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3d mouse


medaq
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I have never tried one, but Curious to the people who have tried it. What makes it so great? What model do you use? Are you using any of the butttons tomorrow program anything? Do you feel it is something that makes you program faster or a hinderance?

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faster and more ergonomically friendly. i use a conexion space pilot. work has the multi button one but i use hot keys since i swap between it and my own two button one at home.

takes a little getting used to but i now have trouble programming without one.

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I bought my first 3d mouse in 2002.

They called them Space Balls back then. I couldn't get used to it and it sat on my desk unused for about a year.

I finally decided I'd spent $400 on this thing and I was going to learn how to use it.

I slowed the sensitivity down and eventually my left hand learned how to manipulate it.

18 years later I cannot work without one.

I have a Space Mouse Pro at home and a Space Mouse Enterprise at work.

The Space Mouse Enterprise is overkill IMO, in fact I have the fancy LCD screen turned off.

The Space Mouse Pro does all I need .

I don't use most of the buttons ever.. but the ones I use are indispensable.

I use the Top Front Right Lock and Fit constantly

Fit is also very useful in Adobe when you are zooming in and out of PDF blue prints

Get your self a Space Pilot Pro and learn to use it

In about 3 months you'll wonder how you ever got by without one

 

 

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What G Said +1000000000000000000

I have a space ball at home and wore another one out and now i have the Space mouse Pro at work and like G said after you use it for a while  it becomes a Very handy Tool and it knocks off i would say a minimum of 75 % of the mouse clicking on the right hand and maybe even more when you use hot keys and RMB keys. Its like driving a horse and buggy  with a mouse then you get the Space Mouse  and Now your in a Corvette ! But you can move models and views all over the place looking and editing zoom in fit twist and everthing else and just fit and recenter and off to the races. Pretty Handy.   

Then You wont know what hit you when you don't have one. it will be like someone cut your arm off.

ebay has deals all the time for them check them out, you will kick yourself for not getting one sooner.

:cheers:

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Yep!  I'm about to order one for myself for home because I left mine in the office and it's been killing me not having it!

One thing I've found that drops the learning curve with a bunch of students was to change the zoom in/out direction from the default to pushing up/down.   It's a more natural movement if you were going to pick something up to zoom in on it. 

But if you've already learned the other way, this is the equivalent of saying your chicago-style hot dog should have ketchup, so you have to be careful where you suggest it!

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Space mouse pro put together with a gaming mouse with programmable buttons.....Priceless.  I rarely have to take my hands off to use keyboard.  all buttons mapped.  i even have some buttons mapped to type certain things im constantly typing like "rough contour, Finish contour, Drill, Tap, Etc"  

I posted this message without touching keyboard.  Just joking.

Get one. Even if you don't use the buttons on the pro model its worth it for the wrist rest.  I love mine so much i customized it.

 

WhatsApp Image 2020-04-13 at 9.22.01 AM.jpeg

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4 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard - CNC Software said:

One thing I've found that drops the learning curve with a bunch of students was to change the zoom in/out direction from the default to pushing up/down.

I feel the total opposite.  i look at it like im holding model in my hand and if im trying to zoom i would pull it toward me.

Whatever feels more natural is good.  try both ways and see how it feels.  Trick is not to give up

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On 4/11/2020 at 11:31 PM, medaq said:

I have never tried one, but Curious to the people who have tried it. What makes it so great? What model do you use? Are you using any of the butttons tomorrow program anything? Do you feel it is something that makes you program faster or a hinderance?

About 6 months ago I picked up the SpaceMouse Pro Wireless and knew about a week in that I'd never be able to go back. I don't remember exactly what I paid for a new one, but it was north of $300 for sure. If it died today I wouldn't even have one shipped, I run out to a computer store and let someone rip me off so I didn't have to go a day without it at my side.

If anything were open, that is.

I noticed the benefits of it almost immediately. My right hand used to be in some serious discomfort at the end of  a ten hour day - zooming in and out via clicks, mouse wheel and a lot of dynamic rotating via the mouse wheel really adds up. I'd say it's taken 35% of the workload off my right hand and transferred it over to the other side. It's substantially quicker also. Move the model around while you're curving edges instead of having to reorient after every couple edges or whatever. I didn't realize how much it was going to help until I started using it.

Same as Aaron, it didn't take me long also to realize that the push/pull configuration for zooming was more up my alley. Just kinetically makes more sense for my brain. I've got a couple hotkeys programmed on mine but I mostly don't use them if I'm being honest. I've still got about 20 programmed on my keyboard and my left side seems to have developed into moving almost seamlessly between the SpaceMouse and the keyboard.

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10 hours ago, Programinator said:

I feel the total opposite.  i look at it like im holding model in my hand and if im trying to zoom i would pull it toward me.

Whatever feels more natural is good.  try both ways and see how it feels.  Trick is not to give up

I'm with Aaron.  For me it came much easier by changing it.  When I tried to explain this to a coworker he looked at me like I had a third eye.  I guess it's just preference and or how we are wired.

