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When MathCad Prime 6?

gfraulini
17-Peridot

When MathCad Prime 6?

Hello everybody,
does someone have news about MathCad Prime 6?
Some timesheet?
MCP5 has introduced too few improvements so I think PTC intends release new version soon. Or not?...

Thanks
Bye

83 REPLIES 83


@Konrad_A wrote:

You get better software for free now.

Care to be specific?

Yes, please do

I mean SMath, which tends to format the document in a better shape than MC15. Alright, I don't do any hardcore maths, probably it's not as good in some areas, but for a clear presentation of design calculations (pressure vessels) I have no issues with it. Having said that, it sucks being stuck between commercial and open source.


@Konrad_A wrote:

I mean SMath, which tends to format the document in a better shape than MC15. Alright, I don't do any hardcore maths, probably it's not as good in some areas, but for a clear presentation of design calculations (pressure vessels) I have no issues with it. Having said that, it sucks being stuck between commercial and open source.


I don't think that SMath is OpenSource


@Werner_E wrote:

@Konrad_A wrote:

I mean SMath, which tends to format the document in a better shape than MC15. Alright, I don't do any hardcore maths, probably it's not as good in some areas, but for a clear presentation of design calculations (pressure vessels) I have no issues with it. Having said that, it sucks being stuck between commercial and open source.


I don't think that SMath is OpenSource


That's exactly the problem. It's not commercial (so the funding is poor), and it's not open source (so the community support is limited). It's still impressive how it's evolving, despite the license model.

I agree that Smath is very similar to Mathcad; it's a fantastic effort!  At the rate things are going it will surpass Prime soon--about the time PTC stops supporting version 15.

Smash does not come remotely close to being able to produce presentation type documents. You cannot change the font, it does not have labeling features. This is a major limitation. You also cannot reference worksheets which to me is makes it pretty useless.
LucMeekes
23-Emerald III
(To:Konrad_A)


???

Sorry Fred, I was referring to the alternative to MC Prime. It turned out to be SMath. Since I do not pay the license fee it is not an alternative for MC15.

 

Raiko

Konrad_A
8-Gravel
(To:Raiko)


@Raiko wrote:

Sorry Fred, I was referring to the alternative to MC Prime. It turned out to be SMath. Since I do not pay the license fee it is not an alternative for MC15.

Does it have to be paid to be comparable/alternative?

Well, at least there is some (glacial) progress.

 

I maintain hope for my company's sake.  We have 30 years of Mathcad files!  And while we don't need to keep all of them, there is a lot there that needs preservation.  So we trundle on with 15 in hopes Prime becomes something we like better than 15, or until something else comes along.  Maple, MATLAB, Mathematica - all great tools but it's a heckuva changeover.

....
Proud user of Mathcad since MS-DOS days.


@GrumpyOldTom wrote:

Well, at least there is some (glacial) progress.

 

I maintain hope for my company's sake.  We have 30 years of Mathcad files!  And while we don't need to keep all of them, there is a lot there that needs preservation.  So we trundle on with 15 in hopes Prime becomes something we like better than 15, or until something else comes along.  Maple, MATLAB, Mathematica - all great tools but it's a heckuva changeover.


I lost this hope. All new development is in Scilab. The final document is generated by your code, rather than you manually edit your final document. Yeah, even more of a changeover, but better one big leap than few smaller ones.

I've been returned just now from holidays and I've seen the new PTC Product calendar...

mathcad calendar 2.jpg

Apart from this I haven't any detailed news...

Looks like decisions have been made.

Stunning!  -_-

 

All snark aside, at least the end of September sounds like they've been doing something.  But as for September 2020, that's just a manager hoping to hit a date.  I realize if you don't have a target, by definition you won't hit anything, but is there a roadmap as to what will be included? 5 weeks from release, what's coming in 6.0?  (Maybe I missed that post, I haven't been around much.)

 

I ache for a Mathcad that's what 15 could have grown into with the proper development.

....
Proud user of Mathcad since MS-DOS days.


@ but is there a roadmap as to what will be included? 5 weeks from release, what's coming in 6.0?  (Maybe I missed that post, I haven't been around much.)

According to DJF

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/When-MathCad-Prime-6/m-p/620040/highlight/true#M186596

we can look forward to spell check and custom margins ...

no comment

angelac
6-Contributor
(To:gfraulini)

ough!

syaacoby
4-Participant
(To:gfraulini)

I write this post humorously but out of anger ...

I've been using MATHCAD since version 1.0 and I have hundreds of important files that obviously can't be converted to useless MATHCAD PRIME.

I have already decided that I am working with 15 for the next twenty years, and if the operating system in the future does not fit it, then I will assign a special computer with a last working operating system that still working with MATHCAD 15 .Strange … when a new version of PRIME is released I don't even bother myself to check if it usefull to me or not...

PTC  can give up with the failed attempts to allow the migration of files to PRIME ... In any case, no one wants to immigrate ...

I have a Proposal to PTC sales department - in order to increase sales of MATHCAD PRIME  ...

Instead of continuing to develop MATHCAD PRIME, which in any case is not progressing ... and the main changing is Increase in the version number … Especially since it does not seem to reach MATHCAD 15 capabilities in the next few years.

