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ptc-38611061-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 20, 2012
Question

PTC has ruined MathCad!

  • September 20, 2012
  • 10 replies
  • 29949 views

Hi - I have been using MathCad since ~2002. Over the years, I have grown to love the program and have resulted in literally hundreds of sales of the product now that I am a professor. I (used to) require my students to purchase it for my classes. I continued that practice this semester. Our copies of MathCad 15 ran out in the book store, so I just told them to get the latest and greatest. We ordered 100 licenses of the completely garbage Prime 2.0.

I am sorry, but the fact that I can't use over a decade of prior work is a complete joke. I have many licenses of MathCad, but apparently not the right one to even convert my perfectly good files to the garbage Prime 2.0.

I have tried to find someone to help me, but there is no useful help that I have found.

Unless I get help today, I am going to have my bookstore return the 100 copies of this garbage program and never allow my students to use it in my classes.

Seriously, you have taken THE best engineering calculation software and ruined it.

Sincerely, Bill

    10 replies

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    ptc-38611061-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    September 20, 2012

    As a follow up to this thread. I challenge anyone to navigate how to effectively get help on this, or any other issue. When you try to contact someone at PTC, you will find approximately 40 pages of obfuscation to confuse you into not bothering them. If you stick with it, you will ultimately get a phone number to a customer service center that then asks for your service account number, which of course you probably don't have.

    I have instructed my students via email to not purchase this program ever! I will no longer require MathCad for my classes. I have talked to the other professors who use MathCad in my department. They agree and will do the same.

    Is there any legitimate alternative to MathCad <= 15.0 functionality and presentation? If anyone knows of another program, please let me know. Otherwise, I guess I will keep using my older versions until someone comes up with a program to fill the gap that MathCad left.

    I am completely baffled that a company would do this. Amazing...

      M
      mzeftel1-Visitor
      1-Visitor
      September 20, 2012

      Bill,

      When your students purchase a copy of Mathcad Prime 2.0, they also get a copy of Mathcad 15. The same license works for both versions. If they don't see Mathcad 15 directly, they can download the trial version from http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/forms/index.jsp?&im_dbkey=41685&icg_dbkey=482 and apply their license to it.

      You can convert your Mathcad 15 worksheets to Mathcad Prime 2.0 or if you or your students prefer, you can continue to work in Mathcad 15, which is fully supported by PTC. In fact, we are releasing a maintenance upgrade to Mathcad 15 later this year.

      You can go directly to http://www.ptc.com/support/mathcad_supportCenter.htm for support.

      We have a site for education; http://www.ptc.com/company/community/schools/mathcad.htm

      with links to free tutorials for Mathcad.

      I hope this helps,


      Mona

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      ptc-38611061-VisitorAuthor
      1-Visitor
      September 20, 2012

      So, how exactly do they apply the same license file? What is the name and where would the file reside? I am trying to go through that exact process myself and have had no luck.

      O
      OtfriedGeorg1-Visitor
      1-Visitor
      September 20, 2012

      Bill, I fully agree with you. I am an electrical engineer professor and I work professionally with Mathcad since about 1995/Mathcad 6. I joined all the years and I will keep on going, but never ever with Mathcad Prime - and none of my colleagues will. There are man-years of investigations in my worksheets - and ...

      Mona, converting professional Mathcad 15 worksheets to Prime 2 is entirely impossible - its not a matter of preference. I use e.g. global definitions, DLLs, VBScriting, components and much more which is not implemented yet in Prime and - as I see it - will not be done soon - and when its done, it will hardly be compatible. Just look at the list PTC published to show the differences.

      I know about having Mathcad 15 with my licenses, so that is not my problem, rather the still missing or buggy functionalities (e.g: storage limitations to 1GB, crashes every second time I leave it and much more). Developing the classical Mathcad series from actually being a good product to an excellent one - and by then by far dominating e.g. Mathematica or MatLab - would cost PTC less than 10% the effort making unnecessary Prime, which is a toy essentially on the level of year 2000 or before - at least for those things I use it - computing theoretical physics problems.

