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Sep 21, 2012 17:51
11 yrs ago
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French term

amplitude

French to English Tech/Engineering Engineering (general) AutoCAD terminology
Is there anyone out there familiar with AutoCAD, or who actually has an EN version of it, whoc ould help me with this term, please?

My text is about another software application that relies heavily on AutoCAD functions within it; this term occurs specifically in relation to 'splines', and appears in the following sentence:

L'amplitude de la spline (Moyen Faible ou Fort) peut être modifiée avec la liste déroulante attenante.

Despite quite a bit of research on the 'Net, I haven't been able to find any conclusive proof of 'amplitude' being used with 'splines' in AutoCAD in EN — unfortunately, there is a lot of 'noise' which makes research very difficult.

I suspect 'amplitude' is not used in EN, and I did wonder about 'strength', which would seem to fit quite well with the 'Medium, Low, or Strong' qualifiers.

I'd greatly appreciate any help available from experts in this field.
Proposed translations (English)
3 range

Discussion

chris collister Sep 22, 2012:
Magnitude A (cubic) spline is defined by 4 independent coefficients, importantly matching the end points in slope and location. What remains is the magnitude. I know an expert who would know, but he's not the quickest in response...
Tony M (asker) Sep 21, 2012:
Further info I have since found an AutoCAD User Manual, which makes no mention of this function, or anything like it.

I am beginning to think that, although it relates to the AutoCAD spline function, it is a specific feature of my client's software, so I shall ask them for clarification. I will let you know when I hear back from them.

For future reference, here is the AutoCAD 2010 User Manual I found on line:

http://www.cadpro.com/rapidCat/WebPageImages/1315/4536/CadPr...
claude-andrew Sep 21, 2012:
Reference Tony, I'm not an expert but many years ago had to decipher AutoCAD instructions in English for a French team. Anyway, have a look at this:
http://users.isr.ist.utl.pt/~jmrs/teaching/papers/mathematic...
There are several references to amplititude, and in particular one to B-spline amplitude on p.34
Tony M (asker) Sep 21, 2012:
@ DL Thanks, D! In fact, this is nothing to do with pulse modelling, this part is a purely mechanical design function (for routing cables).

As I say, all the standard translations are OK, but don't seem to be what are actually used by AutoCAD.
kashew Sep 21, 2012:
A non-expert contribution:
http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/autocad/autolisp-solutions-draw-...

Amplitude seems good to me too!
DLyons Sep 21, 2012:
Splines can be used to model pulses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spline_(mathematics)). In that context, "amplitude" would make sense. For time-series fitting "amplitude" could also be used - see e.g. Section 4.2.1 in http://kubios.uku.fi/media/Kubios_HRV_Users_Guide.pdf

Proposed translations

9 mins

range

A possibility. Harrap's offer amplitude, range, magnitude and extent as possible translations. See reference.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Alan, I am familiar with standard dictionary translations, but I am looking foçr the specific terminolgy used by AutoCAD.
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Reference comments

1 hr
Reference:

CAD PRO USER’S MANUAL

Note from asker:
Thanks for your contribution, Mohan! It doesn't look as though this manual contains the same terms; but then neither does the AutoCAD one I also found! So I think there's something more customer specific about this, I have raised a question.
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