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Prime 3.0 is good, but ...

JFPittet
3-Visitor

Prime 3.0 is good, but ...

Hello Mathcad/Prime user and PTC programmer,

I install Prime 3.0 and I start some tests with it ... the "results" will follow.

At the start of Prime 1.0, I install it and I use P1 ~10 minutes, than I delete it again, because the P1 version was not possible to use.

At the start of Prime 2.0, I install it and I use P2 ~20 minutes, than I delete it again, because the P2 version was not possible to use.

Now at the start of Prime 3.0, ... I install it and I use P3 ... this time several hours ... and maybe P3 will stays on my computer, but I found a lot of "problems" during these several hours of use. I use a workstation with Windows 7 / 64 bits Enterprise.

I re-write in P3 the same worksheet as I write in Mathcad 15 a week before.

1) Why are the line || in the program-block not continuous ? (and why || and not a single | similar to Mathcad ?)

2) Why are the matrix/vector [ ] or ( ) not continuous ? (try a 3x3 matrix with 2x2 matrix element ... it is hard to see the elements)

3) Some lines of a program during editing, which is over 2 pages, disappear. The only way is to move the program region and all the lines reappear.

4) By printing, if a program is over 2 pages ... a line is cut and not complete visible (=> Prime shall print a program line on one page and it shall continue with the next program line on the next page)

5) In the page modus "draft" (with the area on the right), if something is on the "right paper" near the page border, than some characteres are print in the margin.

6) Why do P3 not use all the same short-cut as Mathcad ? "Alt Gr" + "]" for new program line and "Alt Gr" + "{" for variable assignment in a program.

7) It is a very long procedure for writing a program with P3 ... Click on "Calculation", click on "Program", click on "|" or on "<--" and if you want insert a vector ... click on "Matrix", click on "new matrix" and click on the squares for the matrix dimension, than click back "Calculation" and so on ...

With Mathcad (from 7 to 15) I use all the time the same way ... the menu with direct function ... "Alt Gr" + "]" for new program line, "Alt Gr" + "{" for new assignment and the matrix menu was direct ...

😎 Why is now the cursor after the "( )" in P3, when I write the "( )" of the "Function( )". In Mathcad (up to 15), the cursor is in the "( )", where is it possible to continue to write the function parameter or someting else. In P3 it is necessary to click between the "( )" or to press the left arrow 2 times. Why 2 times ?

9) The mathematic/test region movement on the paper works not each time ... it is necessary to try several time until the region is placed at the wanted position.

10) Is it possible to align several regions together ? (vertical and horizontal alignment)

11) Is it possible to delete/switch of the labelling of the solve block ?

12) The automatic installation software installs the german version (it is OK for me), but all the P3 function are now only in english. It is not easy to find now the english name of the function, that I use for more than 10 years in german ...

13) The 3D grafic do not allow the same input as Mathcad (with nested array of function) ... need to seperate the nested array in different input in the 3D grafic. How it is possible to change the illumination of the "object" in the 3D grafic ?

14) It is good that it is now possible to use/program used DLL with P3. ... Unfortunately, it is not possible to use the same complied DLL as Mathcad (conversion from 32 bits to 64 bits is necessary).

15) Why is it necessary to write in a file before to insert an image ? Mathcad (up to 15) has the possibility to insert an image with "Strg" + "T" and to use as input a variable/matrix. I have a lot of mathcad files with up to 50 images or more (wavefront error measurements or intermediate analysis). What is the name of the images ... "image_1", "image_2" ... What appens if several Prime documents are open at the same time in the same directory with several images in each of the documents ... which "image_1" is with which document ?

16) Why is it not possible to format the image in X or in Y with a different scaling ? (also to stretch the image in a direction)

So ... I will (and my colleagues) wait for the Prime 4.0 version.

Regards,

Jean-Francois Pittet

10 REPLIES 10
Raiko
16-Pearl
(To:JFPittet)

Hi Jean,

I understand your frustation. It is already the third attempt at a "new" MathCad and it is still deficient.

My main complain is that I find MC Prime less easy to use due to the need to constantly switch between ribbon and keyboard when coding; whereas in MC 15 you simply typed your code.

And I find the poor visibility of the cursor (pale blue on a pale blue grid!) a major obstacle to easy use.

Let's wait for Prime 5.0

Raiko

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:JFPittet)

Number 8: In Prime, when you type "(", it adds the ")", and places the cursor in between them in the placeholder. So don't type "()", just type "(". This gets me all the time, because by habit I type "()".

But yes, the functionality of Prime 3.0 is still seriously deficient. And I don't like the UI.

Hello Richard,

Thank you for the "(" information.

Jean-Francois

nas0k
7-Bedrock
(To:JFPittet)

Re: #2 you can easily expand the matrix; drag the region to expand the viewable content.

Werner_E
24-Ruby V
(To:nas0k)

I think the problem mentioned by Jean-Francois is the display of the vertical lines in brackets and parentheses. The are disconnected/broken ever so often. It seems to be a matter of fonts, screen resolution and zoom factor.

In the follwing screen shot it is barely seen but I saw acreenshots posted here by other people where the effect was much more noticable and really looked ugly.

27.11.png

Otherwise I agree that apart from the many missing features Prime is much more cumbersome to use and very slow in many respects. Especially I secon what Raiko wrote about the poor visibility of cursor and highlighted area. Editing an expression gets a trial and error thing ever so often - thats highly annyoing (and could so easily be fixed by program development).

It may be a matter of personal taste but I don't agree with Jean-Francois' #12. I use the German version, too, and I prefer to have the various function names and keywords in English in whatever version I may get my hands on. I never liked the German names and used Mathcad set to English usually because of the severe problems you get in the German version with variables t, s (the will eventually be interpreted as tonne and sconds because t and s are the usual abbrevations for those units over here), especially in using the laplace transform or a quickplot with t as independend variable. The good thing in MC15 is that if the math language is set to German you can you German and English command/function names (if its set to English only the English names would be allowed).

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:Werner_E)

One "feature" that really annoys me is that I can't easily put parentheses into an existing expression. if I type

2+3*7=

And now I want to change that to

(2+3)*7=

How do I do that, other than by cutting and pasting stuff? Maybe I'm just missing something because I don't use Prime much. If so, I sure would like to know what it is.

I couldn't find a way to do it with the keyboard (which would be much more comfortable) but Prime unfortunately is very much mouse heavy in may respects.

In case of your example you can highlight (thats exactly whats so hard to see for me) the subexpression 2+3 using the mouse and then type an opening or a closing parenthesis.

EDIT: You can do it using the keyboard, too, using shift and arrow (left or right) to highlight the expression. It just doesn't work using space to enlarge the highlighted area which is excusable given the structure of that expression.

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:Werner_E)

I see. Thanks.

JFPittet
3-Visitor
(To:nas0k)

It is not only on the monitor ... the parentheses are as well disconnected on the print.

Prime_parenthese.gif

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