File Save Error (MC15)

[MoeSzyslak]

Hi, Collab --

I know that this is a long shot, but I thought maybe worth a try...

A few months ago, seemingly out of the blue, we became unable to save Mathcad 15 files (xmcd, xmcdz, mcd) to one of our network drives. I note that rtf from MC15 and Prime files are no problem. It is also possible to copy MC15 files onto this network drive -- we just can't save them from MC15. The specific error we get is, "Disk full while accessing M:\filename.xmcd". The disk is most certainly not full. I also note that so far this error is 100% reproducible -- we have not seen a file, user, or workstation from which this error does not occur.

Like I said, a long shot -- it could be MC, server hardware, server software, any number of things -- but has anyone else ever come across this?

Thanks.

Matt

[RichardJ]

Can you save to the drive from another piece of software, for example Word?

[MoeSzyslak]

Yes. My original post should be edited to read, "I note that rtf files from MC15 and Prime files are no problem. Indeed, we have observed this behavior exclusively with xmcd, xmcdz, and mcd files from MC15 and not with any other software."

[RichardJ]

Sorry. I should have read that moer carefully! It's weird. It sounds like some sort of permissions problem.

[MoeSzyslak]

That was what the IT folks thought at first and they tested it. They were not able to prove that it was a permissions problem, but I am not convinced that they could prove it wasn't, either.

Our unfortunate current state is that the IT folks are pretty confident (based on past experience) that they're not going to get any help from PTC on this issue, so from their standpoint, we should just move everything to Prime 3. I complained, explaining that P3 << MC15 (indeed, P3 << MC8), but it fell on deaf ears. So, I started talking to firms that hire our graduates. They were near unanimous in their views that they would not be "upgrading" to Prime until it had at least most of the functionality of MC15. Well, this got some folks' attention, but they still can't figure out what's wrong.

<rant>

So, what is the outcome of all of this? Well, I'm the only person in my group who really "preaches" Mathcad -- I use it in all of my classes and in my research. I had two MS students graduate this summer, both of whom are now fluent in MC15. I have three continuing PhD students who have never really used MC15 and probably never will -- they have elected to do all of their calculations and modeling in MATLAB, Octave, R, and/or Python and I support their decisions.

How much difference does any of this make to PTC? Not a hill of beans, but it makes me feel better to say it. I am ashamed of the number of MC licenses (hundreds) that I have encouraged students to buy over the years.

</rant>

[MikeArmstrong]

It sounds like a permission problem to me. Was Mathcad installed with administrive rights?

Is your profile restricted below admin level?

[MoeSzyslak]

I have super user permissions on the network and administrator permissions (through a separate account) on my workstation. While permissions do seem like an obvious culprit, they've looked at that and can't trace the problem there. To me (uneducated in networking, etc.), I don't see how a permissions issue could just pop up out of the ether (i.e., everything used to work fine, then one day it didn't).

[RichardJ]

Well, I could equally well argue that nothing should just pop out of the ether on a computer. Unless you change something, a computer should do tomorrow what it does today. Something obviously did change though, and however hard it is to believe that something just changed overnight on the network drive, it's even harder to believe something simultaneously changed overnight on every workstation, for every copy of Mathcad.

[MikeArmstrong]

Moe Szyslak wrote:

I have super user permissions on the network and administrator permissions (through a separate account) on my workstation. While permissions do seem like an obvious culprit, they've looked at that and can't trace the problem there. To me (uneducated in networking, etc.), I don't see how a permissions issue could just pop up out of the ether (i.e., everything used to work fine, then one day it didn't).

Very strange but as Richard said something did change, maybe a software update.

Have you tried restoring back to a date when there was no issues?

[MikeArmstrong]

Moe Szyslak wrote:

How much difference does any of this make to PTC? Not a hill of beans, but it makes me feel better to say it. I am ashamed of the number of MC licenses (hundreds) that I have encouraged students to buy over the years.

</rant>

This is very sad, but a realism of what I going on with Mathcad Prime.

Don't be ashamed, Mathcad has been a very useful tool over the years.

[RichardJ]

I was looking at the IPython notebook just the other day. If I switched to something else right now, that would be it. It gives at least some wysiwyg math interface, much like Mathematica (i.e. you have to enter everything in "Fortranish", but you get to see the result as a real math expression). You can add drawings, pictures, etc. It's backed up by extensive numerical and scientific libraries such as numpy, scipy, and Pandas, it's got graphing that blows Mathcad away, and much more. And it 's free!

Oh, and of course you don't have to deal with PTC

[MikeArmstrong]

Very interesting. Looks a neat little program.

[Werner_E]

Create a new subdirectory on the network drive and try if you can save files from within Mathcad there.

[MoeSzyslak]

We can't save MC15 files to any directories on this particular network drive.

[VladimirN]

Hi Moe,

What service release of MC15 are you using?

[MoeSzyslak]

M020

[VladimirN]

There is a chance for you to upgrade to the latest version M030?

P.S. Or try the following links:

http://www.ptc.com/product/mathcad/free-trial

http://www.ptc.com/product/mathcad/free-trial/thank-you

[MoeSzyslak]

Thanks for the tip, Vladimir -- I installed M030, but it didn't solve my problem. Ugh.

[VladimirN]

And what Windows OS are you running? Just that tested this situation with Win 7 64-bit and Mathcad 15 F000. All works fine (I saved worksheet with some calculation and also a blank/empty worksheet on network drive). This issue appears even if you save a some blank worksheet?

[MoeSzyslak]

We are using 64-bit Windows 7 and MC 15 M030 or MC 15 M020. We see the issue across all users from all workstations with all xmcd and xmcdz files, even blank ones. This happens not "sometimes" and not "in certain situations" or "under certain scenarios". It happens for everyone all of the time.

[RichardJ · Accepted solution]

Take the network drive outside and place it in the middle of a very large pile of wood. Ignite the pile of wood. Drink several beers while watching the drive burn. This will not fix the problem, but it will make you feel much better.

To fix the problem, buy another drive to replace the melted pile of slag that was the offending drive.

[MoeSzyslak]

Mmmmm....beer.