        D
        dpsycho1-Visitor
        1-Visitor
        September 21, 2012


        I have been using Mathcad since v6 myself and like the rest of you have grown quite a large library of Mathcad files that I reuse again and again.

        My question is what warrants doubling of the price from MC14 (of which I bought 3 SU licenses) to Prime 2.0? I cannot find a single characteristic that made it two times better. All the comments I read damn Prime without exception (this thread being one). I missed v15 because I was happy with 14.

        Recently I have left the academic environment and the (very big) company I work for doesn't have Mathcad Licenses, now I have to persuade people to buy it (probably floating) for me but I find it very difficult persuading even myself if it is worth my effort to persuade them.

          R
          rubenaguila1-Visitor
          1-Visitor
          September 21, 2012

          I'm an electronic circuit designer that has used mathcad for over 12 years. I would often look forward to the next release and encouraged my engineering associates to use mathcad in their design process. No more! I am dissappointed in two ways: (1) PTC removed access to an excellent Mathcad Resource site that had accumulated many years of completed mathcad files. In was a very useful site for learning from mathcad experts who up-loaded completed mathcad sheets on to the site. Now...Gone! The PTC Mathcad forum is a site for beginners to ask questions, but not what I need. I prefer a reservoir of completed mathcad sheets catagorized by discipline (elec engineering, mech engineering, etc). (2) I agree completely with previous replies that PRIME 1 and 2 is a step backwards. The Prime release is not seamlessly backward compartible with old files. This alone is reason to stop using Mathcad. Very disappointed.

            M
            mzeftel1-Visitor
            1-Visitor
            September 24, 2012

            Ruben,

            We've replaced the old online Mathcad Resource Center with a new one. Many of the same worksheets are included, and we're adding new ones. If there's a particular one that you are missing, I can try and find and post it.

            http://www.ptc.com/appserver/search/mathcad.jsp

            Mona

            H
            hallidaymj21-Visitor
            1-Visitor
            October 15, 2012

            If you look at something like http://www.mpassociates.gr/software/distrib/science/mathsoft/application_files.html andsearch for oneof the files e.g. vocfunct.mcd the search results seem to be areliable Zero Hits.

            It looks like PTC has decided to take a Pol Pot view of anything pre version 15. I wouldhave though a filter by version would have been worthwhile.

            Or am I missing something?

            Mike

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            ptc-38611061-VisitorAuthor
            1-Visitor
            September 24, 2012

            PTC has contacted me several times and has been extremely helpful with the issues that I have been having with regard to installation. I appreciate the effort that have put forth on this and have resolved all of my installation issues. Thanks.

            With regard to Prime 2.0. - My students are giving it a shot. There are many things I can't imagine there was a reason to change. For example - to use a subscript in 15.0, you simply hit a period which is quick and painless. In Prime, to use a subscript you must hit CTRL_ That is about the equivalent of Microsoft changing CTRL C for copy. Why make a change like that?

            In Prime, the programmers seem to like right clicking the mouse, then moving and clicking to the new selection. I am not a fan of that type of operation, so I recommended mouse gestures to them. They liked that suggestion.

            In Prime, getting rid of QuickSheets is a major problem. MathCad is starting to recreate them, but those were critical to my learning of the original program.

            I have decided that most of the changes are well intentioned to make it easier to use for the novice user and dinosaurs like me are just going to have to get used to the new methods in Prime, or move out of using it. I am going to develop my new stuff in the Prime platform and see if I can stand it. Right now I am struggling, but that is just my own history with MathCad standing in the way of progress. For a new user, most of my issues would not be an issue at all.

