Mathcad and Windows 7

[JosephKuhn]

After a several years of inactivity I have started using Matchcad 14 again. Previously I was running under Windows XP and Windows Vista and the program worked fine. Now I am using Windows 7 and a number of features are no longer working.

Array table formatting doesn't work. I can format a result as a matrix but not a table.

2D plots work but not 3D plots.

None of the Control buttons (Radio, Push Button, Slider, etc.) work.

These are all the problems I have found so far. The program seems to be working fine in other respects.

Has anyone out there encountered a compatibility problem with Mathcad 14.0 and Windows 7?

I would appreciate any help I can get.

[mzeftel]

There are a number of people running Mathcad 14 on Windows 7. Do you have Mathcad 145 m020? If not go to http://www.ptc.com/support/mathcad_downloads.htm

It sounds like your Mathcad didn't install correctly, so I suggest you run Repair from Add/Remove Programs, or uninstall and reinstall. Make sure you are an administrator on your computer. All the problems you list seem to be with components.

You also might search in this Community for Windows 7 or Win 7 to see if others have the same issue.

Mona

[JosephKuhn]

Mona: Yes I am running 14 M020 I had a terrible time installing it when I upgraded and had to make many calls to India and download files from them to get the add-ins installed. All features ran fine until I changed to Windows 7. What I am afraid of is than if I try a reinstall I will lose the add-ins.

I contacted PTC and asked if there was a problem with M14 and Windows 7. They answered back that they don't support M14 running under 7 and told me to either upgrade to M15 or go back to Windows XP. This was news to me. I am on PTC's 3-mailing list and get periodic e-mails from them. I don't recall ever getting one with a warning about incompatibility problems. Some support!. I am trying to find out what happens if a user trys to run 14 and Windows 7.

In the good old days before PTC you could send a copy of your worksheet to their techs and get an answer back addressing your problem. Since PTC took over Mathcad the prices have gone up and the support has faded away to nothing. PTC is not interested in a single user like me. Sorry to use this forum to vent.

[RichardJ]

Mona: Yes I am running 14 M020 I had a terrible time installing it when I upgraded and had to make many calls to India and download files from them to get the add-ins installed. All features ran fine until I changed to Windows 7.

You upgraded the OS rather than getting a new PC? You may want to look at this thread:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/23012#23012

If you search this forum for Windows 7 Mathcad you will find many other threads. Some of them have posts that don't seem to make sense, but that's because PTC garbaged them when they moved them from the old forums. You will just have to ignore those posts, and hope they were not the ones that contained the most important information.

What I am afraid of is than if I try a reinstall I will lose the add-ins.

Try repairing the installation. You will not lose the add-ins. If you are not prepared to try this step then there is nothing else to be done.

I contacted PTC and asked if there was a problem with M14 and Windows 7. They answered back that they don't support M14 running under 7 and told me to either upgrade to M15 or go back to Windows XP. This was news to me. I am on PTC's 3-mailing list and get periodic e-mails from them. I don't recall ever getting one with a warning about incompatibility problems.

Sorry, but that's common enough in the software world. "Not supported" does not necessarily mean incompatible. It means the software was released before the new OS, and that they have not tested it with the new OS and therefore cannot say if there will be problems or not.

[WayneQuernemoen]

Hi Mona,

I am having trouble with Script Errors when trying to access a quick sheet while in help text. I am presently running MC15 on a Windows 7 Pro Service Pack 1 core i7 machine as well as on a Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3 machine. There is no problem with Script Errors on the XP PC, but the problem is chronic on the W7 machine. This appears to be the best section of your forums to post this. Any suggestions?

Wayne Q.

[WayneQuernemoen]

I neglected to add that the W7 machine is a 64 bit machine.

Wayne Q.

[JerzyCierpicki]

Wayne,

Could you specify more precisely how to reproduce Script Errors.

On my notebook (Core2Duo, Windows 7 x64 Ultimate) Quick Sheet scriptable objects are working correctly.

Maybe you should install some Microsoft components (additionaly).

Jerzy

[WayneQuernemoen]

Hi Jerzy,

Here are my steps:

1. Run MC15 - normal startup screen appears

2. L click on help (menu bar)

3. Select and L click on Quicksheets in drop down box

4. L Click on any of the Quicksheets Displayed

5. I chose L Click on "Contour plots or Level curves"

6. Error box pops up "Failed to launch server application" in front of startup screen,

with previous help screens erased

7. Seven L clicks necessary to clear error box and obtain MC15 startup screen

My understanding is that SP1 is the latest service pack for W7. As I mentioned earlier, the CPU on this machine is an Intel core i7.

