Why do PTC continue with MathCad Prime?

[sjupp]

I need to rant about how rubbish Prime is, so I am looking at the support renewals and its coming in at like £3k for my current licenses. We only use MathCAD 15 as prime's functionality is so poor compared to MathCAD 15. So what am I paying for? I sat through a 30min webinar on Prime 5.0, the only thing that they had done was add a graphing app, I had to temper my annoyance that that was the focus for the prime 5.0 release. What about the simple stuff:-

1. Why have they changed how you do subscripts! Every time I type a variable I add a subscript, this is now a two button operation. Did the developers ever open up MathCAD 15? I have been through multiple software upgrades on AutoCAD, Solidworks, Inventor etc none of them just decide to change how the user fundamental interacts with the software.

2. Why are there no formatting styles available? Prime is there to present maths in a nice consistent format so we can deliver it to our clients, did the developers forget that the output from Prime is a sheet that is often delivered as part of a client engineering pack?

3. We have hundreds of MathCAD 15 calculations that we can't convert to Prime without lots of work to re-format and sort out. This is a ridiculous place to be, no other upgrade on other software platforms has ever created so many issues.

I am sure I could keep going if I had the time, PTC have taken a market leading piece of software and rubbished it, we used to recruit based on people having used the software, this is no longer the case.

So why not forget Prime, it has such a bad reputation, it couldn't do maths when it was first released and it has continued to disappoint from release to release. Stop what you are doing PTC and look at MathCAD 15, just update that, give it tabs and nice icon colours (because that's what we all need) and sell it as MathCAD 16, I can tell you the engineering world will rejoice, and you will see customers coming back to MathCAD! Or continue with Prime and watch all you engineering clients walk away.

[Raiko]

"...Mathcad 15 is my go-to program, period.  It is a wonderful platform for day-to-day engineering calcs ..."

I second this.

mathcad 15's versatility is what this software is about and PTC's management seems to regard it as a calculator only.  It's a pity and I will switch to matlab as soon as MathCad 15 doesn't run on windows anymore.

Raiko

[GrumpyOldTom]

Well, I hope:

(1) That PTC gets this ship righted and under power again soon, or---

(2) That it is a very long time before 15 doesn't run on Windows!

We are making PDF "prints" of record calculations anyway, so we don't lose the math.

Now note:  I probably could use Prime.  It's like I said, 9 times out of 10 or better, it's not like I'm doing PhD level math.  And 15 is pretty good at that, too.  It's just that I find no compelling reason to do so, when it's more awkward than what I've got.

[tslewis]

Try the text block option and then add text and math regions in there. You will probably find the formatting vertically and horizontally will now match up properly and consistently. Also copying and pasting text region blocks to word or as an rtf preserves formatting much better

[SL_9674672]

Prime doesn't like vectors called in a program. If you work with network piping systems you need the functionality of a program to calculate your friction factor and to implement a Hardy Cross methodology. When I typed into MC15 the Hardy Cross script it worked perfectly the first time. I am over 16 hours of trying to get Prime 6.0 to do the same task. If anyone wants to teach me something and show how dumb I am for not being able to get it in Prime, send the sheet over. I would be really happy for the assistance.

[Werner_E]

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@SL_9674672 wrote:
... If anyone wants to teach me something and show how dumb I am for not being able to get it in Prime, send the sheet over. I would be really happy for the assistance.

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No, just do it the other way round!!

Prepare a small, simplified to the max sheet which shows the problem clearly, declare as precise as possible what you expected as result and post the worksheet with your question in a new thread (preferably along with the working MC15 version).

[SL_9674672]

Very eloquently put!!!! I agree completely!

[StuartBruff]

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@ChrisKaswer wrote:

Unfortunately you've insisted on ignoring your core, primary customer base.

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A somewhat apposite post. For the first time in many a year, I've got the impression that PTC Marketing are putting some serious, and welcome, effort into letting the world know about Mathcad. However, to clarify matters, I've recently asked who PTC think their target Mathcad user base is?

Stuart

I think part of the frustration that a lot of users have felt was due to the fact that many (most?) of us never really knew who PTC were aiming Mathcad at.   I just wish I knew who, because, whoever he was, he clearly had a very, very different view of what Mathcad ought to be.  Either that or the decision-makers never had any real understanding of what Mathcad was.  

[uni]

Ten years ago I switched to the alternative mentioned here. As a developer.
Now you can look at the results: Curso SMath Studio CEI

[GrumpyOldTom]

Thanks! But these are all in Spanish. Hablo muy poco español...

[uni]

YouTube can automatically insert and translate subtitles. You just need to take advantage of new technologies, Tom.

[GrumpyOldTom]

Thanks! I hadn't thought of that!

[LL_10054709]

I could not agree more! I had to transfer from Mathcad 15 to Prime 7... and I am experiencing EXACTLY the same frustrations as you do. I used to love working in Mathcad 15, it was simple, fast, clean. 

Now it is a complete rubbish. Despite the messy look (I could forgive that), basic functions that were making work with Mathcad 15 so efficient are missing. The subscript function being two keyboard shortcut - horrible decision, so time-consuming. And where are the floating functions? 

Please change it back... 😞