4.0: The good, the bad and the ugly. First impressions:

[DJF]

I downloaded 4.0 express and turned on the 30 day full version trial.  (Because it will probably take IT a month to upgrade our license server). 

The good:

- It's released.

- When I print or pdf, collapsible areas don't seem to shift to the left anymore.  I still lose the left edge of the box, but that's still a vast improvement. 

- Occasionally I couldn't label a constant a constant to get it's font to change to accordingly.  It still just showed as a variable.  That seems to be resolved.

- When i switch between tabs it seems to remember where it's at.  Before it would always jump back up to the top.

- Protected areas.  Probably my favorite upgrade.

- OLE.  useful but not really crucial.

- Line breaking.  But see my exception below.

- Occassionally 3.1 would freeze and I'd have to click a separate window for it to regain it's brain.  So far I haven't seen that.  (But I'll keep looking as it's intermittent)

The bad:

The following bugs have not been resolved:

- I can't  drag items across a page break (in page view)

- min is not displayed as a function (if you have a separate font for functions).  It works, it just isn't displayed like other functions are (e.g. max)

- If a mouse select box is going across a page it doesn't work right (In page view the box no longer aligns with the cursor.  In draft view it seems to work ok.)

- Items in a solve block "sometimes" can only be moved 2 spaces instead of one.  It's as if I don't have the grid set to fine.  This has flipped on and off  and I've never figured out why. 

- Division lines are sometimes extremely thin and light, making them hard to see

- As I click around the screen, the screen will occasionally randomly recenter itself.  I think it has something to do with wanting to display a full plot or picture that is nearby.  But it's annoying and shouldn't do it.

- Symbolic solve still replaces a variable with a built-in constant (i.e. a defined variable gamma is replaced with Euler's constant)

The ugly:

- Line breaking is nice, but I can't seem to break solve block FIND lines.  So I've still go no way to shorten them.   If you can't figure out how to do it, at least give me fonts smaller than 4 so I can shrink it to fit on a page. 

- I'm not sure it's any faster.  At least it doesn't seem so.  I suppose in fairness I need to work with it more.  But my sheets that took 10 seconds to solve still takes 10 seconds to solve.

- Two years for this?

[ValeryOchkov]

The main old bad

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

When will Prime N be able to write Prime N-1, N-2,  at the very least.

[LucMeekes]

"- Symbolic solve still replaces a variable with a built-in constant (i.e. a defined variable gamma is replaced with Euler's constant)"

There is this option (don't know if it existed in Prime 3.1). Maybe it helps.:

Can't check it, I'm limited to Express.

Luc

[LucMeekes]

Just checked, the option did exist in Prime 3.1.

[DJF]

Yes, that option has been there but I'm not sure it does anything.  Didn't help in 3.1 and doesn't appear to help in 4.0.  Even if it did help the default should be to NOT swap out variables with constants.  Maybe it's just me, but replacing a height variable 'h' with Planck's constant isn't something I need to do very often.

The red font denotes that it switched to a constant. 

This topic was discussed here.  Symbolic solution switches to built in constant

[LucMeekes]

According to the What's new guide:

"

Copy and Paste Multiple Regions to ThirdParty Applications

You can copy multiple regions within a worksheet and then paste them in

applicable third-party applications

"

When I copy a couple of regions in Prime 4.0, I still cannot paste it in MsWord, or this forum.

Apparently MsWord is not an 'applicable' third party application

The Benefits for this feature are described as:

"

Company engineering processes may require using a specific application in which

to record all design decisions. Moving user-defined content from Mathcad to other

applications is essential.

"

Essential <?> MsWord

And this forum.... well we know how much effort PTC has put into fixing the date problem (Dates are off).

Luc

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

Interesting and depressing!

I recall seeing PTC literature on 4.0 that specifically cited Word as one of the "cut and paste" target programs.

Note that the RTF option existed for a long time in version 15 and before; it just never worked too well.  (Same for OLE pasting.)

EDIT:  I knew I had seen it:

Luc:

You said you're limited to Express.  Maybe this "cut and paste" is a "premier feature"!  ;-(

[LucMeekes]

That's a possibility I considered too. Hopefully a buying customer can check this soon.

