Question about upgrading to Mathcad Prime 3

JeffWeiss9 · ‎Apr 24, 2014

With a Win7 computer coming, I am apparently forced to choose between trying to remain a 20+ year user of Mathcad or face major trials with a poorly-rated Mathcad Prime but I would like to know what my real options are. I have been told by my sys admin that PTC will not sell my company a Mathcad 15 license to upgrade my current Mathcad 14 license running on my XP machine that is soon to be replaced. I am told that I must upgrade to Prime 3 and lose all backward compatibiilty with years of work as well as, from reading here, take a big step backward in capability. If true, that would see me head for the exits. I have hope for rationality when I read (elsewhere) in this forum that one receives a Mathcad 15 license when one purchases Mathcad Prime 3. That would keep me with PTC, if true, since then I could continue to function with old and new Mathcad routines and wait until Prime N comes along with actual backward compatibility and full functionality to at least get me equal to Mathcad 15. Can someone at PTC please confirm that a Mathcad 15 license comes with a Mathcad 3 Prime purchase so I can relay that information to my sys admin folks? Otherwise I don't see much of a future with PTC, although I will be shaking my head at Mathcad's apparent self destruction.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

-Jeff

PS Just for PTC information, I am a physicist, not a draftsman, and Mathcad's great advantage to me is its rapid translation of mathematical equations into computation with a very low error rate relative to coding in Matlab or other tools that I also use.

RichardJ · ‎Apr 25, 2014

You do get MC15 with Prime 3, although I'm not sure which service release you get. Without MC15 the converter will not work, so you could not convert your MC15 files to Prime (assuming you wanted to!)

Werner_E · ‎Apr 25, 2014

I'm not sure which service release you get.

Doesn't a purchase includes a one year maintanance mandatory? Then you are entitled to download the current service release anyway.

The product code you get on purchase may be valid for the installation of Prime 3 only, but the license file (workstation node locked or server based floating) which is generated/sent on installation of Prime is valid for Prime AND Mathcad 15 (no matter what mainanance release). So unless purchase you insist on purchase to get a Mathcad 15 product code (and you will not be able to run Prime if you do) , you will get a Prime product code and so you are forced to install Prime to get the license file even if you just want to use MC15.

RichardJ · ‎Apr 25, 2014

you are forced to install Prime to get the license file even if you just want to use MC15.

True. But disk space is plentiful so it can be ignored. Or uninstalled

Werner_E · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Richard Jackson wrote:
you are forced to install Prime to get the license file even if you just want to use MC15.
True. But disk space is plentiful so it can be ignored. Or uninstalled

I agree. Especially given that with a true MC15 only product code you will not be able to give Prime a thorough test drive (apart from the 30 day trial period).

I remember when Prime 1 was the current Prime version. The only reason installing it really was to get a license file for Mathcad. I guess Prime 1 was the software with the shortest lifetime on my HD ever 😉

ryankelley · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Hey Jeffrey - welcome (back) to the community! I've branched this discussion so that our members can directly address your questions. In the future, if you have a specific question you can always start a new discussion within in the community.

And yes, as Richard has correctly pointed out, a copy of Mathcad 15 comes with your purchase of Mathcad Prime 3.

Werner_E · ‎Apr 25, 2014

The subject may be a bit misleading as Jeffrey is asking something about upgrading from Prime3 to Mathcad 15. Or in detail: From MC14 down to Prime3 and then up to MC15

ryankelley · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Ha ha, Werner!

JeffWeiss9 · ‎Apr 25, 2014

That seems quite reasonable so I will go that route.

Thanks,

-Jeff

SylvainFlamant · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Where can we get an exact list of Mathcad 15 feautures that are not supported in Prime 3 ? knowing that I don't know how a list coming from PTC could be trusted: I have seen a feature comparison file from PTC comparing Mathcad15 and prime 2, and looking at it you would think that Prime 2 is a much more powerful software than Mathcad 15 ! ( when in fact lots of the Mathcad 15 capabilities were not in Prime 2, and Prime 2 was useless to me) .

It is difficult to find this kind of information on the PTC site...

PS: I have 25 years of Mathcad files, and before considering switching , I would want to know in advance if we can easily convert the files, if a "c" routine integrated in a mathcad15 file would still work in Prime 3? if the visual basics slider would still be supported? The animation feature ? if it has the equivalent of the Signal Processing e-book ? etc etc...

Sylvain

Werner_E · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Where can we get an exact list of Mathcad 15 feautures that are not supported in Prime 3 ?

Guess there is none. At least none that would be complete. You'll have to look around here to see what people complain about and try yourself.

I have seen a feature comparison file from PTC comparing Mathcad15 and prime 2, and looking at it you would think that Prime 2 is a much more powerful software than Mathcad 15 ! ( when in fact lots of the Mathcad 15 capabilities were not in Prime 2, and Prime 2 was useless to me) .

Yes, this list really was funny in a very sad way. Some times ago someone here wrote that Prime is a good example of what happens when engineering is replaced by marketing - spot on.

It is difficult to find this kind of information on the PTC site...

No, I don't think that that is difficult - I rather guess its impossible.

PS: I have 25 years of Mathcad files, and before considering switching , I would want to know in advance if we can easily convert the files, if a "c" routine integrated in a mathcad15 file would still work in Prime 3? if the visual basics slider would still be supported? The animation feature ? if it has the equivalent of the Signal Processing e-book ? etc etc...

"c" routine ???? Ah, a user DLL!? That was reintroduced with P3. Probably you will have to recompile.

sliders, etc.: NO. Prime 3 does not support components (scripted or not)

animation: NO. Not a Prime feature

Signal processing: YES. The commands of the four e-books ( Data Analysis / Image Processing / Signal Processing / Wavelets ) are now integrated in the regular distribution (There is no support for E-books in Prime).

etc. etc. ...: possibly NO

SylvainFlamant · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Thank you very much. That was useful information

RichardJ · ‎Apr 25, 2014

Pitiful 2D and 3D graphs, no support for e-books (most, although not all the functions in the extension packs are supported, but the information in all the books is gone), no controls or scripted components, user DLLs have to be rewritten, no animation, no math styles, no program debugger. That's a start, but by no means a complete list.

Oh, and it's slower too.