Mathcad Books
Coleman John
You can run Mathcad Prime 1.0 and future releases of Mathcad Prime simultaneously with Mathcad 15. In fact you need the current version of Mathcad 15 to convert worksheets from earlier versions of Mathcad into Mathcad Prime, so we sell them as one bundle.
I am glad to hear that. Personally, I think ebooks are one of the most underexploited, and unique, features of Mathcad. If Mathcad were an Apple product by now we would have thousands of ebooks in the ebook store, and Apple would be taking a 30% rake on every sale
I've ignored Prime for several years now, so I'm trying to have an open mind and re-evaluate it. It would be nice if PTC would have an honest discussion of "What's still missing from Prime" rather than talking about "what's new".
Can anyone recommend a good introductory text book for mathcad (I've got Mathcad15). I need something that covers the math operations, with plenty of fully explained examples (with keystrokes etc)? I use Mathcad as a math person (not an engineer). Many thanks. Peter Kirby.
ProE user myself and looking to try out Mathcad at some future stage but I did get our boss to buy the Tristar Quick Reference Guide for Mathcad. I had this bought at the same time as some ProE WF5 Quick Reference Guides. All the quides are spiral bound and mostly deal with one topic per page.
Anyhow looking through the Mathcad QRG seems to show a consistent approach to presenting information as it does for ProE. The book is about using the tool rather than showing you how to be a maths whizz. Worth a look on line to see what you think.
We have in Russia very interesting and useful forum (PlanetPTC PlanetWolfram PlanetMathWorks PlanetWaterlooMaple) where Mathcad, Maple, Mathematica, Matlab live together - see A visitor of this can get an answer by using an appropriate software
Unfortunately, Mathcad is currently in a state of flux: PTC bought Mathcad, intending to make it a module that attached to their 3D modeling software, They were surprised at the number of us who use Mathcad as a mathematical "design tool," to tabulate engineering calculations. How, or whether, Mathcad will survive this transition as a "stand alone" program is still being hotly debated. The new versions (Prime) are still not as powerful as the last "old" version, 15, although Prime version 4.0 was just released. A short perusal of this forum will illustrate the general dis-satisfaction with the current state of affairs; a number of long-time power users are planning or contemplating abandoning Mathcad.
I use both; I have many years of analysis in Mathcad documents, and a group of "new" engineers who have decided that they will learn Prime and not bother with learning the old editor. My biggest frustration happens when one of the old files gets translated into Prime aand I have to sort thru ten pages to determine why it doesn't calculate and how to fix it. (Did you know that Mathcad 15 will still open and execute a sheet built in Mathcad on a Macintosh computer?)
I'm also frustrated when I can't save a Prime file back one version to pass to someone else who doesn't have the same version as I, or when someone with a newer version than mine sends me a ten page pdf or xls file because he can't save back to my version.
I'm glad you like multi-threading; I want the calculation to work and provide the answer and don't (apparently) do enough calculations that require multi-threading to know whether it's in use or not. (A version 15 file and a Prime file usually calculate just about the same, I don't time things as a rule.
I spent a fair amount of time learning the keystroke shortcuts in 15, haven't got that far in Prime yet, but searching thru the GUI to find a function is still a frustration. I think the last major editor shift was from version 7, and I remember a similar level of frustration.
Valid point. But when the ip is spread across multiple servers (different password protected different servers) that becomes challenging and time consuming. And what about that one file, on that old CD backup, in the back of the bottom drawer in your desk?
Much of the use of calculation is to present results; "the bridge won't fail", "the part broke because. . .", "this new process. . ." Results are usually presented in either documents or published in journals. Formatting and legibility requirements for these venues cannot be met by version 15; Prime is far worse. So, we/you can use Prime to calculate a result. How do you create the graph? Long ago (remember typewriters?) engineering companies employed graphic artists to make presentation quality graphs--the engineer would make a graph (remember graph paper?) and pass it to the artist who would recreate it in presentation form. Prime was advertised (early on) as a presentation level improvement; never mind that it couldn't make tables of contents, references, footnotes etc. (see Richard's lament over sub- and super-scripts.) No, graphs aren't really important!
