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A
AG_1092101010-Marble
10-Marble
March 13, 2024
Question

Mathcad Prime 9 Symbolic Engine Spinning Wheel

  • March 13, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1913 views

Hi

 

We had to upgrade to Prime 9 in the company after years of using Mathcad 15. It has not been a pleasant experience. In this case even a simple copy paste of an equation can cause the symbolic engine to crash/become unresponsive.  The yellow wheel spins endlessly. But the worst thing is when you quit the program and start MC again,  the symbolic engine becomes unresponsive - you have to physically restart the computer to clear whatever is causing the problem. I have tried using a Process Explorer on Windows to see if any background tasks were left running but to no avail. I get the feeling the problem most often starts after opening an existing file, trying to copy/modify an equation, then the calculation engine seems to start and stalls. If you open an existing file and toggle the calculation on/off before doing anything and get it to run then it seems to stay stable. But once you get that wheel and an "Unresponsive" message - restarting the computer seems the only option to get MC to run "Responsive" again and start calculating.  I have only seen this in files where I have symbolic calculations.

 

Has anyone encountered something similar, and better yet found the reason?

 

AG_10921010_0-1709203281179.png

 

Andy

2 replies

L
LucMeekes23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
March 13, 2024

One thing you have to realise, if you didn't know it already, is that the symbolic processor in Prime (as of version 7) is a different one than the symbolic engine of Mathcad 15. This may cause totally different(ly looking) symbolic results.

But the picture you show (Why did you not attach the worksheet?) contains fairly straightforward symbolics that shouldn't choke the new symbolic engine.

 

Success!
Luc

A
AG_1092101010-MarbleAuthor
10-Marble
March 13, 2024

Hi Luc

 

I did not attach it as it is not always reproducible and it is related to company work. Yes, I was aware of the new engine, the file is was also created brand new, not an exported Mathcad 15 one either. It is also not only this file specific either. Had it happen on others as well. I am trying hard to like prime, but it is really not easy.  Exactly, what triggers it is a bit unclear. I get the feeling I copy one equation at the top and paste it somewhere and then can be enough to trigger it into a calculation that starts the spinning wheel. But once you get it starting to calculate and it runs through, then it is OK for teh remainder. You get the yellow wheel for a few seconds on say the first equation, and if it gets past that without hanging it is OK for the rest of the time. I could probably live with just restarting Mathcad if that reset the problem - but a full computer reset seems necessary to quit whatever else was started.

 

BR

 

Andy

L
LucMeekes23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
March 13, 2024

Generally it takes Prime a couple of seconds to fire up the symbolic machine, which it does upon identifying the first symbolic expression it needs to re-evaluate. That's normal Prime behaviour.

 

Luc

ttokoro
21-Topaz I
ttokoro21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
March 13, 2024

I also using Prime 9 to solve electrical engineering sheets. Auto labeling sometimes need very long time even very symple equations.

So check the variables as auto labeling to variables or right labels they should be. Sometimes it is fixed.

t.t.
A
AG_1092101010-MarbleAuthor
10-Marble
March 14, 2024

Thanks for the tip. I will try that and see if it helps, although it seems a step that should not be necessary in principle, but if it helps so be it. It may take a while to verify if the unresponsiveness is eliminated by this though.

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