If, in step 5 I chose "Normal Quantile-Quantile plot", then no error is received, but in the expression n=length(DATA) i:=0...n-1 both the "DATA" and "n" typefaces are in red, with no graph plot shown.

Hope that helps Jerzy.

Wayne

[WayneQuernemoen]

After some thought, my feeling is that MC15 is being incorrectly pointed at a file location which exists in a different location, or the file location doesn't exist at all. If so, can MC15 be either manually pointed correctly without reinstalling, or can the missing location be somehow loaded?

Wayne

[JerzyCierpicki]

You are probably right - for me (after reproducing your steps) graph Quick Sheets works correctly.

BTW

Did you tried to reinstall Mathcad 15?

What version are you using - Mathcad 15 M010?

Jerzy

[WayneQuernemoen]

No, I have not tried to reinstall MC15. This is my information from help about: Mathcad 15.0 (15.0.0.436 [006041742])...not sure which build that might be. As I recall, the installation process is rather lengthy, so I don't have the time to invest at present. Will try a reinstall later if you think that is a good investment in time. I am curious as to how an evidently routine installation resulted in this issue.

Wayne

[JerzyCierpicki]

On my computer, information from help about Mathcad is Mathcad 15.0 (M010 [MC15_M010_20110622]} - so it looks that you have installed first initial release of Mathcad 15 (Datecode: F000).

If you have privileges to install latest release of Mathcad M15 (maintenance contract) then my recommendation is to download latest release of M15 and install it.

Before Mathcad reinstallation go to Control Panel and install all Microsoft updates (especially NET Framwork).

BTW - Two years ago I tried to install Mathcad 14 on fresh Windows 7 x64 with all updates but without success.

What helped? - Mathcad 14 installation was successfull after Microsoft Office 2003 installation on fresh Windows 7 x64 (some Microsoft components should exist before proper installation).

If you can't download latest release of Mathcad 15 then (If I will you) in any case I will reinstall Mathcad - sometimes it helps .

If it will not help, then you can check if linked *.txt files exists in Quick Sheet worksheet paths (eg. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mathcad\Mathcad 15\Resource Center\EN\qsheet\Visualization\heatflow.txt" and so on)

Jerzy

[VladimirN]

Wayne Quernemoen wrote:

...This is my information from help about: Mathcad 15.0 (15.0.0.436 [006041742])...not sure which build that might be...

This is F000 release of Mathcad 15. The latest sevice release at this time is M010.

[BillWadsworth]

Mona,

I succesfully upgraded my version 14 to MO11 the other day but today when trying to get to MO20 I got error message 1722 , something to do with the download being corrupted. What should I do now?

regards, Bill

[ovanni]

I'm running 14 on Windows 7, a Lenovo W500 laptop. It appears to be running OK. But, I have not run it extensively.

I can Open..., edit,Save, and Save As... !

[RichardJ]

What do you get if you insert a 3D graph?

[ovanni]

Yes, those features seem to behave badly. I see nothing in the 3D plots in one of the Quick Sheets.

I downloaded 14.0 M020 this afternoon. I'll try to intall that later to see if that helps.

Thanks

[mzeftel]

If your 3D plots aren't showing up, there's a few things you can try.

The first is to click on the 3D plot and in the dialog, uncheck show borders.

If that doesn't work, then you can make sure you have the latest version of the graphic and video drivers on your system.

Write back if you still don't see the 3D plots, and I can post some more suggestions.

Mona

[JosephKuhn]

I get one empty place holder.

[RichardJ]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Do you mean it seems to be working? What happens if you fill in the placeholder to plot a 3D graph?

[JosephKuhn]

Mathcad works except for table display of arrays, 3D plots, and control buttons.

What I mean about just a place holder is that when I do Insert/ Graph/Any 3D Plot I dont get a blank 3D plot ready for the arguments to be filled in. I just get a single empty place placeholder. Nothing happens when I put something in the placeholder

[RichardJ]

OK. I understand.

It looks like all the component based items are broken under Windows 7. I bet data tables don't work either.

[mzeftel]

There are other users using Mathcad 14 with Windows 7. But it does sound like your components are broken.

Did you do a repair, or an uninstall and reinstall? Make sure you are an administrator on your computer.