You misunderstand. Any version of Prime can open a worksheet created in an earlier version of Prime, and can convert worksheets from Mathcad 15 and earlier (they may only work after some hand fixes, or they may not work at all, but they can be converted). However, you cannot save to a file format that is compatible with an earlier version of Prime. So if you have Prime 4, and someone else has Prime 3, it is impossible for you to share a worksheet with them. There is other software for which that is also true (e.g. Creo, Solidworks), but it is certainly not the norm.
The converter can take as many files as you want in one go, so I'm not sure what you are asking for that is not already provided. Depending on what is in the worksheet, some of them may need to be fixed up by hand afterwards, and some may be unfixable, but you can leave the converter to run overnight if necessary, on thousands of files.
I agree, we all have to move on. But not necessarily to Mathcad Prime. I am now looking at the much larger learning curve of moving to Mathematica or Maple, because I do not believe that "eventually it's going to get there". At least, not in my lifetime. PTC has been working on the development of Prime for almost a decade now (seriously!), and it's still got really basic limitations. Granted it has some features that Mathcad 15 does not, although multi-threading is not as important to me as, for example, mixed units in matrices. For me, those advantages just don't overcome the serious limitations though.
Something that you may want to know, regarding continuing access to your own IP, is that starting next year PTC is moving to a subscription only model. So if you are looking to get new capability in Prime 5.0 and beyond, be aware that any IP you create in that software will only be accessible if you keep paying PTC, every year.
We all have different needs, and if the missing features are not important to you, then Prime will work for you, and may indeed be your best option. The gripes about Prime come from those people for whom the missing features are a problem, and for them Prime is not a viable option. Contributors to these forums, like any other technical forum, tend to be power users that use almost every feature in the software, so when those features were stripped from the software there has been a vocal backlash. And, indeed, a desertion. Many such users are long gone, and will never come back. PTC knows this, but they don't really care about our opinion. We are a minority, and we will just move on to other software packages that meet our needs. PTC will happily slam the door behind us, because we will no longer be on the forums complaining.
Most people don't like to switch to new software, for the very good reason that there's usually a learning curve. That's really a non-issue for Prime though, because the learning curve from Mathcad 15 is miniscule. I don't believe that anyone is sticking with Mathcad 15 just because they don't like to switch software.
I'm glad you like the interface, but I don't. In Mathcad 15 inserting an operator is one click. Inserting a graph is one click. To insert text I just start typing. In Prime it's two clicks, or three if I'm not on the right tab, to insert an operator or a graph. If I want to insert some text I have to click on the math tab, then click to insert a text box, and then I have to click on the text formatting tab to format it. It's a time wasting interface.
Which brings me to the missing features problem. Sure, you can click on the text formatting tab, but if what you want is a superscript or a subscript, all you can do is stare forlornly at the screen, and wish. It's a WSIWYG math package, and we still don't have superscripts and subscripts in text! For anyone doing image work, there's no picture viewer (yes, I have used Mathcad for this). The 2D graphs are poor, but the 3D graphs are so poor they are all but unusable! There's no controls or scripted components available (which I also have used a lot). And the list goes on (it's a long list!). A good number of my worksheets could not be written in Prime. There is simply no way to do what I need. And then of course, since you brought it up, there's no handbooks. Handbooks are useful, because they are much more than just a collection of functions. The dead, static, help in Prime is no substitute, even when PTC bothered to move the information from a handbook to the help.
So, in summary, I don't think the criticism Prime gets is exaggerated at all. I think it's entirely justified. If you don't mind hunting and pecking through the ribbon interface, and you don't use the missing features (and you evidently don't, or you would not find using Prime a pleasure) that's fine for you, but it's a show stopper for others, including me.
Just installed V15. I was told I could download the E-Books (primarily the Mechanical eng. library. ie: Roark's Hickey etc) I followed the link in the getting started guide but with no success.... Can anyone help? it appears the documents you get are less than helpful..
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