Ask Me Anything About Mathcad with Andy McGough
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I have been a paid subscriber to Mathcad since the late 1990’s. As a former a beta tester and advisor on new features, my interest and commitment to Mathcad is substantial. However, I am concerned about the future of Prime when I see more discussions on it not working rather than use.Yes some old problems are addressed with each new release. But installation and operation issues are starting to out number Topics on using the software to solve engineering and science problems. Even just upgrading to the new version or obtaining the new license keeps changing, adding to the frustration.For many of us, Mathcad is our only reason to use PTC’s products. Please do not make it a reason to be the last.
Mathcad Prime 10.0.1 correctly read cells from Excel which includes multiple lines (<ALT>+<Enter>), displaying de read content in several lines within Mathcad.The correct interpretation of <ALT>+<Enter> was removed in Prime 11 and 11.0.1.Formatting the displayed way of the content of read values, without this change of lines, is impossible.Is this correct interpretation restored in Prime 12?
One of the things that has always been a feature of these forums is the willingness of experienced users to provide help and guidance to others. In addition to help with how to use the Mathcad software the forums provide a place to gain advice and assistance with dealing with engineering challenges, problems that go beyond the simple application of the software to understanding the basic physics of a situation. One remaining impediment to this feature is the inability of Prime to save a file in an earlier version of Prime; a file asking a question in Prime 10 can be read in Prime 11 or 12 but if this file is modified and saved by a later version and posted as a reply it cannot be opened unless you have a more current version of the software. This is a great marketing tool--”Here’s your answer. To view it you must buy the latest version of the software!” But it’s a lousy way to share information. The forum is littered with requests to modify a file to enable a specific version to
Thanks for the new option to customize the range of page numbering in Header/Footer, very useful when assembly a bigger document with several worksheets.Question 1: is it possible to link the page numbering to a running variable that keeps track of the overall numbering?I mean, first worksheet have 5 pages, then second worksheet starts on page number 6 until number of pages, then third worksheet starts on next page number after worksheet 2, etc.Question 2: does it exists a variable which provides the total number of pages of the current worksheet?
Hot off the release of PTC Mathcad Prime 12, PTC Mathcad product management director Andrew McGough will log on to PTC Community on May 5 from 10 to 11 AM (Eastern Time) to answer your questions! Post your questions about Mathcad Prime 12 or Mathcad more generally (including about the future of the product) in this special Ask Me Anything About Mathcad board between now and the end of the AMA session. Use the Create topic button in the top right corner to post your question(s). Each question should be its own topic (one question per topic)—Andy will post his responses as replies.Please refrain from asking questions about how to do specific things in Mathcad—that’s what the rest of the Mathcad section of the Community is for!
Hello, I have been a paid user continuously since Version 1 back in the 80’s. In some important ways, Prime is still clunkier than earlier versions. I find I have to leave the keyboard, grab the mouse do some clicking on the document and then resume typing to add every new region.I generally like to create my documents in two columns: equations in one, and text describing them right beside, but nicely aligned. In the old days you could type an equation, press a key (possibly it was Tab) and it would skip right and you could start typing text. Another key (return??) would take you to beginning of a new line and you could continue. These days Tab only moves you to the next existing equation or document top, except it doesn’t even do that if you are in a text region.How can you exit a text region and get over to the beginning of the next row without grabbing the mouse. That is a lot of down and left arrows to press?What I would like isan easy keystroke to leave an region and go to th
It is said that in order to run PTC Mathcad Prime, you must have the latest Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime 8.0.x package for Windows x64 installed on your computer. At the same time .NET 8 end of life (EOL) is November 10, 2026 – after this date, Microsoft issues no further security patches or bug fixes. EOL means real risk: unpatched vulnerabilities, compliance failures... Am I missing something? It seems rather serious. It looks as if I have to skip the latest version. Does Mathcad Prime v12 work with .NET 10?
We have been asking from Prime 9 for the possibility to have variables in Header/Footer to be able to include information like project number, name, document number, revision index etc. which are read from the excel file where all the input values are located.I mean, at the beginning of the worksheet, we have a collapsible area where we read an excel file containing the input values to be processed, including project name, number etc. but that general information is to be used in the header/footer of the workseet.Has this possibility been included in Prime 12? Or do need to continue waiting for it?P.S.: thanks for the new option header/footer different on page 1! That was also needed.
Is it possible to edit the Functions tab on the Ribbon to add additional functions, such as Piecewise Continuous?
Since the beginning of Mathcad Prime, PTC has snubbed loyal users by providing a subprime legacy file converter. It can take hours of work to tweak a converted file to get it to match the original, and you need to have a working installation of Mathcad 15 to ensure that the converted file works as intended. When are we going to get the proper file converter that we deserve?
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