assistant, one of many interactive
task assistants in Maple, to create a variety of styles
of 2-D and 3-D plots and animations, including the
new polar plot.

5
sin
4

K2 cos 2 /

Main Beam

3
4

Right-click the previous expression and select

Plots>Plot Builder>2-D Polar Plot>Plot
To label the plot, first select the plot then click on
from the taskbar
Select the Line button and draw the lines for the
beam range. Double-click to finish the line
segment. If you single click, use [Esc] to drop
the second line segment.
To draw the arrow, first draw a line where you
would like the arrow to be. Select the line so it is
highlighted. From the Drawing toolbox select
Line Styles, then select an arrow head.

0 1 2 3 4 5

5
4

7
4
3
2

Finally select the Text button and click on the

drawing where you would like to enter the label
text.
To change the color of the lines, select a line so it
is highlighted then click
to select
the color.

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Dials, Gauges, and other Components

Users can interact with your application through
buttons, sliders, and other point-and-click tools,
without having to know how to use Maple. Maple
12 provides many new components particularly
suited to engineering applications, such as dials,
meters, and gauges.
We will create a dial which controls on of the
parameters of the antenna, and updates a plot
accordingly.

Open the Components palette and drag a Dial

and Plot

into your work

3
4

area.
Dial Properties
To set the dial properties for this application, rightclick on the dial and select Component Properties.
Change the following properties:
Value at Lowest Position: 1
Value at Highest Position: 10
Current Position: 8
Spacing of Major Tick Marks: 1
Spacing of Minor Tick Marks: 1

0 2 4 6 8 10

5
4

7
4
3
2

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Click Edit next to Action When Value Changes.

We will tell Maple to update the plot based on the
setting of the dial.
Enter or copy/paste the following code into the
dialog box. Be sure to place it before the end
use; command, as shown below.

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

val := Do(%Dial0);
Do(%Plot0 = plots[polarplot](exp(
(5/4)*sin(theta))-val*cos(2*theta),
theta = 0 .. 2*Pi));

Press OK, and then OK.

To turn the dial, hold down the left mouse button
and drag. The plot will update as the dial is
changed.

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Formatting a Document
Maple has many word-processing tools available to
allow you to turn your explorations into polished
technical documents.
To organize this document into collapsible sections:

Usability
1 2
x
3
1 Cx2
/
1K

integrate w.r.t. x

Highlight the work done on the first equation

1 2
x
1K
3
, including the plot.
2
1 Cx
Select Enclose
from the toolbar. Left-

1
4
xC
arctan x
3
3

1
0.5

click next to the gray arrow and enter the title:

Usability

K10

K5

5
x

10

K0.5
K1

Visualization

Highlight the remainder of the document and

select Enclose.
Left-click next to the gray arrow and enter the
title: Visualization
Note: To expand/collapse all sections at once, select
View>Expand All or Collapse All.

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Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Headers & Footers - New!

For printed documents, you can add headers and
footers to each page. Select from predefined
options, or customize your headers and footers.
Select View>Header Footer. Select the
predefined header ,Date,Page.

Select the tab Custom Footer. In Center type

Maple 12 Demonstration.

Select Print Preview to preview the document.

Further Explorations
In this section, you can start a new blank document, or work directly from this document.

Exploration Assistant - New!

The Exploration Assistant allows you to instantly create interactive mini-applications used to explore
the parameters of expressions. For this example we will explore the integral:
sin x a$cos x

dx

To enter this expression yourself, select the indefinite integral

from the Expression palette,

then enter the remainder of the expression (don't forget to use ^ for superscript and right arrow to get
out of superscript). You can also copy it from above, or simply work directly inside this document.
Right click on the expression and select Explore.

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Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Check skip for variable x.

A new document window will open with the function and sliders. Move the sliders to see the results
for the given parameter values. The result will look similar to the image below.

Exploring sin x a$ cos x

dx

The Exploration Assistant works for plots as well.

Enter the expression
plot sin a$x C cos b$x , x = 0 ..10
You can also copy it from above, or simply work directly inside this document.
Right-click on the expression and select Explore.

12

Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

A new document window will open with a plot and sliders. Move the sliders to see the results for the
given parameter values. The result will look similar to the image below.

Exploring the plot of sin ax C cos bx

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Maple 12 Reviewer's Guide

Control Systems Design Tool - New!

Maple includes a suite of powerful routines for defining and analyzing dynamic system models, which
are essential in control systems development.
To see an example of the calculations and plots that can be done in the Dynamic Systems package, go to
Help> Take a Tour of Maple and select Control System Design Tools, or follow this link.
To see a complete application using these tools, go to Help> Take a Tour of Maple and select DC
Motor Control Design, or follow this link.

CAD Connectivity - New!

Maple 12 adds important analysis capabilities to CAD systems, giving CAD users the ability to use
Maple's computational power to analyze and optimize designs. Using Maple, CAD users can answer
such questions as What are the mathematical relationships between objects? and How do changes to
object properties impact other objects?
To see an example go to Help> Take a Tour of Maple and select Radiator Sizing, or follow this link.
Note: You can view this example even if you do not have a CAD system installed.

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