Skip to main content
D
DS_1002491213-Aquamarine
13-Aquamarine
November 30, 2023
Solved

PTC Mathcad Plots - horizontal & vertical gid lines missing

  • November 30, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 3784 views

Is it possible to add horizontal and vertical grid lines that are, very often, seen in graphs?   PTC Mathcad's plot has no lines - as default.    I don't see anything in the Plots ribbon that makes these lines appear. 

 

The original Mathcad had the ability to add horizontal and vertical lines onto the graph. 

 

I did find markers that could be added in PTC Mathcad - but, I could only delete one of these makers.  After deleting the first marker the "delete marker" button became gray and therefore stopped functioning.  Now, I'm stuck with three markers on this plot.   I'd like to be able to delete all of these markers at will - if at all possible.

 

see screen capture.

 

EDIT:  This is how I'm adding a plot to MathCAD PTC:  Plot > Insert Plot > XY Plot

(see second screen capture)

 

 

Best answer by DJNewman

Hi,

PTC Mathcad Prime actually has two methods of creating XY Plots. One is the Plots tab. The other is the "Chart Component" from the Math tab. Understandably you wouldn't look in the Math tab to create plots, so I get why you might not have noticed it there.

 

You might find this blog article useful on the differences between the two, and at the bottom there are three videos that go over how to set up a Chart Component, how to format it, and how to do things like export it as an image: https://www.mathcad.com/en/blogs/mathcad-graphing-options-xy-plots-and-chart-components

Of particular interest is that only the Chart Component has options for horizontal and vertical gridlines.

4 replies

ttokoro
21-Topaz I
ttokoro21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
November 30, 2023

You can move or delete the lines. Just drug lines or rewrite the values or delete the values in the O circle.

t.t.
D
DJNewman18-OpalAnswer
18-Opal
November 30, 2023

Hi,

PTC Mathcad Prime actually has two methods of creating XY Plots. One is the Plots tab. The other is the "Chart Component" from the Math tab. Understandably you wouldn't look in the Math tab to create plots, so I get why you might not have noticed it there.

 

You might find this blog article useful on the differences between the two, and at the bottom there are three videos that go over how to set up a Chart Component, how to format it, and how to do things like export it as an image: https://www.mathcad.com/en/blogs/mathcad-graphing-options-xy-plots-and-chart-components

Of particular interest is that only the Chart Component has options for horizontal and vertical gridlines.

D
DS_1002491213-AquamarineAuthor
13-Aquamarine
November 30, 2023

Seems decent.  

 

mathcad_chart_op_amp_integrator_-_2023-11-30_9-07-00.jpg

    W
    Werner_E25-Diamond I
    25-Diamond I
    November 30, 2023

    You have to put the cursor at the number of the marker to give it the focus - only then you are offered to delete it (otherwise Prime would not know which marker to delete).

     

    And yes, Primes native plots do not offer grid lines. It also does not offer labels, a secondary y-axis, separate setting of line width and point size, etc.

    Instead of improving the native plots and add these rather primitive features, PTC decided to add a third party tool and so the Chart component mentioned by DJNEwman was born. unfortunately this component has its own severe drawbacks like not supporting units (an absolute no-go for a Mathcad add-on IMHO), incredible awkward and slow reacting, and it does not scale properly (which is the reason I can't use it at all in my setting).

    So you have to choose the lesser of two evils depending on your requirements. Try them both and then make your choice.

    According grid lines in Primes native plots - there were posted workarounds here in the forum (the grid lines were realized as separate traces) by me and by LucMeekes. A little cumbersome, but better than nothing.
    Here is the version I posted way back -

    https://community.ptc.com/t5/Mathcad/In-MCD-Prime-4-0-is-there-any-way-to-add-gridlines-to-plots/m-p/86492/highlight/true#M34243

    You will find others if you search the forum for them. Lucs version uses a different syntax and has the advantage of also working  in the free Express version of Prime.

     

      D
      DS_1002491213-AquamarineAuthor
      13-Aquamarine
      November 30, 2023

      "and it does not scale properly"

       

      What isn't scaling?

       

       

      W
      Werner_E25-Diamond I
      25-Diamond I
      November 30, 2023

      Using a small display but with a high resolution like a 15,6" notebook display in 4K resolution requires to set the windows scaling factor to a value of 250% to 300%. All software picks this up and work flawless with the exception of the Chart component in Prime. Text and numbers are so tiny that they can hardly be seen, let alone read even when set to the largest value allowed and I guess the plot would look ugly with the large font size when the sheet is opened on another computer. Thats sure a show stopper. The same applies to things like line width, etc.

      The same is also a problem the other way round. If you send your file to a colleague with an equipment as mentioned before, he/she will see a plot with much too tiny font and hard to see extra thin lines.
      Of course the plots should look the same no matter what the hardware is and so I call this a severe bug (or maybe rather a very sloppily and bad implementation of a third party software).

       

      D
      DS_1002491213-AquamarineAuthor
      13-Aquamarine
      November 30, 2023

      How to delete cursors in Plot

       

      mathcad_delete_cursor_in_plot_-_2023-11-30_8-07-22.jpg

      Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement