So I’ve been using sketchup on a regular wireless mouse for years, and I just picked up a 2 in 1 convertible laptop.
I’m considering updating my mouse to either a stylus or a multi button mouse any thoughts?? Tia!
I’m partial to the Logitech M570 wireless trackball. It has all the classic 3 button mouse functions plus 2 programmable buttons which I set to <Esc> and <spacebar> for SketchUp (Forward and Back for Chrome). I’m 90% sure Logitech has a mouse with similar function.
What I REALLY like is that it is part of Logitech’s “Unifying Remote” system. I only “burn” 1 USB port for the wireless receiver, but it connects to both my trackball AND my full size keyboard (which I use at home when my laptop is in it’s docking station, screen OFF and I’m using my 2 BIG desktop displays!)
Only thing that would be better would be if Logitech added a decent headset to it’s set of Unifying stuff. I don’t need high quality audio for music, just decent quality for conversations/podcast listening.
For Sketchup I like the Logitech “anywhere mouse” as it has the 3 front buttons, allowing the middle one for orbiting, plus a couple more that can be configured on the side. It also has the heavy stainless steel wheel which with just a flick of the finger makes it spin continuously,so zooms in or out for miles with great speed and little effort, eliminating a lot of finger moving as you would otherwise have to scroll endlessly, just put your finger back on it to break. A great companion to a mouse without that scroll wheel is to pair a mouse up with a “Space Mouse” which makes for amazing movement around a model and used with the other hand.
However, I have also been using the Evoluent sideways/vertical mouse, which puts the effective mouse on its side and makes for a far more comfortable holding position when you are mousing for hours… but with it, I miss the metal scroll wheel ! but paired with the space mouse is a good solution.
I would be interested to know people’s experience of the SpaceMouse range. They are expensive so you wouldn’t want to invest and be disappointed. I notice a lot of posts in this forum about problems using SpaceMouse, especially just after a new version of SU has been released.
I’m the oddball. I use a Wacom tablet along with the track pad on the MacBook Pro. I don’t even have a mouse connected. That said, SketchUp’s designers pinned the program on the assumption of a three button, wheel mouse, that it really doesn’t play well with the pen tablet. There are some tricks that help make it tolerable, but it didn’t have to be that way. I started with the my first Wacom in 1993 and used it just fine with PowerDraw/PowerCADD and (Alias) Upfront for nine years before getting SketchUp in 2002. For a brief period, that Wacom tablet had a cordless three button mouse with it in addition to the pen, but that’s been discontinued. I keep looking at the SpaceMouse myself, but I keep having other things take priority in my budget.
I have two spacemice…the pro and the portable. I use the pro with the desktop and the portable with a laptop. That being said, for Sketchup I think the portable one is all you ever need. Rarely do I use any of the many buttons and functionality of the pro version and it takes up a lot of “space”, essentially the main benefit is to use it like a joy stick to navigate a model, so I only think you would ever need the portable version for Sketchup and save yourself the money.
By portable, do you mean one of these?
I notice from the picture below that on the webpage that it suggests you might use it on the left of your keyboard and in conjunction with a standard mouse. Is that what you would suggest?
This is exactly the kind of advice I am after because I have had multi button mice in the past and, like you, failed to make much use of them.
Space mice are used on your non dominant hand in conjunction with your mouse or stylus. The portable is a wireless device like the one on the left and the Pro is referring to the much larger device with extra buttons and screens depending on the version, that you haven’t pictured.
Spacemouse + Cintiq for the win.
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My cintiq has been dead for several months and it’s killing me.
I’m just using one for the first time, about 6 weeks in.
90% of my work was done on the cintiq with space mouse until the graphics died. Haven’t had the money to fix it yet. You’ll not want to go back.
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It’s worse than that as its a work thing so I’m now sad at home with my trusty intuos 3 (12 years old in 2 weeks)
5 pens and 2 surfaces but still going strong (I will get hone now and it will be broke)
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As you probably know already, a space mouse’s main function is navigating in the 3D environment, so yes, you must pair it with some other type of mouse. The extra buttons on the larger 3dconnexion-brand mice are for software shortcuts. I use the SpaceMouse Compact, so no shortcuts, just navigating, then I use a Kensington Wireless Trackball (like the picture below) for the actual interacting with SketchUp (drawing/modelling, whatever). Beauty of trackballs of course is that the mouse is stationary; the reason I like this one so much is that the trackball is in the centre – I can’t stand using my thumb.
Yes, I excluded the Pro options because I wanted to concentrate on the “portable” ones. I am not so interested in portability, more in simplicity and cost effectiveness.
I got involved in this thread because, whilst I find a standard mouse perfectly fine for most things, navigation using the scroll wheel is a bit clunky. What I am after is something that glides better and maybe even has an acceleration/deceleration feature, depending on how long or how hard you press. i don’t know if this applies to the SapceMouse but there has to be some reason you would shell out £150 to replace a mouse wheel!
Not sure why you have replied to me and quoted someone else, but a spacemouse is not a mouse it is a device that lets you move in 3d space.
Have you ever looked at any of my gifs and wondered how the view changed while the cursor was off doing something else. It’s the 3d mouse that moves the camera while your other hand is working with the tool you have selected or the dialog you are tapping on or whatever.
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Ha ha! Yes, I don’t know how that quote crept in either. I think I copied the mouse info to take a look online and then must have hit paste by mistake when replying to you.
I very much like the fact that the SpaceMouse is not a mouse. Sort of goes with SU lines not being lines, solids not being solids, etc. Work environment Through the Looking Glass!
I hadn’t noticed that about your GIFs but I will probably look out for it now.
Also, on this note, the cheaper 3dconnexion mice use the exact navigating technology or whatever you call it, like, the little “joystick” that you grab and manipulate is identical from model to model. For me, cost was an issue too, so since extra shortcut buttons wasn’t a real need for me, I went with the simple model, which I got from a friend for I think $70. Same ease of navigation, fewer frills, lower cost.
Here is a quick exageration of how a 3d mouse lets you move the model while doing other things with the mouse.
Along with @Box, I think you meant this to be a reply to @Box. Nonetheless, I’ll chime in. I also have the 3DConnexion Spacemouse Pro Wireless. I normally leave it plugged in to my docking station thus ensuring the battery is fully charged. I use it for two things: Changing the VIEW of the model and assigning frequently used tool shortcuts to the many available buttons.
In use, most - perhaps all - of my geometric manipulations are accomplished with my Logitech M570. And roughly 80% of my keyboard use (not including entering text or dimensions) is accomplished by the programmable buttons on my trackball and SpaceMouse Pro.
The SpaceMouse needs a lot of practice to become a positive contribution to your workflow. If you model more than an hour a day, I think the practice time is worth it. For a while, I was superb, but then circumstances in my life caused me to drastically reduce my modeling and now I’m just slightly better than an absolute beginner at manipulating the view with the SpaceMouse.
When I first started using the SpaceMouse, I took it with me when I undocked my laptop. And it was useful - especially at 2016 Boot/BaseCamp! Since then my desire (and need) to use SketchUp while on the road as almost completely disappeared, so I no longer take the SpaceMouse with me on the road. If I were to buy it again today, I’d forego the wireless.
And in case anybody asks, I have, to date, NEVER used the SpaceMouse in conjunction with Layout, so I have no opinion on its utility in that context.
Again, in case anybody asks, what did I do with the non-Pro SpaceMouse that was part of the 2016 Boot/BaseCamp swag? I sold it on EBay as “Unopened, New in Box”.
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