What is the best AI model to deal with Mathcad questions?

I don't use AI when it comes to Mathcad (and, for that matter, rarely use it in other situations either).

We’ve repeatedly had questions here on the forum from users who wanted an AI to generate a Mathcad worksheet for them, and the results were consistently terrible and unusable.
Even when it comes to mathematical questions, the answers of the AI’s are often incorrect and, when followed up on, can be contradictory. But in both cases, the models will continue to make progress and improve (sometimes at an alarmingly rapid pace).
However, Mathcad is a niche product with an apparently declining user base, and that will likely also affect the pace of development for AI models related to Mathcad questions.
But as I said, due to a lack of personal experience, I can’t recommend any specific model.

Sounds promising. Pls share your experience here once you are done with it.

Guess the problem may be that the AI is not able to ‘read’ the Mathcad notebooks and you will have to turn it into pdf’s first. And then the notebooks probably would have to be documented verbally in great detail for the AI to be able to answer questions reliably.

Good luck!

Hi Anthony,

LLM’s like where chatgpt etc are based upon can work with natural language, and programming languages, all kinds of human readable language. I suppose NoteBookLM has similar capabilities.

Bear in mind that the file format of Mathcad 11 is unknown, unpublished, as opposed to that of Prime 11.

Mathcad 11’s .mcd files are binary files, potentially encrypted.

Prime 11 files are .zip archives containing .xml files, and more .zip files. Where .xml is similar to a programming language (human readable), the binary files of Mathcad 8 and higher are in no way (directly) understandable for humans, you need a machine to interpret the binary data and translate it to human readable stuff.

Terry Hendicott has managed to create an app that can produce Prime files, using chatgpt.

I suppose that if you want to create worksheet files that Mathcad 11 can work with, you start with the older .mcd format, as used by Mathcad 7 and before. Those are .ASCII text files, human readable.

Success!
Luc

​@LucMeekes thanks for your advices. As I was saying, I am not looking to AI for miracles (I am skeptical, for instance, of the new trend of AI agents), but just as an assistant to help guide me through specific doubts.

More generally, I was aware that the classic .mcd  format of MC 11.2 is unreadable outside Mathcad itself. It is a different matter (in theory, I should add, because the practical experience may be far from ideal) for the Mathcad 15 format. Here is what ChatGPT has to say on the point:

“Can you read Mathcad 15 file format?”:

Yes—especially for Mathcad 15 .xmcd files. Mathcad 15 uses XML-based .XMCD worksheets (and compressed .XMCDZ), so I can inspect the worksheet structure, equations, variables, units, text regions.

 

Then I insisted: “If I ask, will you able to produce a Mathcad 15 file format?” Answer:

Yes. If you ask me to build a Mathcad 15 worksheet, I can generate an actual .xmcd file and give you a download link. I can create worksheets containing calculations, variables, units, explanatory text, and structured sections, and I can also modify an existing Mathcad 15 file you upload. The main caveat is that I don’t have Mathcad 15 itself available to open and execute the worksheet, so I can validate the XML structure and calculation logic, but final compatibility should ideally be checked once in Mathcad 15.