ABOUT THE ENGIENERING VIBRATION TOOLBOX:The Engineering Vibration Toolbox is a set of educational programs written in MATLAB by Joseph C. Slater. Also included are a number of help files,  demonstration examples, and data files containing raw experimental data. The codes include single degree of freedom response, response spectrum, finite elements, numerical integration, and phase plane analysis. It is included free with the text "Engineering Vibration" by Dr.  Daniel J.  Inman (Prentice Hall, 1994 ...) and is provided as a download for later editions.   The most current version, for use with the professional and student versions of MATLAB 4 or later, can be obtained via the Engineering Vibration Toolbox home page at http://www.cs.wright.edu/~vtoolbox using NetScape(R), NCSA Mosaic(R), Internet Explorer or any other HTML 2.0 capable browser for more information. Please email me directly at mailto:jslater@wright.edu if you have difficulty with this link.A brief introduction to UNIX and MATLAB is also available in PostScript format on the FTP site.If you have not already installed MATLAB or the Student Edition of MATLAB, do so now. You should be familiar with MATLAB before running this software. NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS:Regular updates are made to the toolbox.  Please send me any problems you've developed for the toolbox, I'd like to begin a collection of problems that better take advantage of its capabilities.SETTING UP THE TOOLBOX:New easy way:If you have this file on your hard drive, then you already have the vtbud.m script. Run this while connected to the internet to automatically download and install thenewest version. If it is not in your path, Open the file 'vtbud.m' in the Matlab editor and click the Run icon. (It looks like a document with a down arrow to the left).Old hard way:Only if the easy way fails for some reason (Please report to me which versions of Matlab fail to run vtbud successfully):The first step is to download the toolbox in zip compressed format. Put the directory where you want it installed. It should be in your personal documentspace so that when Matlab gets updated in the future it doesn't delete the toolbox.Free utilities exist on UNIX, Windows, and MAC for uncompressing these formats. Some of these have been posted to the web site. The documentation for the software you use will explain how to uncompress the files.  Please talk to your computer support people if you have difficulty decompressing the files.Later versions of Matlab can also unzip zip files with the zip command. The toolbox can go in any directory as long as the Matlab path to it is set properly.  Open the file 'vtbsetup.m' in the Matlab editor and click the Run icon. (It looks like a document with a down arrow to the left).Please report any installation problems. USING THE ENGINEERING VIBRATION TOOLBOXThe files on this disk will load/run on all platforms if transferred properly. Files with the extension .mat, .exa, .con, .eqn, and .out are binary files compatible on all platforms. To load them type "load filename -mat". Files with no extension or the extension .m are text files and must be transferred properly to assure that the end-of-line characters are correct for your platform. Typing 'help vtoolbox' will provide a table of contents of the toolbox. Likewise, typing 'help vtb?' will provide a table of contents for the files related to chapter '?'. Typing 'help codename' will provide help on the particular code.  Note that the 'filename' is 'codename.m'.Engineering Vibration Toolbox commands can be run by typing them with the necessary arguments just as any other MATLAB commands/functions. For instance, vtb1_1 can be run by typing "vtb1_1(1,.1,1,1,0,10)". Many functions have multiple forms of input. The help for each function shows this flexibility.CONTACTING THE AUTHOR:If you have any difficulty, please email me at jslater@cs.wright.edu.Please visit the Engineering Vibration Toolbox home page at http://www.cs.wright.edu/people/faculty/jslater/vtoolbox/vtoolbox.htmlACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:Support for the Engineering Vibration Toolbox has come from a number of sources. First and foremost, Daniel J. Inman, who initially tasked myself and Donald J. Leo to write version 3 of the software for his text "Engineering Vibration" by Dr. Daniel J. Inman (Prentice Hall, 1994). I also thank the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Wright State University for providing the computer resources for developing the MATLAB 4 version of the software. Perhaps the people who have given the most are my students who painfully experienced every piece of beta code, often at the least opportune times. Thanks is also given to Dr. Maurice Petyt and Robert C. Chiroux for their patience in testing numerous 4.0 beta versions of this software.LICENSE:The Engineering Vibration Toolbox is licensed free of charge for educational use. For professional use, users should contact the Engineering Vibration Toolbox author directly.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MATLAB is a registered trademark of the MathWorks, Inc.Mac(intosh) is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.Joseph C. Slater is the copyright holder of the Engineering Vibration Toolbox. Neither the author, Prentice Hall, nor Wright State University make any warranty with regard to merchantability or fitness for any given purpose with regard to the software. All rights are retained. No permission is given to anyone other than myself, the MathWorks and Prentice Hall to distribute this software in any manner whatsoever.