MATHCAD PRIME 10 FIles Compatibility

[gianfry]

Good afternoon.

I recently updated to MATHCAD PRIME 10 and started to work.

This morning I realized that when a file created with the PRIME 9 is saved in PRIME 10, this cannot be opened again with the version 9. One of my office colleague receiving some work pointed me out. I honestly thought that when the PRIME versions came out files could be saved  and opened with no problem. It was like that until MATHCAD 15.

I tried to install in parallel MATHCAD PRIME 9, to redo the work from PRIME 9 version, but it doesn't work.

Is anyone in the community encountered this issue and is there any work-around solution?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

I am almost sure that mcdx files are not backward compatible.

To run Mathcad Prime 9.0:

• uninstall all Mathcad Prime versions
• install Mathcad Prime 9.0

[Werner_E]

This is a well known annoyance. Every new Prime version creates a file format not compatible with older versions.

This is unlike other software you may be using, where the file format does not change with every version and older versions are able to open files created in newer ones (and may simply ignore new features not available).

File format changes should only occur when the software significantly changes. But PTC is different - despite the snail's pace at which Prime is developing, each version invalidates the file format for older versions.  This is of course done for marketing reasons, because users (like perhaps your colleague who is still using Prime 9) should be forced to switch to Prime 10 in this way.

Real Mathcad has undergone a few format changes as well, but, like many other software, every new version was able to save the file in older formats (loosing new features, of course) as well and so there could not occur problems with co-workers or clients which did not update. A feature like that is (like so many other features) missing in Prime and I guess on purpose.

You should be able to install Prime 10 and still keep your Prime 9 installation working (you will loose the ability to convert legacy worksheets to Prime 9 format).

When you start Prime 9 first and then an instance of Prime 10, you will have both versions open side by side and you may be able to copy regions from the Prime 10 sheet to a new Prime 9 sheet. Because copy and paste is implemented in Prime in a very dilettante unusual way, it may be necessary to copy the regions one by one and not in one go.

But if I remember correct I already succeeded to copy more than one region at once - at least from Prime 10 to Prime 9 or vice versa.

[ptc-1381163]

As of a couple of years ago, and probably still, Solidworks does the same thing. It forces users to keep their update subscriptions going.

Consultants and their clients run into this, and hate it.

[DJF]

There's this old workaround:  

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Mathcad/Prime-backwards-compatibility-solved-Or-at-least-hacked/td-p/637537

I'm still on 7, so not sure if it works in 8/9/10.

[Werner_E]

---

@DJF wrote:

There's this old workaround:  

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Mathcad/Prime-backwards-compatibility-solved-Or-at-least-hacked/td-p/637537

I'm still on 7, so not sure if it works in 8/9/10.

---

Unfortunately this bold hack does not work with newer versions of Prime.

@LucMeekes  seems to have developed a more sophisticated way to convert back and forth between the various versions of Prime as he often helps out by posting converted Prime files.

[LucMeekes · Accepted solution]

The principle of "this bold hack" still works, but requires more sophistication.

Regarding the copying over between two side-by-side installed versions of Prime: It often works to collect all regions in a single area, and then copy that area over. So first on the newer version of Prime you copy all regions to an empty new area. Copy that area and paste it into an empty sheet of the older Prime version. Save the file in/from the older Prime version.

You can have all versions of Prime (1.0 through 10.0) installed on the same machine, the only exception is that versions 3.0 and 3.1 cannot co-exist. You have to install them in sequential order (e.g. you cannot install version 7.0 if 8.0 or higher is installed).

If you have a licensed version 9.0 installed you could install 10.0 as an express version, but be sure to NOT install the converter option, otherwise you risk losing the converter capability.

Success!
Luc

[Werner_E]

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@LucMeekes wrote:

The principle of "this bold hack" still works, but requires more sophistication.

This is precisely the (to me) unknown sticking point! 😉

[AG_10921010]

This worked for me - sort of. I could only copy paste one equation at a time. Could not copy plain text - it complained about a log file. But it was easier than retyping all from scratch - thanks for the tip.

[JF_10371043]

I would LOVE to know what that sophistication is, precisely!