Good afternoon All,
I am thinking about getting a 3D connexion Space Mouse and was wondering:
- Which would you recommend the pro or the enterprise?
- Any tips for setup and use?
Good afternoon All,
I am thinking about getting a 3D connexion Space Mouse and was wondering:
If you can afford it the Enterprise is amazing. So many customizable buttons. It helps make up for taking your non-mouse hand off the keyboard.
It depends on how you think you will take to either.
I have the basic wireless SM with just two buttons. I spent time mapping them when I first bought it. Never got used to using them. Oddly, I use it together with a roller ball mouse (left and right hands!) which has buttons I use all the time.
The clue for me is in simplicity. My mouse buttons are just set for double and triple clicking, something that you need to do all the time in SU. Once you start getting into CAD commands, even the commonest ones like Move, I find the ordinary keyboard is best. Maybe it all depends if you have been a gamer? I never have.
Similar to Simon in that I rely on the keyboard for shortcuts ( I also use AutoHotKey to extend the capabilities of the keyboard ).
I have a Logitech vertical mouse.
A year ago I was on the brink of getting the enterprise SM but ended up getting a 32 button Stream Deck not solely for SketchUp but also for general productivity with the computer and other software.
I’ve recently started using the 3D Connexion Space Mouse Compact and I’m loving it
I’ve actually disabled my Middle Mouse Button to force orbiting with the Space Mouse which accelerates learning.
If you’re anything like me you will spend a few days trying out various setups, but I seem to have settled on using the 2 Space Mouse buttons to display radial menus, which allow you to choose up to 8 SketchUp commands on each. The advantage of this is that the radial menu appears exactly where the cursor is, and the commands are triggered by either clicking them or simply moving the cursor across them.
I’ve loaded a few screen shots to show the radial menus plus the Space Mouse settings I’ve settled on which seem to make orbiting most intuitive to me.
Best of luck with it.
I am just worried that having too many buttons on the space mouse will slow things down a bit?
The USS Enterprise does have a window that shows you what the keys are programmed? I might need a feature like that until it becomes second nature.
@simoncbevans
I have used a basic SM a long time ago. It was great for navigation, but I never really got it set up and always headed to the keyboard, that is why I am leaning a bit more towards the Pro or Enterprise as you have a few more buttons close at hand. I am currently a keyboarder and mouser.
@PaulMcAlenan
Those are interesting! I do like how the buttons icons on the Stream Deck are programmable. I am mostly in SU/draftsight with a little in Blender. I just recently added CloudCompare/Meshlabs to the mix. I also like to limit the number of buttons I have - reducing the amount I have to remember.
@kevin58
Thank you for the screen shots!
I will most likely be spending a few days, testing out different button configurations once I get the mouse.
Off topic a bit → Which scanner do you have? I just got BLK360 and still working out my workflow.
To answer your question: “which scanner do you have.”
I have a Faro 3D Focus laser scanner which cost £40,000+ just over 4 years ago. I’ve just Googled the BLK360 which seems to be an impressive machine and is available for around £15,000. I would be interested to know how you get on with it and especially how accurate it is. Technology continually improves and maybe I should be looking to change my scanner now - although at the moment it is working well. The Faro was a massive game changer for me - but the real icing on the cake, and the thing that made everything click was the Undet Point Cloud plugin for SketchUp.
Thanks for the PM. I have replied by PM so this thread can stay on topic
Actually, the buttons are very well laid out and it I pretty quick to tap one. The modifier let’s are just to the left of the puck so it is easy to tap one while any of the SU commands. It does have the screen that shows the shortcut mapped to the top keys, which is cool, but not really needed after using it a while.