Michael J. Brown Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 ...Specifically the 3Dconnexion SpacePilot PRO 3D Mouse. ( http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemouse/spacepilot-pro.html ) I was watching some Autodesk Inventor tutorials when the guy mentioned (and showed off) this beast of a 3D mouse, the likes of which I had never seen. I tried using a 3D mouse before, but that was back around 2009. Though it felt clumsy, it was no where near the departure from the norm this Space Pilot is. Anyone using this thing (or anything like it)? Has it helped your productivity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryhirsch Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 ''Has it helped your productivity?'' nope...not in my (our) case....we have several of them in the office (space pilot and space navigator) ...mine serves as paper weight now...with a nice blue shine in the dark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael J. Brown Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Wow. I've never had a $400 paperweight. I'm about to learn Inventor so that I can create my own product models the proper way. I've been modeling parts in Max, but the pain comes when I am asked by parts manufacturers for an .iges file they can use for making molds, which Max documentation 'says' it can produce, but I have yet to get it to work. I then end up having to pay someone to re-model the parts in a 'proper' industrial design software. Either way, the Autodesk tutorial guy claimed it made life much easier for him. So I have to believe its usefulness is much more quantifiable in a product design environment than an arch-viz one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Fantucchio Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Man, whenever I see these threads I bug out cause mine was one of the best purchases I've ever made. I cannot go back to Max viewport controls/hotkeys anymore. It took some time to get used to but I cannot work without it now. I can see how it would be more immediately useful for someone doing product/industrial design, but the controls actually make the work fun for me. I can fly through one side of the a building to another in a second. For me it's great for placing cameras/furniture modeling and really any high precision modeling task. My only gripe is that it does not have better integration with the other apps I use(photoshop/aftereffects/premiere/). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padre.ayuso Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Yes, mine did become a paperweight. It did start becoming fun but then I changed OS and getting the drivers etc installed was kinda painful and I did not retry. It is true that for placing camera, this is the best tool I have found yet for modeling I did not get used to it and so I'm still doing the hotkeys and mouse thing. To each their own, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jensandersen Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I cannot go back to Max viewport controls/hotkeys anymore. It took some time to get used to but I cannot work without it now... This! I can only agree with Jonathan here. I got the spacemouse pro. It becomes very fluid and intuitive after a while. Also great if you swap between other 3D modelling software. You can set it up so you have the same way of controlling the viewport in all of the different applications. But yeah, I don't find it smart in photoshop either - here a wacom works way better for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Beaulieu Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I think it is important to consider how often you may be switching machines before buying a specialized product like this. I use a minimum of 3 machine between teaching, home, and the studio. There are also the situations where I'm helping Juniors, Students , and Interns. It wouldn't be a great idea to start a workflow that didn't travel. I fault no one for their purchase as it seems like a lot of fun, but I thought I would throw a bit of pragmatism out there. For me it's a non-issue. I need hotkeys and a standard mouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Fantucchio Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 I think it is important to consider how often you may be switching machines before buying a specialized product like this. I use a minimum of 3 machine between teaching, home, and the studio. There are also the situations where I'm helping Juniors, Students , and Interns. It wouldn't be a great idea to start a workflow that didn't travel. I fault no one for their purchase as it seems like a lot of fun, but I thought I would throw a bit of pragmatism out there. For me it's a non-issue. I need hotkeys and a standard mouse. I feel ya. I was the same way till I got used to mine. But also consider that these products are not quite specialised anymore driver and support wise. It works with pretty much any CAD and 3D program as of now. Some better than others. 3d connexions software is a simple quick easy install and works awesome. I use it in between work and home no problems. It's just a notch below plug and play. So this shouldn't stop anyone from using one. Anyways I'm not saying any more nice things about them unless 3Dconnexion sponsors me. I do wish that they would start expanding the use of them beyond traditional CAD. It freezes Autocad for me so I don't use it for CAD. I can also see these being useful with premier or Nuke/Aftereffects for timeline navigation and keying frames. The photoshop implementation is half baked as of now and it could be awesome, but not a wacom replacement by any stretch but a possible compliment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 I also have 3D connexion 'explorer?' (preceding SpaceMousePro). + It's fantastic when it works. Genial product. - Sadly it doesn't work for me. For 3 years and 3 different Windows installation (from 7 to 8 to 10 currently) I have nothing but driver "issues". I'm putting them into "" because it doesn't manifest in errors or incompatibility, instead, in poor performance. It causes noticeable lag/freeze in any kind of advanced scene. Disconnecting the device immediately solves all my issues. Tried both USB2/3, to no solution. Not sure what to think of it, but the issue was common enough among my friends too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
branskyj Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I use the wired Space Navigator and absolutely love it. Navigating with in 3DS Max (and SketchUp Pro for that matter) is absolutely amazing. Although I know several people who can't believe that I find it so useful- they don't and said that it took too long for them to "adjust" to the new navigation methed. It is true though that the drivers are a hit or miss. I haven't had any issues with the latest drivers but before...2-3 years ago... oh my God. Also- the navigation with it is awesome in Max and SketchUp but horrible in AutoCAD, possibly even in other 2D and 3D packages. Also- like Juraj said, if the scene becomes too big Space Navigator gets laggy. Navigation (paning, rotating, zooming) takes a second to start and even then it will be slower than usual. I still use it in situations like that, I just use the "zoom to selected" more often. All negatives taken into account- I still would not go back to a regular navigation without Space Navigation. It's not as effective. Space Navigator FTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erkutacar Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 i got the most basic one, i guess it was called spacenavigator and its great.. im so glad i bought it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveharry Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 ''Has it helped your productivity?'' nope...not in my (our) case....we have several of them in the office (space pilot and space navigator) ...mine serves as paper weight now...with a nice blue shine in the dark Really? Those 3D mouse seemed to be really nice gadgets for modelling. I really wanted to get my hands on one of them. You should send me one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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