I own one.  Haven't used it in years...  I'm far too lazy to have both hands engaged in work activities.  I find my left hand is usually engaged in pulling my hair out, bringing coffee to my face, or propping my head up against my armrest whilst watching YouTube. 

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I refuse to work without one. I've bought probably 3 Space Navigators and a Space Pilot over the years. Really didn't use it until X came out. YOu used to have to change focus and it could blow up your CAD if you weren't careful. 

My Space Pilot is on my son Brian's desk at the office. TSA blew my 1st wired Space Navigator up... dropped it. Dude looked at me like "oops... clumsy me." I sold the other one. I ride with a wireless model. Getting ready to buy another wired model for the office. 

image.png.f586989b7c0908c72d6ccfc253fed60b.png

image.png.830482523b0c5e2534c0a27988c55184.png

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21 hours ago, Programinator said:

Space mouse pro put together with a gaming mouse with programmable buttons.....Priceless.  I rarely have to take my hands off to use keyboard.  all buttons mapped.  i even have some buttons mapped to type certain things im constantly typing like "rough contour, Finish contour, Drill, Tap, Etc"  

I posted this message without touching keyboard.  Just joking.

Get one. Even if you don't use the buttons on the pro model its worth it for the wrist rest.  I love mine so much i customized it.

Awesome looking setup!!!

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On 4/13/2020 at 9:26 AM, Programinator said:

I feel the total opposite.  i look at it like im holding model in my hand and if im trying to zoom i would pull it toward me.

Whatever feels more natural is good.  try both ways and see how it feels.  Trick is not to give up

Depends on if you're leaning back in your chair or leaning forward to squint at the screen!  Up/Down has always felt more natural to me.

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10 hours ago, Matthew Hajicek™ - Conventus said:

Depends on if you're leaning back in your chair or leaning forward to squint at the screen!

Up/down would only make sense to me if i were to put the monitor flat on the desk and look down on it.

I think forward/backward for zoom is going to me more natural for most,  and tha'ts why its the default.

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Any tricks to getting buttons to work? I can not seem to get any buttons to function properly. Tried setting up my views to the top buttons alt+1,2,3,.... and so on. Nothing is working. Trying to just map enter and delete keys still no function. Must be something I am missing?

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8 minutes ago, JParis said:

Make certain you downloaded the latest drivers...what comes on thier media can be quite outdated

Did that, downloaded latest drivers from their website. Nothing other than the mouse controller seems to be responsive. 

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On 4/11/2020 at 10:31 PM, medaq said:

I have never tried one, but Curious to the people who have tried it. What makes it so great? What model do you use? Are you using any of the butttons tomorrow program anything? Do you feel it is something that makes you program faster or a hinderance?

Honestly, I cannot do CADCAM without it. I have 4 of the expensive ones with all the LCD features. However, I turn the LCD off because I find it useless. I do program the buttons. I would recommend the one with no LCD and with buttons. They were selling these on EBAY for a huge discount if you qualified as an educator. I made up a phony check stub in MS Excel saying I worked at a college and got the discount. Normally $400. Discount $279.

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40 minutes ago, medaq said:

Did that, downloaded latest drivers from their website. Nothing other than the mouse controller seems to be responsive. 

and you're trying to set these with Mastercam open and up on the screen?

The software can and does change program focus based on the active window...

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Just now, JParis said:

and you're trying to set these with Mastercam open and up on the screen?

The software can and does change program focus based on the active window...

Yes sir, Even says Mastercam X on the lcd screen. I ran the 3dxtest.exe to check buttons functionality. All the top buttons are reading in the program and are functional it seems. Just nothing configured seem to be responsive inside mastercam. Even the pre set keys like escape, delete and enter. The menu button on the mouse pops open the configuration program no problem. Seems like I am missing something inside mastercam? to see the mouse buttons. 

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58 minutes ago, medaq said:

Any tricks to getting buttons to work? I can not seem to get any buttons to function properly. Tried setting up my views to the top buttons alt+1,2,3,.... and so on. Nothing is working. Trying to just map enter and delete keys still no function. Must be something I am missing?

I had this problem. I uninstalled, rebooted and reinstalled and I was able to reprogram. For some reason the program specific options were not available when I first installed it.

Also export your settings when you are done. When the software crashes it usually destroys your settings file.

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6 minutes ago, medaq said:

Seems like I am missing something inside mastercam? to see the mouse buttons. 

Older versions, there was a switch in the config to enable a 3D device but that went by the wayside X5 or X6 ish IIRC

Might have to uninstall, reboot, try a different USB port....

Worse case, a repair install of Mastercam after you get the device installed

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I bought a spacepilot almost 10 years ago and I can't work without it anymore. I even mapped left,middle and right mouse buttons to give my right hand fingers some rest.

Only issue I have is with Vericut 9 which is not compatible with this old model. I would need a brand new enterprise model but it's not cheap... and my Spacepilot still works like a charm with Mastercam and others software.

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