3Dconnexion SpaceMouse setup

I have also noticed that, perhaps besides the firewall, interfering apps from Sonos or Spotify also might be worth shutting off, at least their notifications. The Sonos app changes the cursor into the plain ‘selector’, regardless off the active tool,when it there is a notification of a new song…

That’s interesting. I don’t have Sonos but I do have Spotify running on my desktop.

Does anyone know if you can map a side button on the SMC to the Escape key or Spacebar? Being able to cancel the current command might be useful.

Will be interesting to see if this fix works for you. So far, I am memory leak free too.

I know nothing about firewalls really beyond knowing they are safety devices. But if the installation does have to “phone home”, might it also be saying “send reinforcements”? Could it be a two way telecon?

You can pretty much re map any of the buttons to whatever you want.

Indeed but I couldn’t find an option for Escape or Spacebar in the drop down list provided. It seems to want to map to tools/functions only (Application Commands). And even then only standard SU ones (not ones that relate to Extensions, say). There is a type keystroke option but that won’t accept Escape or Spacebar either.

The functions list below is not quite all the options but pretty much.

I’m running Windows 10 and this is what I see - I simply choose space bar or esc or choose macros and type in my shortcut.

I have a SpaceMouse Compact so it only has two buttons. The one you have clearly has buttons dedicated to certain keyboard keys.

I am on a Mac. I don’t whether that has any bearing.

In the 3DConnexion software, you can assign any button to any command or keyboard key. I used keyboard shortcuts for most of the buttons on my SpaceMouse.

That’s what I would have assumed. So do you know why certain keys don’t show in the list above? They are not under System Control either.

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Just switch the Mapping to Keystroke, then put the cursor in the Keystroke field and then hit the Space Key.

Ah, yes, that’s it. I wonder why it didn’t work when I first tried it? Maybe I hadn’t deleted the default first. Anyway, thank you so much, that makes my day! I’m easily pleased.

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Guess what? Just over 3 weeks after I solved this, my SM is back to its old tricks. I think it may be related to an update of the OSX but it looks as if you may have to reinstall it, along with the firewall disabling, every time there is an update.

And everybody blames MS for this kind of ■■■■……………….

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Do they? In this case, I think the only blame lies with 3DX for not instructing OSX users about how best to install their hardware.

The problem seems to be related to the need for the installation process to have an open line to the internet unpoliced by a firewall. So the solution is simple: disable the firewall during installation and re-enable it right after. Simple but unfortunately also a closely guarded secret!

I have successfully reinstalled the SM by taking these steps. It’s a nuisance to have to do it each time there is an OSX upgrade as that happens quite often. But at least it’s an easy procedure.

I can’t duplicate @simoncbevans solution; it hasn’t worked for me. I still think there is a race condition during startup of the extension that runs away if the timing of events isn’t exactly as the 3DX programmers assumed. Timing is very dependent on everything going on at the moment, e.g. what else you have running, the sequence of SketchUp extension loading, your hardware, etc. So it is not surprising that some computers would fall victim while others are fine. Also, the memory leak isn’t 100% repeated for me, maybe 95%, which also suggests it is sensitive to a condition that sometimes happens right but usually happens wrong on my Mac.

While looking at the Mac’s firewall, I noticed that 3DxNLServer process is set up to accept incoming connections. I assume (without proof) that this is because apps using the navigator connect to this server process to get navigator events. It seems possible that the memory issue occurs when there is a timing glitch in setting up this connection?

I can’t tell yet whether the firewall hole is just for local connections or is open to the Internet as a whole (which in my case wouldn’t work anyway because my router also has a firewall that blocks incoming WAN connections). I can’t think of any legitimate reason why a local process would need to secretly receive incoming connections from the Internet, but I can think of many illegitimate ones!

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So, with all of this potential trouble in mind, would you all still recommend the Spacemouse (pro or compact) to a mac user? I’ve been thinking about buying one and I finally have enough money in my bank account to do so.

Speaking personally, yes. However, it seems that you may not know in advance that it will work. @slbaumgartner continues to have problems, I believe and my solution did not work for him. And if it doesn’t work, you can pretty much forget about any helpline sorting you out. Unless you are using it with a laptop, it is probably impractical to test it in the shop. But you might persuade them to do a sale or return in case it doesn’t work.

When it does work, it’s fantastic. My next hurdle will be to see what happens when I eventually upgrade to the next OSX. That will probably screw it up again!

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Indeed, I continue to need to do the close-default-model workaround to be certain the driver won’t leak memory. It’s annoyingly erratic. Sometimes SU launches with no problem, then just when I think maybe it’s ok it runs away again. Because a single instance of SketchUp can have multiple models open at the same time and does not quit when the last one is closed, it is really less of an issue than it sounds. I typically leave SketchUp running all the time and open/close models as needed. Which is good because I’ve become addicted to the SN.

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If it works, its fantastic, such a simple thing is transformative in terms of how you navigate your models.
To be fair I haven’t had any issues on my mac with the device, it worked straight off the bat. I have the SpaceMouse Wireless.

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