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vroberts8-Gravel
8-Gravel
April 2, 2021
Solved

Mathcad Prime 7 Converter Fails with Very Simple Worksheets

  • April 2, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 12391 views

I downloaded and installed Prime 7.0 and the new converter that is supposed to convert MC15 worksheets to Prime 7.0 worksheets.  The first two MC15 worksheets I converted were claimed to have been converted, but did not work properly in Prime 7.

 

The more complicated one had a plot which uses a format that may not be supported in Prime 7, but the second file is a mystery. It is an extremely basic worksheet, so basic that it could be argued that I'm wasting the power of MC, but the file does use units. After conversion, the Prime 7 worksheet would not work until I removed and replaced at least some of the units and the PI symbol.

 

It seems as if the converter is unable to properly recognize and convert unit symbols and PI. If so, this is a massive fail.

 

Three files are attached. The MC15 file, the Prime 7 file as converted, and the converted Prime 7 file as fixed.

 

If I am making some stupid mistake, please let me know.

Best answer by Werner_E
@vroberts wrote:

Werner,

 

Thanks for the file. The Prime 6 converter has the same issue. The units are not properly recognized until I delete one and replace it. Than the other units in that calculation are also recognized and displayed in Blue

 

So it looks that there is nothing wrong with the converter in P7.

I suspect something else:

When you open a Prime sheet, the sheet is not immediately recalculated (as is the case in MC15 and below) but you see the results which were seen the last time the file was saved. This view is stored separately in the mcdx file (its in "result.xml"). When a file is converted the original MC15 file is also stored in the new mcdx file (I don't know what this may be used for - its deleted the first time you save from Prime) but no "previous Prime view" is created. So when you open a converted file the first time, you see the content without any labels applied and so it just looks like the units are not recognized.

 

If the sheet is recalculated, the units should pop up magically 😉

You can recalculate the sheet by pressing F5 or Ctrl-F9.

You also force a recalculation if you change something on top which affects other calculations. And this seems to be the case why you see the correct units when you delete one and retype it.

 

So I guess that at least this time we can't blame or accuse PTC for having introduced a new bug.

When I started testing Prime I was irritated because the automatic recalculation after the load of a worksheet was missing. But this feature enables the stripped down free version Prime Express to open and display worksheets containing premium features, so probably we have to classify this feature a good one.

 

But of course it could be implemented in a better way. Automatic recalculation at startup could be an option to be turned on or off in the settings. The converter could/should be modified to create a "previous view" so the sheet displays with correct labels, etc.

But there are so many things which could and should be improved in Prime ...

 

1 reply

F
Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
23-Emerald I
April 2, 2021

Well, I can see your frustration.

 

Prime did convert the file, and it did recognize the units.  But it failed miserably at the resulting calculations.  Until I erased the units after the results in the converted file.  Then it did the calculation and reported the results, and when I restored the original units it gave the correct result.  (File attached, but you should try it on your converted file.)

 

Prime (AND its converter) are painfully S  L  O  W!

V
vroberts8-GravelAuthor
8-Gravel
April 2, 2021

Thanks.

 

When I said that the Converter did not recognize the units, I should have been more precise.

 

The units were there, but not shown in blue, which is the way that Prime enters units, and the results were shown as indeterminate.

 

As soon as I deleted and reentered one of the units, all the units in that calculation turned blue and the results were now determined and correct. 

 

So, as you seem to have confirmed, the converter is no properly converting the units from the MC15 worksheet. 

    W
    Werner_E25-Diamond I
    25-Diamond I
    April 3, 2021
    @LucMeekes wrote:

    I think this is, and will remain, an issue with the conversion. The cause is the fact that (real) Mathcad does not know what a unit is and what not. It doesn't flag units as units automatically, let alone assign them their own math style. In (real) Mathcad the predefined units are defined as ordinary variables. So you cannot distinguish a unit from a variable by its math style.Then how would Prime know what m is a unit, and which other m is a variable?

    I tend to disagree. If MC15 is able to interpret the sheet without running into troubles, then the converter should do so, too. And it sure is possible as the converter in Prime 6 (which needs a full installation of MC15) could convert the sheet into a perfectly workable Prime 6 sheet without any troubles. The "algorithm" of doing the job seems quite simple:
    1) if the name of a variable in the MC15 sheet is identical to the name of a predefined unit in MC15 AND that variable is undefined so far, it should be considered a unit

    2) if a variable in the MC15 sheet is defined and later used in a unit placeholder, it should be considered a unit And yes, I confess that used defined units may require some more thinking than that simple rule #2. But the file in question does not use any user-defined units anyway and should therefore be converted correctly in any case. If the P6 converter (in no way perfect) could do it, the P7 converter must be able to to so, too. If its not able to do, then thats a severe bug.


    To me it looks like PTC when they developed the converter for Prime 7 once again did a .... let's call it... PTC-job, as they also did so often in the past. Not much good usually comes from PTC 

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