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Mouse Recommendations


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Hi, we are an all Mac office, and I am about to purchase new mouses (mice?) for the office. I personally don't like apple's mighty mouse, and was planning not to purchase them...

I was wondering what devices you all use for VW. I use a logitech MX310, and it works pretty well for scrolling, but pressing the wheel button doesn't activate the pan tool seamlessly (you have to hold down the space key...)

So if you have any recommendations, send them my way.

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I use a 4-button Kensington rollerball. I don't think I could over-recommend it: ? you can program each button and each combination of buttons (I have the upper right button programmed to Exit Group in VW, for example)

? the scroll wheel is very accurate

? my former carpal problems have all disappeared, since I can manipulate the large ball with different fingers, as I like

? Kensington's software is absolutely bulletproof in OSX. . .they started out doing only Mac accessories, so their roots are in the "right" place

? They are a little spendy, compared to a mouse. . .but I am at least twice as fast with the rollerball as I am with a mouse. Parly because I can be more precise more easily and partly because I can "throw" the curser clear across my 23" screen with the momentum of the ball.

Obviously, I think it's worth a try.

Good luck,

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Just bought a dirt cheap HiPoint mouse (?10 UK?) which has changed my life. I love it, pan works just fine, it comes in several sizes... and it has colour changing LED's that I'm sure mean something but I can't for the life of me figure out what but they keep me entertained when the drawing's getting dull.

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Logitech Mx500 - It's an 8 button mouse plus the scroll. I'm intrigued that you're 310 doesn't work with Pan. I have my wheel button set to "advanced click" and then "button number 3" which activates the pan function seamlessly. You might give that a try. The eight buttons is great! It may sound like a lot, but it helps to balance the load between the mousing and the hot keys. A couple tricks that I've learned over the last few years:

? I have the right click button activated by the escape key. I also have the selection tool activated by the escape key, so right clicking will drop me out of whatever tool I'm in and re-engage the selection tool.

? I've set up the mode groups to buttons on the mouse. Gone are the days of going back and forth to the mode bar ... and operations like offset, I can toggle up the offset distance with a mouse button and type it in with my left hand in rapid succession.

? Like Travis, I also have buttons for enter and exit groups - which works seamlessly with forward and back on my web browser.

I actually bought it because it was the largest most comfortable mouse I could find and will ergonomically support the weight of my hand at rest. But after using it, I'm convinced that it's range of buttons offers great versatility.

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I used to have an MS Intellimouse Explorer. It worked well for a while, then the software became increasingly more unreliable. Microsoft - should I have expected anything less? I eventually became so frustrated I threw it away and got a Logitech MX1000 laser mouse. The smoothness and precision of this mouse is superb; this alone justifies the premium price of this unit. I've even been able to make the mouse preferences a bit "faster" cutting down on the amount of work my wrist has to do.

The high price is somewhat offset by the fact the MX1000 is rechargeable, saving the cost of several batteries per year.

What I'll add to the button set-up discussion is that I use the side thumb "forward" and "back" buttons for zoom in and out (C and V if you use the VW default) and the middle "cruise" buttons for the 2D selection tool and enter. I've now combined the escape and 2D selection key, following Taproot's excellent suggestion. Personally I prefer to keep the right button as it's default function - contextural menu, remembering that in the workspace editor tools and commands can be added to the contextural menu items. This is a mighty powerful feature - you can easily add a dozen of your favourites here. For myself, I 've included add and subtract surfaces, and toggle group preferences (3rd party plug-in)

Curiously, I find the MX1000 less ergonomic the the Intellimouse, particularly the button positions. However my main disappointment is that the Logitech software only allows a universal set-up for the buttons. The Intellimouse gives the option to have a different set-up for each application, so when using the Logitech on anything other than Vectorworks, the extra buttons are mostly unusable. As my Vectorworks mousing and button use has become so ingrained, I occaisionally find myself forgetting and doing something weird like typing C's or V's somewhere when I want to zoom in or out!

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I use a Logitech Trackman (T-RA18) with the thumb track ball. I was having problems with the wheel in SketchUp and the techie from SketchUp told me to uninstall the mouse software since I was on a Mac. He said it just gets in the way. It works fine with VW and no mouse software installed. Maybe the same thing is happening to you, cberg. You will lose the ability to assign custom tasks to the buttons, however. I've grown used to the hot keys and there's usually some finger hovering over the U key at all times.

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Thanks for all your responses. For general ease of use, and for an office with varying degrees of comfort with gadgetry, I might order a few of the Logitech MX500 mice.

Matthew, I was able to get my MX310 to work using your technique. Somehow I didn't think to use button #3 when I looked into its configuration.

Thanks again for your help!

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