Solved: Conversion results

jstavitsky · ‎Jan 23, 2015

I tried the converter on some of the handbooks that installed with the v15 download. A result sample is attached.

I'm assuming that there is supposed to be a plot on the traces. Could somebudy offer an opinion as to why there isn't?

Thanks

Joe

Werner_E · ‎Jan 23, 2015

Joseph Stavitsky wrote:
I tried the converter on some of the handbooks that installed with the v15 download. A result sample is attached.
I'm assuming that there is supposed to be a plot on the traces. Could somebudy offer an opinion as to why there isn't?

While you may think that Prime is an advancement of Mathcad with improved capabilities - unfortunately the opposite is the case. Prime is slower, less comfortable and is missing a lot of features compared to Mathcad, especially when it comes to plotting. So Prime is a big step backward and at the time being the only advice can be to stick to Mathcad until Prime at least lives up to Mathcad 15. You told us that you converted the sheet yourself so you already have Mathcad 15 installed. Its not clear to me why you wondered what you are supposed to see in the sheet - you could open the original in Mathcad 15 and take a look.

When a converted sheet doesn't perform well, often it may be the case that Prime simply isn't capable to do what Mathcad was able to do. But in case of the sheet you posted a simple recalculation (in Prime this is not done automatically on startup) by pressing F5 is all thats needed. The sheet is basic enough so that all but the plot labels which Prime is not supporting (no, I am not kidding) is shown then.

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Werner_E · ‎Jan 23, 2015

Joseph Stavitsky wrote:
I tried the converter on some of the handbooks that installed with the v15 download. A result sample is attached.
I'm assuming that there is supposed to be a plot on the traces. Could somebudy offer an opinion as to why there isn't?

While you may think that Prime is an advancement of Mathcad with improved capabilities - unfortunately the opposite is the case. Prime is slower, less comfortable and is missing a lot of features compared to Mathcad, especially when it comes to plotting. So Prime is a big step backward and at the time being the only advice can be to stick to Mathcad until Prime at least lives up to Mathcad 15. You told us that you converted the sheet yourself so you already have Mathcad 15 installed. Its not clear to me why you wondered what you are supposed to see in the sheet - you could open the original in Mathcad 15 and take a look.

When a converted sheet doesn't perform well, often it may be the case that Prime simply isn't capable to do what Mathcad was able to do. But in case of the sheet you posted a simple recalculation (in Prime this is not done automatically on startup) by pressing F5 is all thats needed. The sheet is basic enough so that all but the plot labels which Prime is not supporting (no, I am not kidding) is shown then.

jstavitsky · ‎Jan 23, 2015

This is both informative and disheartening, thanks. Perhaps there is a document somewhere that lists the differences?

Care to give an opinion on why this situation exists?

Werner_E · ‎Jan 23, 2015

Joseph Stavitsky wrote:
This is both informative and disheartening, thanks. Perhaps there is a document somewhere that lists the differences?
Care to give an opinion on why this situation exists?

Best guess is that PTC had underestimated the task to redesign the program and that marketing department had won over common sense.

If you flip through this forum you will find a lot of postings dealing with the problem of Prime being that mediocre. The last one bein a poll somebody had set up here http://communities.ptc.com/polls/1578

According to existence of a comparison list - no, not that I would know of. At least not a serious and reliable one. I remember seeing a list which was published by PTC where Prime would win the game with enormous advantage, but I would not call that list honest or sincere, rather a denial of reality.