MathCAD 15 Calculate Now F9 option - useful for worksheets with many pages

[AW_9299735]

We run our simulations based on MathCAD 15 which each worksheet consists of over 100 pages. We have noticed that the Prime version is very inefficient as the number of pages gets longer. MathCAD 15 has a useful feature called "Calculate Now" F9 which calculates the worksheet up to the page being viewed. This gives us the option to part calculate the worksheet and verify parameters before scrolling down to the areas with time-consuming calculations. Not having this feature available on MathCAD prime makes the whole process unusable and we are not migrating to other platforms which offer us this option.

Is this feature going to be available soon on MathCAD Prime?

[olivierlp]

Thank you @AW_9299735 for publishing your idea. However, we need more information as specified in the form you saw in the submission process. (questions below). You may simply add a comment to your idea. The more details and context you give to document your idea, the better. Think about ways to educate and convince other Community members to support your idea and present your case to the product management team for consideration.

Here are a few well documented ideas: 

Plot polygonal faces on 3D plots - PTC Community

Using "Home" and "End" keys in programming block - PTC Community

Please let us know within the next two weeks.

1. Describe your environment: What is your industry? What is your role in your organization? Describe your stakeholders.
2. What product & version are you currently running?
3. Describe the problem you are trying to solve. Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video.
4. What is the use case for your organization?
5. What business value would your suggestion represent for your organization?

Additionally, I invite you to check out this topic where PTC executives explain product managers' approach to customer ideas and input for product roadmaps.

[AW_9299735]

Thank you for your reply and I am re-posting this adding a bit more clarity.

1. Describe your environment: What is your industry? What is your role in your organization? Describe your stakeholders.

I am an Electronics Engineer. We use MathCAD to create and simulate sensors. The nature of the design is that every MathCAD worksheet is over 100 pages long and we use multiple custom functions by calling a DLL. We have 3 other Engineers in the team using MathCAD.

2. What product & version are you currently running?

MathCAD 15. We attempted using MathCAD Prime versions for a while but have gone back to MathCAD 15 due to the reasons below.

3. Describe the problem you are trying to solve. Please include detailed documentation such as screenshots, images or video.

We run our simulations based on MathCAD 15 which each worksheet consists of over 100 pages. We have migrated to Prime and have noticed that the Prime version is very inefficient/slow as the number of pages gets longer.
Our worksheet is calling custom functions (on a DLL) at various places. Those custom functions are known to be time-consuming. However, MathCAD 15 has got a useful feature called "Calculate Now" (Shortcut key F9) which calculates the worksheet up to the page being viewed. This feature has given us the option to part calculate the top pages of the worksheet and verify some of the outputs before scrolling down to the areas with time-consuming calculations. Not having this feature available on MathCAD prime makes the whole process time-consuming as the worksheet attempts to re-calculate the functions inside the DLLs whenever a variable is changed at the top of the page.

We have also tried a few workarounds by disabling individual regions. But this is not practical when we have 100s of pages to work on. Also prone to us making errors and enabling unwanted regions.

I would suggest a “Calculate Now” or similar feature in MathCAD Prime.

4. What is the use case for your organization?
We use MathCAD 15 to simulate every sensor type designed by our company.

5. What business value would your suggestion represent for your organization?
A new design of a sensor takes around 4-5 hours on MathCAD 15. We have attempted this on MathCAD prime, but given the reasons above, we have not been able to design a sensor at all. We have an extended license to MathCAD 15 until 2025. As a part of managing the risk, we are now trailing other CAD tools offering us an efficient solution. We have been suggesting this feature via our reseller for the past three years (previous case C15722887)  but didn’t see that being implemented in previous Prime releases, but hoping that upcoming release would.

[mbennett-2]

We are also suffering with the same problem.  Our reports frequently run into the hundreds of pages which wasn't usually a problem on Mathcad 15 but on Mathcad Prime 8 is rendering it almost unusable.  A comparison between the two programmes shows that Prime 8 is considerably slower than 15, making it very frustrating to use.

[olivierlp]

Thank you for your clarification @AW_9299735. Based on the information you provided, we are acknowledging it as the Community management team. This is not a commitment from the Product team. Other users may comment and vote your idea up.

[Raiko]

Quote from Community Manager:

"Think about ways to educate and convince other Community members to support your idea and present your case to the product management team for consideration." End quote.

Is it just me, but I ever saw a company in which the customer has to beg for features, advertise the product and then be at a management's mercy.

[JKT]

This is a pretty essential request for anybody using long calculations regardless of the field. Trying to edit or modify a long sheet is extremely slow when the program tries to calculate everything after every little change. It is also very difficult to know when the visible parts are actually correct and not waiting for a few more calculations here and there. The editing is so cumbersome that if there was another program choice, the change would be a must.

As for Mathcad 15 - I seem to recall that it never calculates ahead of the current page. The global definitions are naturally an exception. Similar mode is needed for Prime if not a total change. One way would be to have a mode where every normal equation ahead of the current position is temporarily disabled. That disablement would have to be separate from the individually disabled formulas so it won't be necessary to remember which formulas were really disabled.

[AW_9299735]

We have been trying to reach PTC via our re-seller over the past 3 years highlighting the importance of this feature but failed to convince them. I am not an experienced apps engineer but this feature shouldn't be something difficult to implement especially having been there on all the previous MathCAD versions. It is frustrating to see that community members have to vote this idea up. Not sure why/who voted this feature down for the initial Prime release. We have been using MathCAD 15 (and previous versions) for the past 18 years or so and we have migrated to other platforms to minimise our risks when our MathCAD license runs out.

[mbennett-2]

AW_9299735 can I ask what the other platforms are that you are looking at?  We are in the same boat and when our licenses expire for Mathcad 15 we are not going to be able to continue to function as we currently are doing and so desperately need to find an alternative solution.

[Raiko]

hello AW_9299735, 

I'm interested in other platforms too. Please share your insight

[mbennett-2]

I have been doing some digging around recently as our current Mathcad 15 licenses are coming to an end and we're being forced to use Prime 8, which isn't up to the job.  I have therefore come across some software called SMath Studio which is available through Microsoft apps on Windows 10.  Have a look into it and see what you think as an alternative.  Oh, and did I mention it's free!?

[JKT]

That's a nice replacement ... for home use. It has some improvements over Mathcad, but the navigation seems rather odd. For example arrow keys don't work as expected at all. The calculation speed seems also on the slow side, so very long documents likely wouldn't work that well.

[mbennett-2]

I agree, it isn't perfect, but then Prime is far from perfect and SMath is considerably cheaper.

Basically what we would like, and what I think most people would like, is to have Mathcad 15 back, or something that operates in the same way and gives the same functionality.

Earlier today we tried to convert a Mathcad 15 file to Prime 8 (326 page doc) as it needs updating for our client.  It failed the conversion and stated 'unexpected error'.  So where do we go from here?!?  Re-write the whole thing again in Prime?  I really can't get my head around how having started off with Mathcad 15 as a baseline for what people were expecting, they have somehow ended up with Prime.  It's like trying to build your own car and having a BMW sat there to copy and improve upon.  Instead of having an improved BMW they've somehow ended up with a Robin Reliant and it's taken them 10+ years to do it!

[Raiko]

Converting a 326 page document to Prime? I pity you.

My documents are 50 pages max, but converting them to Prime is excruciating. And the results are meagre at best.

I will have a look at SMath!

[JKT]

That happens rather often, but PTC is not supposed to be a couple of guys and a garage. 😉

[mbennett-2]

Another one to try (Maple Flow).  Not free but you can buy a perpetual license, so no yearly subscriptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CgnP9f9qw