MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
(OP)
I have still been using MathCAD 12 (I think, very old version that works just fine).
So far my initial impression is unfavorable, but I don't know how much of that is due to Express' limitations. Also, this is my first time trying Prime, so some of these issues may have been around since they changed to the MathCAD prime format.
1. Is there a way to change the interface to 'Classic MathCAD' (auto detect text or equations, use the '.' for subscripts, etc.). If I have to learn all new keystroke shortcuts, I may as well use MS equation editor and do the calculations by hand.
I'd like to keep this thread open for future questions/discussion if possible.
So far my initial impression is unfavorable, but I don't know how much of that is due to Express' limitations. Also, this is my first time trying Prime, so some of these issues may have been around since they changed to the MathCAD prime format.
1. Is there a way to change the interface to 'Classic MathCAD' (auto detect text or equations, use the '.' for subscripts, etc.). If I have to learn all new keystroke shortcuts, I may as well use MS equation editor and do the calculations by hand.
I'd like to keep this thread open for future questions/discussion if possible.
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I'm personally still using M15, and it's unclear whether I'll ever switch over.
There was a controls template that one could hack to change things like units and shortcuts in the older versions of MC, but I don't know if the same applies to MP.
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Point is, it seems to work great, even in Win10, and I'm not seeing, so far, a reason to go with the new version, but I don't think I can get an old version at my new job. :/
It's not terrible, but if I have to relearn everything, it's really going to slow me down for a while.
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I stopped upgrading at MC13. MC14's symbolic solver wasn't as good as MC13's.
I think PTC owned MC when the upgrade to MC14 was made. They broke the solver.
@IRStuff, does MC15 work with Windows 10?
I must run my MC13 on a WinXP virtual machine.
I still use MC13 a lot. I have a lot of files ( history ) using MC. I have about 800-1000 MC files. I am slowly converting the most important files over to Python if they are math intensive. The symbolic problems I have converted to Mathematica. Mathematica was only able to solve about 1/3 of the symbolic problems that Mathcad couldn't.
I have downloaded the trial MCP and tried it. I am not impressed with putting lipstick on a pig. I bet that PTC doesn't have any engineers/programmers that really understand MC so that they could improve MC's internals.
MC has a few severe faults. wxMaxima and Mathematica will allow symbols to represent formulas. There is are operators that allow separating a symbols left hand side of the equals from the right hand side. Basically, symbols that represent formulas can be manipulated. There isn't as much cutting and pasting in wxMaxima and Mathematica as there is using Mathcad.
Mathcad will always display a-b as -b+a. I hate that.
Mathcad does not optimize recursively. Many times I must copy a sub-expression and optimize it separately then substitute it for the original sub expression.
The Mathcad minerr routine is poorly documented and doesn't work very well. I can provide the same initial guess and get different answers every time I hit control F9.
I have been using Mathcad since version 3. There are many time people post MC files that I can't open so I can't help. I probably have a good example.
MC is good but has never been ready for prime time.
Peter Nachtwey
Delta Computer Systems
http://www.deltamotion.com
http://forum.deltamotion.com/
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
For whatever reason, Mathsoft, and the PTC, collectively decided to make the Prime file format incompatible with the original program; not unlike block chain splitting, I guess. After the debacle of the code rewrite for Mathcad, I think PTC decided to take the slooooooow approach to re-writes, to avoid the previous catastrophic releases. I think that MP5 supposedly was planned to be the equivalent of M15 in functionality, but MP5 was supposed to beta-test near the end of last year, and release this year. I don't know if I'm out of that loop, or it's just that nothing's happened. A likely possibility is that the slow-roll of MPx caused a lot of users to bail, and there's insufficient revenue to justify making the next release.
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Mathcad 2.52 will run in Dosbox on a W7 machine
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
That said, since the main reason for using MathCAD is to make the equations look right when I paste them into my reports (and it's nice that the calculations are there), there's not much point in using even the free version, much less getting my company to purchase another license.
Time to start learning MS Equation Editor. :/
Thanks for the input.
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I am not a power user of any Mathcad with about 100 Mathcad files and have only recently switched over to Prime 4.0. My first impressions are that things like the page ruler and print settings are very minimal, but for the most part if you do straightforward code formulas (ASME BPVC, AISC 360, etc.) the Prime version will likely be sufficient for most of your needs. I have yet to use it for evaluating equations for specific variables, as I had used MC15 to do for some flat plates in a few Timoshenko books, so I'm not sure how it will work just yet.
This sort of reminds me of when Ansys rolled out their Workbench front end, which looked "pretty" but was limited compared with what APDL could do, or when Solidworks came out with DesignModeler which was limited compared with what CosmosM could do. I may be off base here with my analogy, but after using Prime 4.0 for a few hours that's the feeling I get.
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
In my case, almost none of my MC15 worksheets translated cleanly - but again, they may have expanded the library of supported translated functions in later versions. I can't recall whether my problems were because of the functions I was using not being supported (I do use quite a lot of Mathcad curve-fitting and surface-fitting functions, for example), or if my syntax was unusual, but I am not enough of a Mathcad guru to think I would be doing anything particularly elaborate.
In the end, I gave up trying to translate my old worksheets across to Mathcad Prime, but I generally use Prime for "quick and dirty" simple calculations.
http://julianh72.blogspot.com
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I have tried the free Mathcad prime from PTC and I find it too limited even for many rudimentary tasks (eg. vectors).
I have a copy of Mathcad 13 that still works and I expect I will continue using it until my OS stops accepting 32-bit programs. Since this is a program I have personally bought, using it at work causes some issues. At one workplace, they were willing to buy a license of Mathcad for me but the approval process took almost a year and then they installed it on somebody else's machine instead of mine. So until I left that place, I would occasionally use my personal copy of MC for calculations. Where I work now, the computers are "locked down" and without administrator privilege, I can't even install MC13 on my work PC. But I can get SMath Studio to work, it is sufficient for my more typical needs, and it doesn't need to be licensed when used for work, because it's freeware. I find the file conversion process a bit buggy, and some graphs don't come in at all. I may commit to using more of SMath long-term, which means that won't be concerned with backward compatibility with the XMCD format. I have already made a donation to the developer.
STF
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
STF
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
You reminded me, for the first time in YEARS that I once set up a virtual machine on my home computer for EXACTLY that purpose.
Tonight I fired it up, clicked on Mathcad 5+, and wow - it still works :)
Jeez now you got me going, and it's rainy tonight, I'll have to have a DosBox session and play some space invaders.
STF
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I still use my old version on my own machine, but this new version is like learning a completely different software and it just doesn't seem worth it.
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
https://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=...
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
STF
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
The attached was a page of an 8 page calc in SMath. It was copied and pasted into LibreOffice and printed using DoroPDF as a printer driver. The *.pdf was converted to *.png using Paint.Net, and the *.png file was loaded to the forum.
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
That, or maybe Mathcad 13 was the last of the MathCADS before PTC took over... My Mathcad 2000 seems to work fine, but, am using it less and less.
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
STF
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
Dik
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
I also use Mathcad to fit equations to data. My record is 15 variables for a non-linear differential equation. Mathcad 13 does a decent jobs but sometimes Mathcad13 exits too soon before the minimum ( optimum ) solution is found.
I am starting to use Python for simulations and fitting data to equations but Python is slow relative to Mathcad13.
smath looks good but I wonder if it has a minerr or optimize function like Mathcad, Scilab or Python.
Peter Nachtwey
Delta Computer Systems
http://www.deltamotion.com
http://forum.deltamotion.com/
RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm