Common Problems in Maple Labs

When Maple Runs Slowly

Some of these files can get very large, especially ones with 3-d graphs. As a result, they can take a full minute or more to save. Maple has a default setting to Auto-Save every three minutes. As a result, Maple can appear to "freeze up" when it really is just bogged down. To turn off Auto-Save, go to Tools, then Options, then turn off Auto-Save (or increase the time between to something more reasonable).

Printing Issues for Maple Labs

When you print out your labs, be sure to look over the print-out. Sometimes the worksheet does not print exactly as it looks on your screen. Some common printing problems are listed below.

• The computer lab printers give you trouble if you try to print out the entirety of Lab 3 or Lab 4 in one go. You can avoid the problem by printing out first the 2-d material in one worksheet, and then the 3-d material in a second worksheet.
• Commonly when you print out a 3-D graph, the view on your screen does not match the view on your paper. This happens when you change the view using the mouse. To be sure the correct view is what gets printed out, you'll need to use the orientation option in the plots 3d command. First use the regular plot command and then use your mouse to get the view you like. Then take note of the values of theta and phi listed in the upper left-hand corner of the window (see this screenshot). Then add the option orientation=[theta,phi] to the plot3d command with the desired values for theta and phi filled in.
• Using the mouse to zoom in and out of a graph (called "scaling") can cause them to print out in strange views. If you do any scaling of a plot, be sure to re-evaluate the command to reset the picture.