Maple flow 1

[robertdyas]

Any opinion on Maple flow as a replace for my aging Mathcad 14 license? I'm evaluating the latest version and it appears to do everything I need it to.

 

[MintJulep]

Take a look at Calcpad before you pay for Maple.

GitHub - Proektsoftbg/Calcpad: Free and open source software for mathematical and engineering calculations.

Free and open source software for mathematical and engineering calculations. - Proektsoftbg/Calcpad

github.com

 

[Sparweb]

Robert,
If you contact them for a trial, I bet they'll give you a few weeks or a month free to mess about with it before buying. I did a trial of Maple Flow a couple of years ago. I found that it could be a useful tool for day-to-day use in writing calculations in support of my projects. They knew what they were contending with, Mathcad users like me needing an alternative. They tried to preserve some of the little things, but didn't get them all (like ctrl-G for greek symbols).

As of 2 years ago, it didn't come with all of the functionality that Mathcad once offered. So if paying for the software, the cost/benefit calculation wasn't perfect. It also couldn't convert my old Mathcad to a Flow format file, meaning I still am without a way to bring my old work to bear on new problems. They said they were working on it, and I haven't checked back since, so maybe they have made progress on that front since I last looked.

If you do a trial, I'd be very interested to hear from you what you think!

 

[robertdyas1972]

[I had to reregister with a new username because I lost my password, and I can't figure out how to reset my password. I'm old!]

I already am evaluating Maple Fllow. I'm a hybrid electrical/structural engineer (expert in nothing if you ask some, but the world needs generalists, right?) I'm on the cusp of retiring so need some way of giving the younger guys access to my old Mathcad calcs.

I've tried MathCAD Prime, but the annual rental doesn't sit right with me

I'm experienced with MathCAD, so this is my dispassionate take, in random order:

• In testing, MapleFlow isn't MathCAD despite some of the marketing (but I've come to the conclusion that nothing will ever be inclouding MathCAD Prime). It has it's own way.
• Ctrl+G works for greek letters
• Units are a bit clunkier to enter. But I can still carry units
• It's a single payment, not yearly rental like Mathcad.
• They have a converter for simple Mathcad 14 files (it chokes on more complicated stuff). Mine are simple, so it works for me. It's not in Maple Flow, but something they send to you afterwards (they sent me a conversion guide which helped).
• Performance is okay, not as fast as mathcad 14 but Prime wasn't either
• Technical support is good but documentation is a bit scant (they tell me their improveing).
• Got to speak to the higher ups because I might buy a few copies, so they brought out the big guns. They at least appear to be open. Never got this from the Mathcad people
• Some nice bits that are not in Mathcad. e.g I can move things with the keboard, I can see the values of variables in one place, see a phase plot quickly

I think I'll buy a copy to do more testing and convert more of my calcs (doing that by hand is a good learning excercise but the converter allso helps).
RD

 

[IRstuff]

but the world needs generalists, right?

Welcome to the CoG! (club of generalists) I was EE when I graduated, but slid sideways into electro-optical systems engineering

I think MC Prime functionality is pretty close, overall, to OG MC, but yeah, the licensing bit stinks, as does the constant obsolencing of old versions. I'm still running MC14, since MC15 had a change in licensing server that seemingly broke along the way.

I'm already retired, so "old" is relative; nevertheless, I would recommend using a password manager going forward, particularly given older folks' propensity to start forgetting things, like passwords. I just checked mine, and I have 1900 entries and given that each one was autogenerated, there's high probability of all being unique, that's not something to put into a notebook or text file.

Mathcad belongs to PTC, so their CAD products are their main line of business, and Mathcad is still niche, although I have to give them kudos for toughing it out through 9 major releases and still adding (back) features.

 

[Sparweb]

Yay they fixed ctrl-G.
I didn't get far enough to see the MC converter add-on at the time. This makes it more attractive, again.
Thank you.


BTW, have you also tried SMath Studio?

 

[robertdyas1972]

Yay they fixed ctrl-G.
I didn't get far enough to see the MC converter add-on at the time. This makes it more attractive, again.
Thank you.


BTW, have you also tried SMath Studio?

Security concerns prevent me from using SMath.
Calcpad that MintJulep mentioned is too distant from the Mathcad experience

 

[271828]

I tried Maple Flow about 18 months ago. I really wanted to like it, but gave up after the free trial period. It was a very primitive attempt at being Mathcad.

Lots of operations took many more keystrokes and mouse clicks than MC does, which is saying something because MC isn't super great at that either.

It also had a problem with inexplicably locking up, after which that file was permanently lost. When it did that on a couple of files, that was the end of the experiment.

To Maple's credit, their tech support was very responsive and was really trying to help. It would be great if they improve Maple Flow. If they do, I'll be near the front of the line to give it a shot. PTC is unresponsive to user needs, so some competition would do us users some good.