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Upgrade to MC15 Is it a wise choice?

FDS
12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst

Upgrade to MC15 Is it a wise choice?

I am a Mathcad user since version 7 and have been upgrading a few times since (8, 2001i, 11, 14). As many others I am quite font of MC11 so I kept it on my computer together with MC14. I recently contacted PTC (Europe) in order to ask the conditions to upgrade to MC15. I was told that I could do this but that I would be no longer allowed to use MC11 and MC15 on the same computer. Mister Cedric Geslin told me that this was the official standpoint of PTC. I would like to understand if this is really the case. If it is I am certainly not interested in upgrading to MC15. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Filip

8 REPLIES 8
IRstuff
3-Visitor
(To:FDS)

Is there anything driving you to upgrade? If not, then why do it?

TTFN

You can not run Mathcad 14 and Mathcad 15 on the same computer, however Mathcad 15 will co-exist with other previous versions of Mathcad including Mathcad 11. The information you were given is only partially correct.

Mathcad 15 has additional functionality that is not in Mathcad 14, most notably Design of Experiment functions and plot types. It also works with Excel 2007, and has connections to some add-ons. A number of bugs were also fixed since Mathcad 14.


Mona

FDS
12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
(To:mzeftel)

Mona, Thank you for your reply. So if I understand you well I am still allowed to install, activate and use MC11 on my computer when upgrading to MC15 but I cannot work simultaneously with both versions? This is already the situation today where I have both MC11 and MC14 on my computer.

mzeftel
1-Newbie
(To:FDS)

Filip,


That is my understanding. It's just that Mathcad 14 and 15 cannot exist on the same computer.


Mona

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:FDS)

I cannot work simultaneously with both versions? This is already the situation today where I have both MC11 and MC14 on my computer.

Why? I regularly have both versions open at the same time. Is this some sort of licensing restriction?

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:FDS)

Filip De Somer wrote:

I was told that I could do this but that I would be no longer allowed to use MC11 and MC15 on the same computer. Mister Cedric Geslin told me that this was the official standpoint of PTC. I would like to understand if this is really the case.

I think there are two aspects to that: whether you are allowed to do so legally and whether there is anything that physically stops you from actually doing so.

The license agreement for 15 says:

1.10 Upgrades: If the Licensed Software was licensed as an upgrade from a previous version, Customer must first be licensed for the Licensed Software identified by PTC as eligible for the upgrade. After installing the upgrade, Licensed Software licensed as an upgrade replaces and/or supplements the product that formed the basis of Customer’s eligibility for the upgrade and Customer may no longer use the original Licensed Software that formed the basis for Customer’s upgrade eligibility.

I am not a lawyer, but here's my interpretation of what that would mean:

It clearly means that contractually you are not allowed to use version 14, because that is what you are upgrading from. If the license agreement for 14 was the same (and I don't know that it was - the relevant version of the agreement would be the one that was in effect when you upgraded) then that would mean you are currently also not allowed to use 11, because you upgraded from 11 to 14. I think that removing 14 when you upgrade to 15 would not reinstate your right to use 11. However, your second post implies that when you upgraded from 11 to 14 the only licensing requirement was that you not use 11 and 14 at the same time. If that is the case then Cedric Geslin is wrong, because the basis of your upgrade would be version 14, not version 11, and so the upgrade only removes your right to use version 14.

As far as physically running the versions simultaneously goes, when you install version 15 the only version it will actually remove is version 14. Other versions will still be there (I have 11, 13, and 15 installed). There is a bug in the installer though that is something of an annoyance (Mona: could you please log this). When it removes version 14 it deletes registry entries that can break the installation of previous versions, so after installing version 15 you will need to repair the installation of all previous versions, finishing with 15. The problem is that the version 15 repair does not work correctly: it just exits without doing anything. Consequently, the automation interface remains bound to an earlier version, in my case version 13. Consequently, if no version of Mathcad is open and I double-click on a file it launches version 13, not version 15. This is very irritating, but it's not a complete show stopper because if a version of Mathcad is already open it will open the file in that version. You will have a similar problem if you try to launch Mathcad from any external application via the automation interface.

I have been in correspondence with international sales, and there are different policies for upgrading in different countries. My understanding was based on the policy for the United States.

I will log the problem of Mathcad 15 that Richard listed above.


Mona

RichardJ
19-Tanzanite
(To:mzeftel)

Again, I am no lawyer, but I think what matters is what is written the license agreement. if they want to have different licensing terms, then they need to have a different version of the agreement. I of course looked at the English one, but the others are here:

http://www.ptc.com/support/legal-agreements/current-agreements-proe.htm

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