The save as a rich text file is an option that appears to be available. That is: Save as XPS file, not RTF (that's another Premium feature).

Luc

[vlehner]

It works- see attachement please.

I'm a customer.

Volker

pasting into the Forum:

...works only with singular regions... Strange....

[MJG]

...works only with singular regions... Strange....

Just to clarify: this statement is specifically about pasting into the forum, right?

I hope you didn't paste each region individually in your attached MsWord file.

[vlehner]

Just to clarify: this statement is specifically about pasting into the forum, right?

I hope you didn't paste each region individually in your attached MsWord file.

typing in MathCad "CTRL+a" and then "CTRL+c"

Switch to Word: pasting into the Dokument with "CTRL+v"- Done.

...now you can call me Mr. Copy+Paste

[LucMeekes]

Mere Express users are limited to copy/paste a single region at a time, to MsWord as well as this forum.

And the past result is a bitmap.

Luc

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

When I open your Word document it looks better, although I'm a bit confused about a few things:

The formatting does seem to hold, although this isn't anything we couldn't do with "Sniping tool" or another screen grabber.

What about inserting a Mathcad sheet?

[VladimirN]

And here is how it looks for me after opening this document in MS Word.

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

Yes that's Word with editing marks turned off.

I wonder how that will work when the pastes are into a pre-formatted document.  (My formal reports all have specified format requirements--font and size, paragraphs, heading levels, etc.)

[LucMeekes]

Just checking to see if 'single region' pasing into the forum works, for an Express user.

Above is the proof. It works.

But as mentioned: this is not the real deal. One should be able to paste more than one region at the same time:

The line above is empty.

That says it.

Luc

[JFPittet]

Hello,

Prime 3.1 was delivered in March 2015 ... Prime 4.0 is delivered in March 2017 ... 2 years !

I wait 2 years for using Prime ... I install Prime 4.0 ... I just test one thing ... and I will continue to use Mathcad 15 (*).

The reason is ... I have nearly in all my worksheet one or several pictures.

It is not a picture for showing something "static" ... but it is for showing the data I analyse with Mathcad/Prime.

I wrote in 1999 some DLLs for importing the wave front data from the D100 interferometer.

My DLLs work with Mathcad 7, 8, 2000, 2001, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, but they are useless with Prime 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The actual way for importing images is a joke in Prime ... save the data in an image file, set manually the image import ... but it works only 1 time.

If the data changes, then it is necessary to delete the image and to insert again the image manually ... until the data change again and the process need to be repeated.

The Prime timeline shows 1 year between Prime 4 and Prime 5 ... I will wait an additional year for the next test.

Regards,

Jean-Francois

(*) I prefer Mathcad 11 ... but I cannot install Mathcad 11 on my Windows 7/64 computers.

I do not try to install Mathcad 11 on Windows 10/64 ... has somebody do it ?

[LucMeekes]

Mathcad 11 single user, the application that is protected with Cdilla, may install, but never runs on 64-bit OS's above WindowsXP. Part of Cdilla is a 32-bit kernel mode .DLL which windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 will not allow, and hence the application does not start. (As a curiosity Windows XP 64-bit does allow it, but there is no upgrade path from it.)

Also for 32-bit OS, if you install Mathcad 11, you can no longer register the application, because PTC has dropped support for that since april 1 2015 (not a joke).

If you have Mathcad 11 running, consider it a precious asset...

Luc

[PabloGarcia]

To add to the "Bad" list:

Conversion from MCD 15 to Prime 4.0:

• still seems to be unable convert plots
• unable to handle hyperlinked worksheets (see error below) Even though the file was converted

This version is also not fit for purpose, I am not willing to spend my life debugging hundreds of worksheets one by one from my MCD 14/15 library. I will wait for the next version of prime before investing anymore futile time on it.

Pablo

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

please do no expect that the conversion from Mathcad 15 to Mathcad Prime 4.0 is "one-click" action. Mathcad 15 and Mathcad Prime 4.0 functionality is not identical !

If you have complex Mathcad 15 worksheet then it does not make any sense to waste your time and convert it in Mathcad Prime 4.0.

MH

[gproteau]

The most striking feature improvement is the splash screen.