PTC Mathcad Express 3.1 – K12 Use – Quick Installation Guide 1. Download the PTC Mathcad Prime 3.1 DVD image:. www.ptc.com/appserver/auth/it/esd/academicFree.jsp.
I have still been using MathCAD 12 (I think, very old version that works just fine).So far my initial impression is unfavorable, but I don't know how much of that is due to Express' limitations. Also, this is my first time trying Prime, so some of these issues may have been around since they changed to the MathCAD prime format.1. Is there a way to change the interface to 'Classic MathCAD' (auto detect text or equations, use the '.' For subscripts, etc.). If I have to learn all new keystroke shortcuts, I may as well use MS equation editor and do the calculations by hand.I'd like to keep this thread open for future questions/discussion if possible.RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace) 21 May 18 15:34. MP Express IS essentially a WYSIWYG calculator.
My recollection is that M12 was a particularly bad version of MC, as that was the start of the re-write of the code of MC, and it really took until M15 to fix everything functionally to the level of M11.I'm personally still using M15, and it's unclear whether I'll ever switch over.There was a controls template that one could hack to change things like units and shortcuts in the older versions of MC, but I don't know if the same applies to MP.TTFN (ta ta for now)I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!Entire Forum list RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace).
I am still waiting for Mcad Prime users to say it is safe to upgrade to Mathcad Prime.I stopped upgrading at MC13. MC14's symbolic solver wasn't as good as MC13's.I think PTC owned MC when the upgrade to MC14 was made. They broke the solver.@IRStuff, does MC15 work with Windows 10?I must run my MC13 on a WinXP virtual machine.I still use MC13 a lot. I have a lot of files ( history ) using MC. I have about 800-1000 MC files. I am slowly converting the most important files over to Python if they are math intensive.
The symbolic problems I have converted to Mathematica. Mathematica was only able to solve about 1/3 of the symbolic problems that Mathcad couldn't.I have downloaded the trial MCP and tried it.
I am not impressed with putting lipstick on a pig. I bet that PTC doesn't have any engineers/programmers that really understand MC so that they could improve MC's internals.MC has a few severe faults. WxMaxima and Mathematica will allow symbols to represent formulas. There is are operators that allow separating a symbols left hand side of the equals from the right hand side. Basically, symbols that represent formulas can be manipulated. There isn't as much cutting and pasting in wxMaxima and Mathematica as there is using Mathcad.Mathcad will always display a-b as -b+a.
I hate that.Mathcad does not optimize recursively. Many times I must copy a sub-expression and optimize it separately then substitute it for the original sub expression.The Mathcad minerr routine is poorly documented and doesn't work very well. I can provide the same initial guess and get different answers every time I hit control F9.I have been using Mathcad since version 3. There are many time people post MC files that I can't open so I can't help. I probably have a good example.MC is good but has never been ready for prime time.Peter NachtweyDelta Computer SystemsRE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace) 21 May 18 18:25. Well, bear in mind that M15 is nearly 7 years old, and it is indeed a wonder that it actually does run in Win10, although, I'm not a power user like Peter, so I can't attest to EVERYTHING working.For whatever reason, Mathsoft, and the PTC, collectively decided to make the Prime file format incompatible with the original program; not unlike block chain splitting, I guess. After the debacle of the code rewrite for Mathcad, I think PTC decided to take the slooooooow approach to re-writes, to avoid the previous catastrophic releases.
I think that MP5 supposedly was planned to be the equivalent of M15 in functionality, but MP5 was supposed to beta-test near the end of last year, and release this year. I don't know if I'm out of that loop, or it's just that nothing's happened. A likely possibility is that the slow-roll of MPx caused a lot of users to bail, and there's insufficient revenue to justify making the next release.TTFN (ta ta for now)I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!Entire Forum list RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Structural) 21 May 18 19:37. They cranked out at least 3 versions of MP after the acquisition on their own, over a span of 7 years, so not exactly a work stoppage. Certainly, they've gone into glacial progress mode in the last 3 years, so there's that.
I think most of the original Mathsoft personnel have left the company, and there may no longer be a highly-placed product advocate at PTC anymore, such as Razdow.TTFN (ta ta for now)I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!Entire Forum list RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Structural) 21 May 18 20:18. I don't have any issues getting it (MCP 4.0) to run on Win10. I just hate that they completely changed the keyboard interface and none of the 'normal' mathcad keys work to write equations. I really only use MathCAD for basic algebraic stuff and rarely need anything more advanced than a simple 2D graph.That said, since the main reason for using MathCAD is to make the equations look right when I paste them into my reports (and it's nice that the calculations are there), there's not much point in using even the free version, much less getting my company to purchase another license.Time to start learning MS Equation Editor.:/Thanks for the input. RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace) 29 May 18 13:37. I am under the impression that soon enough MC15 is going to no longer be supported, and therefore I might as well start converting my files over to Prime as soon as possible.
