Are there any SpaceMouse users out there who could lend a hand? I have just taken delivery of one and am finding it hard to get set up.
The first problem is that I get a message telling me that I cannot use the trainer as the software has not been optimized for Mac. Looking online suggests this problem has been unresolved for at least 6 months.
I have managed to set the Sm up for use with Sketchup using default settings. But all that happens is that it behaves much like any other mouse, controlling the cursor position. What I want is for it to control the camera. DoI need to change default settings? If anyone uses their SM this way, it would be great to know what settings are being used.
And now this dialog box has popped up automatically. I quit some applications but now the box wonāt close. As that hasnāt happened before, I assume it has something to do with the SM. Aaaagh! The rodents have taken over.
I will have a look later, all I know is that I have had never ending issues with it on PC to the point where I have not completely wiped it and only using it on my Mac with occasional errors.
Thanks. It looks like you can export and import configurations so I guess my ideal would be to find someone using their SM for camera views and simply import their configuration, even if I find I have to tweak it later for my own use.
I have been mining to a new laptop and installed my space mouse. First try it was behaving just like you said. I re downloaded the most recent driver, reinstalled, rebooted and it worked. Not sure why I had this issue with my past two computersā¦ just glad I got it working!
On my current computer, when I first installed, I was running through a hub, and I seem to remember that causing an issue. You may try running directly to eliminate that as an issue. I would recommend a reboot/reinstall/reboot if that does not work.
At that point, try reaching out to 3dconnexion. They are responsive and very helpful!
The memory issue was mentioned by @slbaumgartner some two weeks ago?
Though he has found a workaround, by restarting, I to had issues with the 3D when working on a Mac(book),on a iMac, I did not have them, thoughā¦
I did rather fear that investing in a SM might raise quite a few teething troubles. As things stand, I have a SM that does nothing but move the cursor around in a rather less manageable way than my regular mouse and a memory leak problem. Oh the joys of tech!
Interesting! Maybe thatās because you work for SketchUp/Trimble? They have never responded to anything I sent, including multiple postings on their forums about the memory leak issue. I have seen multiple posts by others who also got no satisfactory response from 3DConnection. If they are as helpful as you say, I canāt understand why they are completely blind to this issue despite itās being reported now for several years.
A few years ago (donāt remember which SU version), the startup process on the Mac was changed so that the default empty model window is opened before the Ruby extensions are loaded. If I recall, this was to avoid issues with extensions that looked for an active model or tried to add icons to the custom toolbar as they loaded, before one had been created. But I think it had the opposite effect on the 3DConnection drivers, causing them to become totally confused and to grow without limit. My workaround of closing the default window before Ruby gets a chance to load supports this theory.
Let me be clear: I love my Space Navigator and have become completely dependent on it. Itās frustrating to have an obvious issue be out there for so long.
Steve, I did get quite a quick response from 3DC to my query (as below). Sadly, it is the usual standard response along the lines of ādid you remember to plug everything in?ā I have replied and we shall see how far they are willing to go in troubleshooting. I am sure I must be able to get it to work if it works for you and others. Itās just a question of finding the right settings and sequence of installation operations I expect.
Reading various posts, the solution some have found to the memory leak is to get used to shutting down the default blank SU window that opens on startup. That is not working for me as SU often opens the last file I was working on. Looking at the Activity Monitor, I see that ākernel_taskā seems to be taking the lionās share of the memory. Mind you, I only have the vaguest idea of what I am looking at really! If it is taking over 1 GB when everything else is using a fraction of that, I conclude it is hogging the memory.
I am a bit worried that posts seem to suggest this is a longstanding issue that 3DC donāt ever seem to have got to grips with.
Around 1GB more or less is a fairly normal amount of memory used by the kernel task, not an issue.
When it runs away, the 3DConnection issue rapidly causes SketchUp to consume memory without limit. Since all modern computers use virtual memory management, this can actually be far more than the physical RAM in your Mac! The result is what is called āthrashingā in which the memory system expends all its effort reading and writing contents from and to your disk, which both vastly slows down the computer and eventually causes it to crash.
Just for jollies, I submitted a ticket to 3DConnection. Not optimistic about getting a useful reply, but weāll seeā¦
I know itās barking at the moon really, but as an end user and not a techie, I get quite frustrated when manufacturers seem to expect you to get under the bonnet and tweak things. I donāt expect to have to adjust the settings on my carburettor before I can drive my car! Not that many cars have carburettors any more. Or so I hearā¦
I know that I have said this before (not trying to sound like a broken record) but a reinstall fixed that problem for me, as well. Not sure if there is some sort of issue with their installer, but installing it over the top of itself helped with a bunch of problems.
Aaron, I hadnāt picked up that you meant reinstalling the same thing. I will try that now as I have uninstalled the driver in case that was causing the memory leak problem.
Simon ā Iāve had a SpaceMouse for about 4 years now, running on MacOS (currently on el Capitain 10.11.6). Persevere in your efforts, since a (working) 3D mouse is the biggest single boon to SU productivity.
Iāve had the memory leaks that you describe. Steveās fix is one way to avoid the leak, but thereās another condition that seemed to cause it for me: 3DX installs the plugin in the root drive library: āMacintoshHD/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20xx/Plugins/ā
If somehow you also have it installed in the your home directory (the usual install location for SU plugins), then it seems to cause the same memory leak.
I would check then to see if there is a duplicate copy in āMacintoshHD/Users//Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20xx/Plugins/3DXSketchUpā and erase both the launcher file (.rb) and the folder for the plugin.
