PTC recently released Mathcad Prime 2.0 on February 29th, and everyone is asking themselves the same question: “Do I really need to update my version of Mathcad?” To put it bluntly – yes. The various tweaks and additions made to Mathcad Prime 2.0 make for a much more intuitive user experience and lets you do a whole lot more than its predecessors.

One of the most important additions to Mathcad Prime 2.0 has to be the inclusion of symbolic algebra/calculations. Before you had to either do these calculations by hand or in another program, but now Mathcad Prime 2.0 allows you to include these derivation steps and other equations in one place, enabling more efficient work. Equations can be inserted and set to solve for a specific variable, and it will find the solution and display it in a distinct manner. Being able to do all of your work in one program and not transfer them over from a separate spreadsheet will keep you more organized and less error-prone.

PTC has also added an improved Excel component to Mathcad Prime 2.0 that makes working with spreadsheets even more intuitive. When using the Excel component, it opens an external version of Excel that allows you to make edits in the spreadsheet and automatically updates it into your worksheet. It is easily accessible in the task ribbon, and the new collapsible Inputs and Outputs section of the Excel component are on display above and below each Excel data table included. We feel that these changes will be a welcomed addition to Mathcad Prime 2.0, and will make the product even easier to use.

Another fantastic inclusion to Mathcad Prime 2.0 is 3D plots. If you aren’t familiar with 3D plots, they effectively communicate both qualitative and quantitative information about complex models and data. Scaling is made simple by automatically re-sizing when you adjust the z-axis placeholders. PTC also added an undo function to the 3D plot system, making it even easier to fix mistakes. Flexible input expressions are also supported, which can be controlled outside the plot just like you would control any other region. 3D plots are another great addition to the Mathcad Prime 2.0 and will undoubtedly help you view and display your data more precisely.

The last significant change that PTC made to Mathcad Prime 2.0 is the addition of collapsible areas. These collapsible areas allow you to manage all the pages and pages of computations and calculations that you’re working with in a much more organized manner. Presentations become more visually appealing because you can hide all of your work that you don’t want to be seen. Collapsible areas can be also be copy and pasted into different sections of the same worksheet, or in a different one. This is one of the additions to Mathcad Prime 2.0 that once you use it, you’ll wonder, “why hasn’t this been a part of Mathcad before?”

On top of all of these changes to Mathcad Prime 2.0, PTC has really taken the performance to a whole new level. Mathcad was rewritten to take full advantage of 64-bit architectures, multithreading, and up to 128GB of memory.

Everything is faster, and if you’ve got a lot of calculations and a machine with a lot of horsepower, the improvement is truly dramatic. This, in addition to the other four big alterations, has really transformed Mathcad Prime 2.0 into a much more efficient program.

So, yes, you should upgrade to MathCAD 2.0

But don’t take our word for it, get your free trial of Mathcad Prime 2.0 here , and experience the differences for yourself. Better yet, sign up for one of our training sessions or call us at 408-986-0200 and we’ll walk you through everything that you need to know.