Old Mathcad 11 User

[mscura]

I recently got a new PC running Windows8.1. I used to run Mcad v11 on an XP machine which worked perfectly. It installs on the Win8.1 machine but doesn't run. In researching this I've found numerous postings in this forum about problems with "Prime" and Mcad v15 (evidently the last of the old Mathcad products) not being compatible with Win8.1 and/or not being able to run the old .mcd documents. I'm at a loss what to make of all this. I have 20 years of Matchcad documents that are currently useless. Does PTC have a recommended migration path from Mcad v11 to one of its current products (that works with Win8.1 and dosen't cost USD1,600?).

[RichardJ]

Prime will not run many old documents. In fact, it won't run any of them. You have to convert them, but only simple documents convert so well they do not need some subsequent manual work, and many will not convert at all. Mathcad 15 will run most old worksheets under Win 8, but some old MC11 worksheets are not compatiable with MC15 (in particular, any using symbolic math).

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

Richard covered it well except for one thing:

When you buy Prime they give you version 15. (You have to have 15 installed or their convesion software won't work.)

While Prime is struggling to get up to speed, version 15 is just about as good as version 11 and ceertainly as good as 8. There is a different symbolic processor (MuPad instead of Maple) but your sheets should open and run in 15 with minimal effort.

Get Prime. Buy the tail, they'll give you the dog for free.

[VladimirN]

Next/future version of Mathcad Prime 3.1 will have support for Windows 8.1.

[mscura]

Thanks for the responses. I've downloaded the trial version of v15; it seems to run OK on Win8.1. So now I have to go through my old docs one by one to take account of the subtle (and not so subtle) differences with v11. I have .mcd docs going back to 1992 and don't remember ever having to go through this before with upgrades. I'm wondering if it's possible after the trial period to buy a v15 upgrade without having to bother with Prime.

[RichardJ]

I don't think there's any way to get a license for MC15 except by getting Prime. Most MC11 worksheets should work in MC15 with no changes.

[StuartBruff]

Richard Jackson wrote:

I don't think there's any way to get a license for MC15 except by getting Prime. Most MC11 worksheets should work in MC15 with no changes.

Unless the dreaded SUC bites!

Stuart

Michael,

Mathcad 12 introduced the concept of static type checking, commonly referred to as Static Unit Checking = SUC. Instead of catching unit or data type conflicts at run time, Mathsoft decided to make Mathcad "safer" and potentially easier to debug, by checking for such conflicts before execution.

For example, if an expression returns kilograms then Mathcad flags up an error if you add it to metres, even if you haven't calculated the expression (eg f(x):=x+1m+1kg will show an error in M15).

It also won't let you mix functions and values inside an array - I often found this useful as it allowed me to create a 'structure' by creating a vector which, say, had a function, a string descriptor, and a set of values, and then passing the vector to another function (eg, to tabulate the results of applying several functions). Probably won't bother most people, but I found it to be a regular pain.

[RichardJ]

Unless the dreaded SUC bites!

Well, sure. And a few other things too. I said most worksheets will work, not all of them