Altium 19 Spacemouse wireless

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balint2.feher
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2019 2:27 am

Altium 19 Spacemouse wireless

Post by balint2.feher »

Hello guys!

I have a spacemouse wireless, and I would like to use it with Altium Designer 19 for 3D navigation. I have been using a cadmouse wireless for a while. I duplicated the default Altium config file in the program files folder. I have a file for schematic editor, and another one for PCB editor. I use <WindowCaption SubStringLocation="AnyWhere">PcbDoc</WindowCaption> (and schdoc) filter for them. This works perfectly for cadmouse wireless. 3DxWare recognises both profiles well, and I configured the spacemouse for Altium, but when I try to use wireless cadmouse, nothing happens in Altium (3D PCB mode). Cadmouse works well in freeCad for example, so the driver, 3DxWare seems to be correct.

Any idea what the issue is?

Win10
3DxWare 10.6.3
3DxWinCore 17.6.3.16588
Altium Designer 19.1.5 (tried with Altium 17, same issue)
jwick
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Re: Altium 19 Spacemouse wireless

Post by jwick »

That's very impressive that you created those extra cfg files w/o instructions.

There are a few things to check.

1) Hover over the 3Dx systray icon when in the various modes to see if it is really using the correct file. The log file will also list what it is doing.
2) There have been changes between the last few Altium releases that required a new cfg. You may have to delete your user cfgs (in %appdata%) to pick up the new cfgs.
3) The application may not use the 3D mouse data in all its modes (especially 2D modes). If it doesn't, sending it will do nothing. You'd have to contact them to find out. You might have to resort to some 2D mouse emulation.
balint2.feher
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2019 2:27 am

Re: Altium 19 Spacemouse wireless

Post by balint2.feher »

Hello jwick,

Thank you for your fast reply. We tried the spacemouse with a different computer with the same version of Altium and 3DxWare and it worked. Something is wrong with my modified config files, so I copied the working ones to my computer. Now I don't have different profiles for schematic and PCB mode for Altium. I did not try to modify it again, because I had the spacemouse for only a week. If my employer will buy a spacemouse for me, I will try to make config file modifications again, and post the result here.

Thanks for help.
elimark1
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 12:01 pm
Location: united states

Re: Altium 19 Spacemouse wireless

Post by elimark1 »

here is something that i would like you to see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5o-8I4qMBA

I use a Logitech M510 (three, in fact, one each at work, at home, and in the laptop bag). I've never felt the need for anything fancier for any sort of CAD, so personally I'd put the extra $125 into a Space Mouse if you don't already have one.

One adjustment I did make for the sake of Altium was going to a keyboard without a numberpad, and placing a separate number pad to the left. That way, from left to right, I've got Space Mouse, numpad, keyboard, mouse all in a row, but within a comfortable width. Having the numpad on the left makes it easy to change routing widths or layers without taking my hand off of the mouse or reach across. It's fairly easy to get used to using the left hand for numeric entry in general as well.
Where it becomes most helpful is when trying to do 3D positioning and measurement on 3D models. Usually the 3D orbit works okay, but for some reason when certain 3D commands are active you can't change the view with the mouse anymore. This is especially problematic when trying to take a measurement between two 3D bodies, where you often have to get the view just so in order to get the snap point you're after. The space mouse always works, though, so it's a big help.
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