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A
AS_97819678-Gravel
8-Gravel
June 16, 2026
Question

Plot vector fields

  • June 16, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 37 views

I’ve been revisiting Mathcad after some time away, and I had a question about functionality that used to exist in older versions.

Back when I was using Mathcad 15, I remember being able to plot vector fields (for example, visualizing a 2D vector function with arrows over a grid) fairly directly using the built-in plotting tools.

Now that PTC Mathcad Prime has been around for a while and has gone through multiple updates, I’m wondering:

  • Does the current version of Mathcad Prime support vector field plotting natively?
  • If not, is there any recommended or standard workaround within Mathcad Prime (without exporting to other tools)?
  • Has this feature been intentionally removed, or is it something planned for future releases?

I’m especially interested in workflows comparable to what was possible in Mathcad 15, where defining a vector-valued function and visualizing it didn’t require too much manual construction.

Would appreciate any insights from those who’ve worked with both versions

3 replies

F
Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
23-Emerald I
June 16, 2026

Welcome back!  It sounds like you’ve been gone for a while.

 

PTC has (apparently) taken a different approach to developing Mathcad.  Rather than developing a “native” capability for something Mathcad 15 could do they find an outside package and “bolt it on.”  The original plotting capability that was created in the first few versions of PTC Mathcad is still there but after numerous complaints another software was added to do plotting.  (This is a “premium feature” and will not work if you’re using the free Prime Express version.)

A
AS_97819678-GravelAuthor
8-Gravel
June 16, 2026

Thanks for the clarification.

So we cannot do vector field plotting in latest release of prime ?

Just to make sure I understand correctly: does this mean that the latest release of Mathcad Prime still does not provide a native vector field plotting capability equivalent to what was available in Mathcad 15?

By "vector field plotting," I'm referring to the ability to define a 2D vector-valued function and display the resulting field as arrows over a grid without having to build the plot manually.

I'm mainly trying to understand whether this feature is currently supported if not is there any workaround to plot it in prime releases ? 

W
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
June 16, 2026

Primes native plots still don’t support vector field plots (at least up to Prime 11. Have not yet tested Prime 12).

 

I don’t know if the add-on “Chart Component” provides this feature. Its a third party tool which IMHO is badly implemented in Prime and while providing a lot of features not available in Primes native plots also has its drawbacks (very slow and uncomfortable to use, cannot deal with units, does not scale according to the windows zoom selected, ...). 

If you have access to the full version of Prime you may give the Chart component a try.

 

You may also be interested in this thread.
I wrote this workaround about 13 years ago when Prime 2 was the current version, expecting that Prime's plots would be able to do this natively in one of the next versions. Things turned out differently...

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