Indulge me: anyone using SpaceNavigator with VW2008?

[exocubic]

I should get my upgrade tomorrow. Just curious. TIA.

[ionw]

I have tried it. it seems quite nice. Though I find it more in the review part of a model than the creation. For Sketchup I find my time with it is split fairly evenly between reviewing and creating.

[Christiaan]

I've just purchased one too (still waiting for VW 13 to turn up tho). Where is the 4-button interface for changing modes situated in VW?

[michael john williams]

Sound like you are on another planet! Or am I just not up there with the latest CAD?

[Christiaan]

It's an additional kind of mouse for your non-dominant hand:

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

One analogy is it's the equivalent to holding a potato with one hand and peeling it with the other, instead of peeling, placing and turning the potato with one hand (which is what we essentially do when we use one mouse to pan, select, zoom, etc.)

[Chris D]

When someone tries it...can you give us some feedback for 2D use as well as 3D use...or is it overkill to use it for 2D work?

potato analogy - nice one, spud

http://www.urbanup.com/179287

[Christiaan]

I watched a demo of it at the conference in London and it seemed to me that the 3D part of the name is a misnomer, i.e. it's just as useful to pass panning and zooming off to the left hand in 2D as it is in 3D.

At the moment the only downside I can see is that if you use keyboard shortcuts you'll be switching between the navigator and the keyboard with your left hand a lot. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know how much of a problem this is.

They have another model which includes programmable buttons to get around this problem but you can only use 2 of the 8 or so buttons when using it on a Mac, apparently, because of a limitation in mouse driver technology (but they say they're working on this; maybe this limitation will be gone in Leopard?).

[exocubic]

This is actually my second SpaceNavigator; the first time I tried it out, my muscle memory balked at losing the left hand for navigation modifiers and other hotkeys - so I returned it. Then my doctor "suggested" I find a way to unburden my right hand somewhat while working at the computer (or face surgery on my right shoulder), so I bought one again and have forced myself to get acquainted with it. It works beautifully in SketchUp, especially with the two buttons set to "Zoom Extents" and "Zoom Selected". I'm hoping it works for 2d panning and zooming in VW - I have yet to crack the nut of 3d in it to this point.

There is a Mac shareware program called Controllermate that allows you to program any HID device to do pretty much anything you want - so that could be a solution for the lack of multi-button support, Christaan (if you have the time to mess with it, that is).

[Christiaan]

Have you tried the SpacePilot Mark?

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacepilot.php

[exocubic]

I haven't. Looks pretty nice, though - I'm leery of the button placement. Seems like the controller knob is placed right in the way for ergonomic use of the buttons, but that's just conjecture on my part.