Stop the "development" of MATHCAD PRIME  and change the marketing policy so that: A customer will get free useful MATHCAD 15 if he buy 3 separate licenses of MATHCAD PRIME.

That is the only way to increase the sales of MATHCAD PRIME.

It is desirable that PTC will understand that customers' anger because of MATHCAD PRIME does not add sympathy to PTC and also undermines trust given to other PTC products. It's reflect to other product of PTC . Out of anger I'll never buy PTC products except MATHCAD 15 .

I pray that 15 lives forever….

SHEMY.

The only criticisim I really feel that is warranetd against prime is the fact that a lot of people have legacy sheets that they need to update. Other than that, technology moves on, operating systems move on. We all have to get used to new tehcnology and in my opinion I much much prefer prime to V15. Its far more pleasant to work with and the quality of the document produced is far better. 

 

I see this as the same issue facing most people with new software. Take Catia for instance, going form V4 to V5 to V6 was a massive undertaking but you cannot expect to use spftware and data files almost 20 years old. Each of those versions was a completly new engine and GUI.

 

PTC have provided a batch convertor to convert old files. Maybe try it, the pace of developemen of prime is lackign and part of the subscription approach i udnrstand was that there would be yearly updates. This is not happening. Prime 6 was supposed to be released yesterday....

DJF
16-Pearl
16-Pearl
(To:tslewis)

I'm an exclusively prime user, but I can't agree that's legacy sheets are the only warranted criticism.  They've had almost 10 years with prime and haven't even fixed some basic gui issues.  When you own the source code to a functioning version, making the update equally capable shouldn't take 10 years.  Almost all of it could be outsourced.  It's just  not a priority to PTC, although it should really be the backbone of their whole Model-Based Enterprise system.  The 'improvements' in each release are negligible and never fixing the real issues.  Ok, improved graphs was needed but if you take away unit awareness what was the point?   How did that ever get past the first design review?  We're on version 5 and my screen still jumps all over the place.  Typing programs gets slow if you go past 20 lines.  Fonts change on me.  Snap changes size.  Collapsible areas rearrange themselves.  It's slow.  Many other little bugs (thankfully very few wrong calculations).  Their management and execution of this program has to get a failing grade.  

  

Matlab tells me they have 1100(!) developers working.  Mathcad has maybe 1.  Who's going to win this race?  A new version was due yesterday and other than this forum is there any news anywhere on it?  

Fred was saying maybe MS Word should be the model, but from your review it sounds like it already is! Maybe they can add Clippy back in!
I must admit I'm with you 100%. It should be their flagship product, something that could be on every engineer's desktop, and it looks like their development staff consists of a high school intern working off an obsolete laptop running GW Basic in a broom closet. I don't mean to dis the coders, but clearly they aren't giving the coders the time or guidance they need.
....
Proud user of Mathcad since MS-DOS days.


@tslewis wrote:

The only criticisim I really feel that is warranetd against prime is the fact that a lot of people have legacy sheets that they need to update.

Sure wrong! I would be happy to be able to convert my old sheets in the format of a new, modern and capable software, but Prime simply isn't.

 


Other than that, technology moves on, operating systems move on.

Absolutely correct, but unfortunetaly Prime is a big step backwards and it hardly moves on.

 


and in my opinion I much much prefer prime to V15. Its far more pleasant to work with and the quality of the document produced is far better.

I respect your opinion, especially as it seems that you are the only defender and advocate of Prime here in the forum. But I can't more disagree with you in this respect. Primes interface is a nightmare to work with and the quality of the output in many respects is worse than in MC15. MC15 never was famous for professional plots or state of the art word processing features, but compared to Prime ... Think about custom margins, headers an footers, quality of plots (especially 3D, but also 2D),... The third party plot component which was introduced in P5 is ridiculous - its slow, poorly implemented, does not support units and is absolute useless on a system with a 4K display 'cause its not aware of the screen resolution and does not scale.

 


I see this as the same issue facing most people with new software.

No, the point is not the new look and new interface. I really like to use new and modern software and quite often are kind of an  early adopter. I remember the times when M$ introduced the ribbon interface - I did not like it, but I got accustomed to it and soon was as fast with this GUI as I was with the older one. I still don't see much benefit in the ribbon, but the way its implemented now in the Office suite is OK for me and the modifications, improvements and additions which were done under the hood justify for me buying and using the current version.

All this does not apply for Prime. The interface is poorly implemented and most actions take more time, more clicks, etc to achieve. The "new" Prime GUI slows down the workflow which is about the worst thing you can say about a GUI. If that GUI is OK for you and your work, be happy and use it, but it sure is not for me.

 


Prime 6 was supposed to be released yesterday....

I just looked and Prime 6-0-0-0 is offered for download now. I had not bothered downloading and installing it, so I can not say anything about the changes.

 

https://www.ptc.com/en/mathcad-software-blog/mathcad-prime-6-brings-engineering-calculations-life

Our corporate system administrator is going to sift it through soon, so I can't see yet the improvements and the integration with Creo.

 

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