Mathcad 15, Gone?

Question

Mathcad 15, Gone?

(OP)

14 Oct 22 19:02

The IT guy just informed me that the latest update from PTC did not include the standard mathcad 15 license key.
We have a question out to PTC if this is intentional or a mistake, but I fear for the worst. Anyone have insight into this?

I've dreaded the day the Mathcad 15 is gone and it maybe that time. I just searched my bank of Mathcad 15 files that I use, 181 hardworking files over the past 8 years of engineering for me. Maybe it's time to move on and forget the beauty that was mathcad 15 :(

S&T - www.re-tug.com

driftLimiter (Structural) · Answer 1 · 2022-10-14 20:28:48

I think you can upgrade those files to Mcad Prime. Seems like you might know that and don't want to use Prime but I figured its worth mentioning. Also I have heard talk (cant confirm) that you can convert to Smath.

dik (Structural) · Answer 2 · 2022-10-14 20:31:30

Thanks, drift... I wasn't aware of that. I don't have many MathCAD files.

-----*****-----

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

sticksandtriangles (Structural) · Answer 3 · 2022-10-14 21:12:54

I've put my foot in the sand and have decided to not use prime.
I will probably try to go to Smath if mathcad 15 is truly gone.

S&T - www.re-tug.com

driftLimiter (Structural) · Answer 4 · 2022-10-14 21:45:24

Lol good on you. There isn't anything wrong with Prime except the price imho. In fact prime is quite a bit more useful for documentation etc. But I know many many Mcad15 users who will never use Prime so I guess its a common thing.

Sparweb (Aerospace) · Answer 5 · 2022-10-15 05:25:56

Thumbs-up for sticksandtriangles.
You'll be happy with it - but warning that the graphing functions in SM suck.

dik (Structural) · Answer 6 · 2022-10-15 15:00:08

About the only time I've used it for graphing was for some weld programs... something like (General one; I have them for all shapes) and it's really primitive. The weld pattern is the graphics part:

https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1665845952/tips/Weld-Group_zhipk6.pdf

https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/raw/upload/v1665845952/tips/Weld-Group_xl3huv.sm

-----*****-----

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 7 · 2022-10-15 15:30:11

M15 used a perpetual license, so even though the "latest" version does not include M15, your original installation should still be valid and operable. We use M15 almost exclusively, and have never had an issue with our network licenses

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

PNachtwey (Electrical) · Answer 8 · 2022-10-16 16:53:46

I still use Mathcad 13 on an old WinXP VM. I refuse to upgrade because the symbolic processing was not as good on the latter versions of Mathcad.
I started wit Mathcad 3 in the early 1990s I think. I still use Mathcad 13 to make control videos but I am shifting more and more to python.

Peter Nachtwey
Delta Computer Systems
http://www.deltamotion.com
http://forum.deltamotion.com/
IFPS Hall of Fame Member

Stick. (Mechanical) · Answer 9 · 2022-10-17 14:33:27

I can still use Mathcad 15 with my company's network licenses, although my IT department has said that if Mathcad 15 ever stops playing nicely with a Windows update, we'll be SOL so we should switch to Prime now to avoid future issues. Whether that's overly dramatic or not I can't say, but worth thinking about.

sticksandtriangles (Structural) · Answer 10 · 2022-10-17 15:02:54

I got word from the IT department that our network license is officially gone.

Sad day for sure.

S&T - www.re-tug.com

skeletron (Structural) · Answer 11 · 2022-10-18 04:03:38

Yeah it happened to me last year. I thought it was because my perpetual license was bought through an academic program. But also...perpetual = perpetual. They gave me a 4week warning and then one day the network key didn't work like it had in previous attempts. RIP.

I have tried searching for ways to convert the mathcad files at least to PDF so I can set up equivalent SMATH sheets. I think there is a Python script somewhere which might do it, and there's probably a way to do it through a trial of mathcad's other products.

Sparweb (Aerospace) · Answer 12 · 2022-10-20 03:44:34

"I have tried searching for ways to convert the mathcad files at least to PDF"
You had to do that before MC quit on you.

Try opening your XMCD files with Internet Explorer. The file format is XML.
This is just a wild-a##-guess but it might make something "visible" that you can re-type/print/something.

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 13 · 2022-10-20 06:09:36

Any text editor can view the XML data in a Mathcad file

This is from one of mine, but it's a long haul to get to an actual Mathcad-like view