I suppose there is a converter but I have not used it as of yet.I am not a power user of any Mathcad with about 100 Mathcad files and have only recently switched over to Prime 4.0. My first impressions are that things like the page ruler and print settings are very minimal, but for the most part if you do straightforward code formulas (ASME BPVC, AISC 360, etc.) the Prime version will likely be sufficient for most of your needs. I have yet to use it for evaluating equations for specific variables, as I had used MC15 to do for some flat plates in a few Timoshenko books, so I'm not sure how it will work just yet.This sort of reminds me of when Ansys rolled out their Workbench front end, which looked 'pretty' but was limited compared with what APDL could do, or when Solidworks came out with DesignModeler which was limited compared with what CosmosM could do.
I may be off base here with my analogy, but after using Prime 4.0 for a few hours that's the feeling I get. RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Structural) 30 May 18 16:46. I'm running Mathcad Prime 2.0, and I can confirm that it shipped with a separate utility for converting MC15 files to Mathcad Prime format - but they may have integrated that function into later iterations of Prime.In my case, almost none of my MC15 worksheets translated cleanly - but again, they may have expanded the library of supported translated functions in later versions. I can't recall whether my problems were because of the functions I was using not being supported (I do use quite a lot of Mathcad curve-fitting and surface-fitting functions, for example), or if my syntax was unusual, but I am not enough of a Mathcad guru to think I would be doing anything particularly elaborate.In the end, I gave up trying to translate my old worksheets across to Mathcad Prime, but I generally use Prime for 'quick and dirty' simple calculations.RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace) 31 May 18 02:39. If we're collecting Mathcad stories, here's mine.I have tried the free Mathcad prime from PTC and I find it too limited even for many rudimentary tasks (eg. Vectors).I have a copy of Mathcad 13 that still works and I expect I will continue using it until my OS stops accepting 32-bit programs. Since this is a program I have personally bought, using it at work causes some issues.
At one workplace, they were willing to buy a license of Mathcad for me but the approval process took almost a year and then they installed it on somebody else's machine instead of mine. So until I left that place, I would occasionally use my personal copy of MC for calculations. Where I work now, the computers are 'locked down' and without administrator privilege, I can't even install MC13 on my work PC. But I can get SMath Studio to work, it is sufficient for my more typical needs, and it doesn't need to be licensed when used for work, because it's freeware.
I find the file conversion process a bit buggy, and some graphs don't come in at all. I may commit to using more of SMath long-term, which means that won't be concerned with backward compatibility with the XMCD format. I have already made a donation to the developer.STF RE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Structural) 31 May 18 03:05. PTC screwed up the symbolic solver in Mathcad 14. Mathcad 13 had the last decent symbolic solver but not quite as good as Mathematica. I doubt PTC has fixed the symbolic math solver.
I now use Mathematica for symbolic solutions.I also use Mathcad to fit equations to data. My record is 15 variables for a non-linear differential equation. Mathcad 13 does a decent jobs but sometimes Mathcad13 exits too soon before the minimum ( optimum ) solution is found.I am starting to use Python for simulations and fitting data to equations but Python is slow relative to Mathcad13.smath looks good but I wonder if it has a minerr or optimize function like Mathcad, Scilab or Python.Peter NachtweyDelta Computer SystemsRE: MathCAD Prime Express 4.0 (Aerospace) 18 Jun 18 14:32.
Mathcad ExpressMathcad Express is a free version of Mathcad, yours to use for as long as you like!When you download and install it, first you get the option to try out the full, unrestricted, state-of-the-art version of Mathcad Prime. That gives you 30 days to explore and evaluate all that this latest, greatest version has to offer (see for details).Once your trial period is up, if you’re not yet ready to purchase a full Mathcad Prime licence, you’ll still have a highly capable version of Mathcad on your PC – free of charge! Mathcad Express provides a powerful, easy-to-use documentation and analysis tool; it just lacks the more advanced features of full Mathcad Prime, such as advanced numeric functions, solving capability, the Excel component, 3D plotting, programming and symbolics. Please refer to the table below to compare the features of Mathcad Express and full Mathcad Prime:When you download and select the trial option, you will enjoy all the additional bonus features included in PTC Mathcad for 30 days before continuing on with standard features included in PTC Mathcad Express.
You’ll have access to.