Quick question, I know SketchUp allows easy Orbit tool access/functionality with a scroll wheel mouse on my PC (pushing down on the scroll wheel). Well I just bought a new Mac and was wondering if anyone here had any success setting up the Mac’s Magic Mouse (no physical scroll wheel) to perform similarly with the Orbit tool. Anyone out there know of a little trick for this? Perhaps a modifier key and a mouse click? Thanks-
Hi,
The configuration starts off by going into the System Preference settings (>Apple (icon) >System Preference menu) and looking at the available options for the mouse functions.
Nowadays, I work from the trackpad (with no limitations) on a MacBook Pro — the results being so good that I’ve completely abandoned using the mouse altogether. So I can’t remember what the setting options are exactly. But you should have some meaningful choices available.
Apple tried to breed a conventional mouse wheel with a trackpad, and results of course were the Magic Mouse. The intention was to incorporate more gesture based actions on the mouse surface, to ultimately match the trend towards tablet based devices and their heavy use of finger gestures.
While I think modifier keys can still work… Don’t forget to experiment with gestures as well. I think that takes precedence in Apple’s quest for a unified UI experience across multiple devices.
Here’s the classic solution:
Pressing/holding the control + command keys then left mouse button.
Once you are into orbit mode, you don’t have to hold the modifier keys down.
You might try this free, third-party tool.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3051193?tstart=0
I have not tried it and I would love to hear about anyone’s experience with it because keyboard+mouse combinations feel awkward to me.
1 Like
Thanks August. This was exactly the information I was seeking.
Kind regards-
YES it’s possible with Apple Magic Mouse.
You just have to use excellent utility BetterTouchTool and configure this “gesture” for Sketchup:
(first select Sketchup in sidebar)
“1 Finger Middle Click” >>> “Middle Click” (Predifined Action)
Then click on the middle of Magic Mouse and move.
It’s magic 
2 Likes
Hot damned that works perfectly and affordable thanks sooooooooo much.
Works great. I use keyboard and mouse commands together for Autocad. Glad to have this answered. Thanks!
I can get the middle button to work on the magic mouse with the bettertouch tool. But, the weird thing is, when I middle click I see the pointer turn to orbit, but nothing happens when I move the mouse. It doesn’t orbit. I have to first click on the scene, somewhere in the modelspace, then I can orbit. Anyone else has this? The same happens on AutoCAD. the panning hand appears but doesn’t move. Although when I release the mouse button, the screen updates to a panned view. Anyone know what’s going on?