              P
              ptc-38611061-VisitorAuthor
              1-Visitor
              September 27, 2012

              PTC has again impressed me with yet even more support and follow-up to this issue. They have offered more technical help and personal communication than I ever would have imagined. Thanks for the hard work and dedication to improving your product. You have given me confidence that Prime will become a premier product as your continue to develop it. Thanks, Bill

                S
                ScottMilligan1-Visitor
                1-Visitor
                October 11, 2012

                And thank you, Professor Bill, for hammering this nail hard enough to get PTC's attention. An individual user like my slef often does not have the influence over purchasing decisions of others, which therefore limits my influence over the spending decisions made by...PTC. I was, however, recently asked to give input reagarding which of the mainline math/CAS programs our small company should adopt going forward as the company standard, and despite my having 10+ years of experience and prior art base in MathCad, the issues PTC has had in bringing Prime up to speed caused me to back away from recommending MathCad/Prime as the preferred solution.

                The main problem I see is that the Prime build-out IS SIMPLY TAKING TOO LONG for legacy users to accept, without being tempted or even forced to seek alternate platform solutions.

                Scott

                S
                syaacoby1-Visitor
                1-Visitor
                November 3, 2012

                PTC, Please do nothing...

                Just support the v15.0 that is the Last serious software...before the age of jokes...

                I am very concerned about the collection of my old Mathcad documents ...

                Shemy

                  M
                  mmartel4-Participant
                  4-Participant
                  November 3, 2012

                  I have just purchased the Prime 2.0 and tried to convert my programs over. I am a structural engineer and many of my programs have cad files attached into them which can be edited. This is no longer available, You can attach jpg but not c dwg's. I would like to see that option brought into the Prime. Also the simple stuff as in the header and footer has changed and even though they tried to make it look more like calculation paper i would like to be able to add boarders around the headers and body like in version 15.

                  Mike

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                  ptc-48076761-Visitor
                  1-Visitor
                  November 6, 2012

                  I bought Prime 2 several days ago and also disappointed. I associate with the critical reviews. Among other things, I have not found floating pallets of tools and now constantly jumping between bookmarks, which is rather tiring ... Where are these palettes? Maybe I have not found a way to rescue them from obscurity?

                  Vyacheslav

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                  24-Ruby IV
                  ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
                  24-Ruby IV
                  November 6, 2012

                  Vyacheslav Kremenetsky wrote:

                  Where are these palettes?

                  Where are these countries, pardon, this Mathcad!?

                  See http://communities.ptc.com/message/191439

                  P
                  ptc-48076761-Visitor
                  1-Visitor
                  November 6, 2012

                  Thanks for advice. Really, PTC developers need not emotions but concrete remarks.

                  As for me, I lack the ability to configure panels for myself ("Preferences" or something like that), I would like to have quick access panel (as in Office 2007-2010) and floating templates of tools. Sub-titles in solve block (on the left) overlap with decreasing in the size of this area (but I have the Russian version, and not sure that it does in other versions).

                  Mathcad is only auxiliary program for me. I think there are much more fundamental observations in addition to those already made above.

                  Vyacheslav

                  R
                  RickMason1-Visitor
                  1-Visitor
                  October 7, 2013

                  Prime 3.0 has been released and it still has major functionality missing. I am STILL unable to convert my v15 worksheets.

                  V
                  24-Ruby IV
                  ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
                  24-Ruby IV
                  October 8, 2013

                  Rick Mason wrote:

                  Prime 3.0 has been released and it still has major functionality missing. I am STILL unable to convert my v15 worksheets.

                  I too.

                  But I have a lot of sheets worked only in Prime. With some this tools http://communities.ptc.com/polls/1141

                  G
                  George_R1-Visitor
                  1-Visitor
                  March 26, 2023

                  Yes, I completely agree. PTC has made MathCAD irrelevant. Last time I purchased MathCAD was from ASU Book store and it was MathCAD 2000, student. Everything I did in that version as a graduate student is not convertible into the "new" PTC "improved" version. Even a trivial eigenvalue solution gets screwed by the PTC software "intelligentia". In fact, you can see that PTC has grown so big that it's no longer capable of developing creative new software, they just engulf/buy their possible competitors. And they multiplied the licence fee by 60-100 times. GREED and incompetence rules!

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