Mathcad Prime and Symbolic Manipulation

First, the symbolic manipulation capabilities of Mathcad have diminished since Version 12. Symbolic manipulation and simplification that worked flawlessly in 11 and 12 either does not work at all or requires several intermediate manual manipulations to achieve the desired result. I have sent examples to Mathcad support for about two years, but there has been no response.

You are much more likely to get help by posting the examples here (not from support, but from other users). The switch from the Maple engine to the Mupad engine (which occurred between versions 13 and 14) is a mixed bag. Some things work better, some worse. Unfortunately more worse than better

Worse, none of the sales reps knew anything about the capabilities of the product, for example whether symbolic manipulation had been further deprecated.

Prime 1.0 does not have any symbolic math capability. That's not because it's been deprecated though, but rather because it has not yet been implemented. It will be implemented in al later release. A lot of other things have not been implemented yet either. There is a long thread on the subject here: http://communities.ptc.com/message/159822#33599

Hello Dave,

Haven't seen you since the annual winter AAS Space Flight Mechanics meeting in Sedona, Arizona, during January 2007:-) I am familiar with Mathcad Prime 1.0, its capabilities, its limitations, and how to get a copy.

You are welcome to call me or e-mail me privately with questions.

P.S. Be sure to visit the "Mathcad Prime 1.0 is a Step Back" thread at PlanetPTC. There you will find quite a bit about what experienced Mathcad users think of Mathcad Prime 1.0. You will find there, too, that Mathcad Prime 1.0 does not have symbolics nor 3D plots (yet) -- these and other Mathcad 15 features now missing will be added incrementally, in future releases, starting at Mathcad Prime 2.0.

Roger Mansfield

Colorado Springs, CO

Eighteen months later, there is still no answer or action. I downloaded the latest MCAD Prime, which has symbolic manipulation capabilities, and I was contacted by a sales person. He asked that we send examples of the MCAD programs we had generated in older versions and which did not work in Prime. We sent the examles, and absolutely nothing happened. No response. No follow-up. The issue is that we cannot convert those programs to MCAD Prime unless we purchase MCAD 15. We stopped at 12, when symbolic manipulations started disappearing. 15 is free is one purchases MCAD Prime. So, in order to evaluate it, we have to buy it. This would be stupid if it were not unworthy of that honor. It is absolutely mindless.