Here are some suggestions:

1. If you can't see 3D plots, RMB click on desktop, #Personalize > #Window Color and Appearance > #Open classic appearance properties for more color options and set “Windows Vista Basic” from Color Scheme list. This should resolve the issue.

2. Check “Enable 10-bit pixel format support” in ATI Graphics card Catalyst Control Center Settings.

I hope one of these suggestions works for you.

Mona

[Sabraton]

I just downloaded Mathcad 15 on my Windows 7, and having the same problem. "Can't display 3D Plots!", Any idea?

[TimothyCarpente]

I tried loading Mathcad 14 under Windows 7 on a new computer and it didn't work -- It installed without protest and retrieved a license but on launch the pointer switches to the animated circle for several seconds then reverts to the pointer and nothing else happens. Tried loading under Win 7's "XP Mode" -- that didn't work either. Downloaded the 30-day demo for Mathcad 15. Installed on Win 7 machine -- Won't launch. On Saturday I wrote email to -' (see what I wrote below) but have yet to hear from anybody as of noon today (Tuesday). And Mona, in case you read this, Prime 1.0 Alpha 2 is loaded on this machine under Win 7 and functions fine. I have been a Mathcad user for many years, including suffering through the Version 8 debacle. I have too much intellectual property tied up in Mathcad files to just toss it out the window (but i'm awfully close) -- So anybody have any ideas???

"I have spent the better part of two days trying to get Mathcad working on a relatively new laptop computer (HP Pavilion dv8 w/i7-820 processor & 8G memory). I have a purchased copy of Mathcad 14 (v14.0.2.5 M020 with a CD image file dated 2/6/2008 7:05 am). I installed it on this new computer and it noted that I needed a license – which I acquired via email from PTC (Call # 7850615). I completed the installation but the program would not launch. I am a single user (self employed and the only one using the program). I set the program to be launched “as administrator”. When I attempt to launch, the gui icon spins for few seconds then reverts to the pointer but there is no launch of Mathcad. I uninstalled and reinstalled – again with no success. SO. I figured there was a problem with compatibility between Mathcad 14 and my version of Win 7 and tried to install using XP Mode. That didn’t work using the previous license sent under the Call # noted above. I needed a new license, presumably since XP Mode uses a virtual drive with its own unique volume label. I sent a request for a new license earlier today (Call # 7854377) and have received NO RESPONSE.

SO. I uninstalled Mathcad 14, downloaded Mathcad 15 (demo) and installed following the instructions. IT DOESN’T WORK!!!!

I need to get work done. Can you help? "

[mzeftel]

Timothy,

If you wrote to PTC on Satuday, I'm not sure anyone in technical support was working over the weekend, although I don't know for sure about all our offices. The US office was closed on Monday for Labor Day, so your message might not be read until today, Tuesday.

Mona

[TimothyCarpente]

A solution was provided for non-functioning Mathcad 15 and (reportedly) for Mathcad 14 under Windows 7. Tech services found that my problem was that MSXML Version 4, Service Pack 2 had not been installed on my machine. MSXML is a prerequisite for both versions of Mathcad under Windows 7.

[mzeftel]

Mohammad,

Did you try the suggestions above for 3D plots? Also in the 3D plot dialog, uncheck display borders. That has helped some users.

Mona

[Sabraton]

Thanks Mona! I tried all what suggested by users, none worked

[mzeftel]

Mohammad,

Here's a list of suggestions for getting 3D plots to show up for Mathcad 14 and 15, that helped other users. Some may be repeats, since others may view this list.

1. Check “Enable 10-bit pixel format support” in ATI Graphics card Catalyst Control Center Settings.

2. Repair your installation of Mathcad.

3. Right-click anywhere on your desktop, then click properties. You will get the display properties, click the settings tab, and then click advanced. Under Advanced, click the troubleshoot tab, and lower the hardware acceleration to none. Apply the setting. Try the 3-d plot in Mathcad. If it works fine, you can steadily increase the hardware acceleration up to the point you determine it fails. Plots should work with the hardware acceleration at mid-level.

4. Uncheck the “Border” option for 3D Plots on Mathcad Right Mouse Click on the 3D Graph and uncheck “Border” option.

5. Vista: Set color scheme to Vista basic (turnoff Vista aero feature).in windows desktop personalize option. Right Click on the Desktop go to Personalize/color and apperance/Open classic appearance properties for more color options.

There are some other suggestions that involve the registry. I suggest you contact technical support if you have maintenance. If you purchased Mathcad 15, it includes maintenance.

Mona