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MikeB-RV1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 9, 2012
Solved

Alternative to Knovel Math?

  • May 9, 2012
  • 3 replies
  • 5454 views

For a long time our engineering department relied on Mathcad and the Mechanical Engineering Library addon, mainly for Roark's formulas. However, in our recent migration to Prime (for Windows 7-64 support) we thought we'd be able to get the same thing by subscribing to Knovel's Mathcad worksheets. However, it seems Knovel's subscriptions for Mathcad has been very recently been discontinued and they are no longer offering new subs (current subs are slated to be discontinued next year). Converting old worksheets to the new Prime format is possible, but they aren't pretty.

Do I have any options here?

Best answer by Fred_Kohlhepp

Prime comes with 15. 15 will open the handbook; and it has the advantage that it still actually full-featured.

Hopefully, by the time Prime works well enough to replace 15 and can read old files without it, it will also be able to translate the handbooks!

Meantime: Use 15 and complain about the problems with Prime.

3 replies

V
24-Ruby IV
ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
24-Ruby IV
May 9, 2012

Sorry, Roark's formulas was converted into Mathcad Prime:

KnovelPrimeRoack.png

F
Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald IAnswer
23-Emerald I
May 9, 2012

Prime comes with 15. 15 will open the handbook; and it has the advantage that it still actually full-featured.

Hopefully, by the time Prime works well enough to replace 15 and can read old files without it, it will also be able to translate the handbooks!

Meantime: Use 15 and complain about the problems with Prime.

M
MikeB-RV1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
May 11, 2012

Well, I asked for options and you gave me one. While the old Mechanical Engineering Library addon installer won't work on Win7-64, you can just copy the handbook files into the handbook folder in the M15 program files directory and it works fine.

Its just disappointing that after spending all this money on Prime, I have to use the old M15 to get the functionality we've come to rely on...

F
Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
23-Emerald I
May 11, 2012

You're right.

Prime is disappointing. Worse, the roadmap to improve it is long, winding, and scattered with features that miight be nice but aren't available now and aren't being stridently asked for like many of the features currently available in 15.

Think of it this way: You really paid all this money for 15, and they sent you a working copy of a new program that they're developing that might replace Mathcad in two, or three, or four more years.

M
mzeftel1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 9, 2012

Michael,

PTC is actively looking for alternatives to Knovel for supplying content. In the meantime, you can use the content available on Knovel for Mathcad 14, 15, and Prime.

Mona

    M
    MikeB-RV1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    May 9, 2012

    Mona - Thanks for the reply. However, I can't get access to Knovel as a new Prime customer. They aren't selling subs anymore to get a login to their mathcad content.

    Fred - Being able to open the handbook in 15 is something I haven't tried. I'll check it out.

    P
    prop_design15-Moonstone
    15-Moonstone
    March 13, 2021

    i see the worksheet libraries are for sale on the ptc e-store. i'm confused. ptc seemed to have sold them off to knovel. did ptc buy them back? who is actually maintaining them?

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