CODE -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<?validation-md5-digest 936885c90c02e8da9823ad59afd57718?>
<worksheet version="2.0.2" xmlns="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/worksheet20" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ws="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/worksheet20" xmlns:ml="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/math20" xmlns:u="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/units10" xmlns:p="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/provenance10">
	<metadata>
		<generator>Mathcad Professional 13.0</generator>
		<userData>
			<title/>
			<description/>
			<author></author>
			<company/>
			<keywords/>
			<revisedBy></revisedBy>
		</userData>
		<identityInfo>
			<revision>2</revision>
			<documentID>a84f930b-c860-45b5-99c8-cef83790e7d7</documentID>
			<versionID>1ccf4eea-737d-40f7-ba77-66e1c83608d7</versionID>
			<parentVersionID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</parentVersionID>
			<branchID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</branchID>
		</identityInfo>
	</metadata>
	<settings>
		<presentation>
			<textRendering>
				<textStyles>
					<textStyle name="Normal">
						<blockAttr margin-left="0" margin-right="0" text-indent="0" text-align="left" list-style-type="none" tabs="inherit"/>
						<inlineAttr font-family="Arial" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false" line-through="false" vertical-align="baseline"/>
					</textStyle>
				</textStyles>
			</textRendering>
			<mathRendering equation-color="#000">
				<operators multiplication="dot" derivative="derivative" literal-subscript="small" definition="colon-equal" global-definition="triple-equal" local-definition="left-arrow" equality="bold-equal" symbolic-evaluation="right-arrow"/>
				<mathStyles>
					<mathStyle name="Variables" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="Constants" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 1" font-family="Arial" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 2" font-family="Courier New" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 3" font-family="Arial" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 4" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 5" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 6" font-family="Arial" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="User 7" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
					<mathStyle name="Math Text Font" font-family="Times New Roman" font-charset="0" font-size="10" font-weight="normal" font-style="normal" underline="false"/>
				</mathStyles>
				<dimensionNames mass="mass" length="length" time="time" current="charge" thermodynamic-temperature="temperature" luminous-intensity="luminosity" amount-of-substance="substance"/>
				<symbolics derivation-steps-style="vertical-insert" show-comments="false" evaluate-in-place="false"/>
				<results>
					<general precision="6" show-trailing-zeros="false" radix="dec" complex-threshold="10" exponential-threshold="3" imaginary-value="i" zero-threshold="15"/>
					<matrix display-style="auto" expand-nested-arrays="false"/>
					<unit format-units="false" simplify-units="false" fractional-unit-exponent="false"/>
				</results>
			</mathRendering>
			<pageModel show-page-frame="false" show-header-frame="false" show-footer-frame="false" header-footer-start-page="1" paper-code="1" orientation="portrait" print-single-page-width="false" page-width="612" page-height="792">
				<margins left="54" right="57.6" top="54" bottom="54"/>
				<header use-full-page-width="false">
					<left>{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fprq4\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\fbidi\fprq5\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}

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

PNachtwey (Electrical) · Answer 14 · 2022-10-20 17:23:07

So what do you do with the xml file? It is easy enough to convert it to a .json file for python but all I see above is formatting info.

Peter Nachtwey
Delta Computer Systems
http://www.deltamotion.com
http://forum.deltamotion.com/
IFPS Hall of Fame Member

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 15 · 2022-10-20 18:51:53

Buried in all of that is the actual stuff you see on the screen within Mathcad. Basically, the actual stuff is less than 10% of the XML, the majority is format and placement of the math stuff

Quote:
<region region-id="482" left="186" top="186.75" width="65.25" height="78" align-x="219.75" align-y="228" show-border="false" show-highlight="false" is-protected="true" z-order="0" background-color="inherit" tag="">
<math optimize="false" disable-calc="false">
<ml:define xmlns:ml="http://schemas.mathsoft.com/math20">
<ml:function>
<ml:id xml:space="preserve">v2q</ml:id>
<ml:boundVars>
<ml:id xml:space="preserve">v</ml:id>
</ml:boundVars>
</ml:function>
<ml:matrix rows="4" cols="1">
<ml:real>0</ml:real>
<ml:apply>
<ml:indexer/>
<ml:id xml:space="preserve">v</ml:id>
<ml:real>0</ml:real>
</ml:apply>
<ml:apply>
<ml:indexer/>
<ml:id xml:space="preserve">v</ml:id>
<ml:real>1</ml:real>
</ml:apply>
<ml:apply>
<ml:indexer/>
<ml:id xml:space="preserve">v</ml:id>
<ml:real>2</ml:real>
</ml:apply>
</ml:matrix>
</ml:define>
</math>
<rendering item-idref="4"/>
</region>
<region region-id="973" left="300" top="218.25" width="120.75" height="12" align-x="300" align-y="228" show-border="false" show-highlight="false" is-protected="true" z-order="0" background-color="inherit" tag="">
<text use-page-width="false" push-down="false" lock-width="true">
<p style="Normal" margin-left="inherit" margin-right="inherit" text-indent="inherit" text-align="inherit" list-style-type="inherit" tabs="inherit">Real and vector conversions</p>

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

Sparweb (Aerospace) · Answer 16 · 2022-10-22 18:37:42

Oh, then any text editor will do. It looks great and quite readable in Notepad++.
(For those who need to know: Notepad++ is much better than microsoft Notepad).

Interesting things appear embedded in the code.
For example, there is a call to "http://schemas.mathsoft.com/math20".
The address doesn't work but it does redirect to a 404 page at PTC.COM, like anything to Mathsoft, I assume.
I wonder if it was meant to load in a format like a CSS page for HTML, or do something else?

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 17 · 2022-10-22 20:06:02

Here's some more information about the schemas https://community.ptc.com/t5/Mathcad/xml-schemas/t..., but the discussion seemed to degenerate.

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

noratetoobig (Structural) · Answer 18 · 2022-12-08 05:50:55

I'm a little confused as far as I was aware Mathcad should still be able to be used as long as one has the license key file. I actually have 3 licenses. One is now defunct since it was a freebee when I upgraded from 13 to 14 and was on a time lock, however. As long as I change the date on the computer its installed on, it still works. The other two are version 15 M045 and I can move them from computer to computer via the PTC website to create a new license file. One of those licenses was my original dating back to 2000 which I upgraded to 13 and then further upgraded under my then maintenance contract. The second license was an offer at half price on one of the upgrades. I have let the maintenance contract lapse now, so wont be upgrading again. That said, I am still able to use them and can still move the license files, which are system generated and automatically emailed to me after changing computers in my PTC account (having an account is free and will clearly show what license one has by the product no).

I'm sure PTC will not stop this service since surely purchasing a license should still allow one to use the product effectively forever, even without a maintenance contract, as long as one has an applicable license file. MathCAD 15 still works on Windows 11, although there could be a danger that one day compatibility may be an issue if MSoft change the operating systems architecture, which probably won't happen for a few years yet.

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