macOS Big Sur and Monterey - Pre-release Driver Available

[ngomes]

Just the strangeness with CMD key usage ....

As mentioned before, that's a bug in our beta driver. We expect to have the fix included in the next beta.

[lineweight]

Can we expect a new Beta fairly soon?

[cjadams]

yeah i realized they did roll their own and had to stop the 3dconnexionHelper process to make it work.
no idea why these files don't use the apis

Both Lychee Slicer and ChituBox for 3d printing DO NOTHING! - Their devs mentioned in their respective docs that this SHOULD work.. I suspect its due to the 3dx driver? Unless they are doing something weird..

Can @ngomes Can you shed any light on this perhaps? or Have you guys reached out? These are very popular slicers.. along with for example the 3rd common one is Cura slicer...

As far as I'm aware, 3Dconnexion is not in touch with the developers of Lychee Slicer and ChituBox. In fact, I didn't know these applications supported 3Dconnexion products and, as such, I don't know if the developers are using our driver APIs or if they use system interfaces (like Second Life/Firestorm).

Have you contacted the developers of the applications? As a customer, you have far more leverage than any of us at 3Dconnexion.

[ngomes]

Can we expect a new Beta fairly soon?

We're working on it, yes, but I can't yet say when it will available.

[ngomes]

i realized they did roll their own and had to stop the 3dconnexionHelper process to make it work.

After stopping the "3DconnexionHelper" process (the driver daemon), the system may be begin to use the 3D mouse data to move the mouse pointer.

Did the mouse pointer continue to move the after starting one of those applications?

Our daemon has to make an exclusive grab of the device to prevent the erroneous system behaviour (using 3D mouse data to move the pointer). On macOS 10.15 and older, the kernel extension (kext) can block this behaviour whilst still allowing applications to access the device.

[rjtiedeman]

I updated to Mac OS 11.2.3 and I have to report.
1. 3Dconnexion Trainer is working.
2. Vectorworks 2021 does not work. When you use the Vectorworks flyover tool and apple magic mouse ii the objects work smoothly. When you use the 3Dspacemouse the X,Y and Z axis lines rotate but the objet is frozen then jerks to position. Kind of like learning to drive a clutch car.

This defiantly a step backward for my 3Dspacemouse and Vectorworks 2021. Unusable!

[mister007]

Can we expect a new Beta fairly soon?

@3Dconnexion:
I would like to go one step further: Is there is a chance to get a final driver THIS YEAR???
Honestly I had to switch in my mac to a virtual machine with windows to continue my projects.
But as you can imagine that has very bad performance.

[lineweight]

I updated to Mac OS 11.2.3 and I have to report.
1. 3Dconnexion Trainer is working.
2. Vectorworks 2021 does not work. When you use the Vectorworks flyover tool and apple magic mouse ii the objects work smoothly. When you use the 3Dspacemouse the X,Y and Z axis lines rotate but the objet is frozen then jerks to position. Kind of like learning to drive a clutch car.

This defiantly a step backward for my 3Dspacemouse and Vectorworks 2021. Unusable!

Please make sure you report this to Vectorworks as well! Either via the user forums or to tech support.

[ngomes]

I would like to go one step further: Is there is a chance to get a final driver THIS YEAR???

We don't yet know.

Our approach is to keep the old driver under maintenance for macOS 10.15 (and older) since it offers a better user-experience than the new driver.

Whether we call the new driver a "beta" or not (what's in a name?) is mostly inconsequential since our work does not end when we remove that label.

From the way you phrased the question, your frustration comes across quite clearly. I can only say that we share this frustration but, still, what is important is to know why the new driver isn't working for you. Can you tell us what are the problems that you're seeing?

[mister007]

Thank you for your honest answer. My frustration is caused by buying an not cheap excellent product for 3D purposes last year and then I was only able to use it for a half a year with full function and without any issues.

After upgrading to Big Sur problems started and since then it seems that users become beta testers, which I know isn't uncommon. But for that long time not having a driver without a disclaimer "no garantuee for deleted files" is really bad. Who would go with the risk of deleted files? Not me.

I'm just curious: what is the opinion of 3Dconnexion CEO on this? Is it really the way to treat it? What is your way back to green?

[Arturs]

Hi

I have a Macbook Pro (16-inch 2019)
and a SpaceMouse wireless

Yesterday before the latest macOS Big Sur upgrade, everything was working fine!
3Dconnexion pairing, Fusion360 and other apps.

But after upgrading to Big Sur 11.2.3, everything is broken!
No can't connect my mouse to the receiver.
I installed the latest driver (Version 10.7.0 r3295 – Beta 14 – published on 08/02/2021) but it makes no difference.
Does anyone know how to fix this? I really need my mouse and not an expensive paper weight.

thanks
Artur

[Arturs]

Hi

I have a Macbook Pro (16-inch 2019)
and a SpaceMouse wireless

Yesterday before the latest macOS Big Sur upgrade, everything was working fine!
3Dconnexion pairing, Fusion360 and other apps.

But after upgrading to Big Sur 11.2.3, everything is broken!
No can't connect my mouse to the receiver.
I installed the latest driver (Version 10.7.0 r3295 – Beta 14 – published on 08/02/2021) but it makes no difference.
Does anyone know how to fix this? I really need my mouse and not an expensive paper weight.

thanks
Artur

[ngomes]

After upgrading to Big Sur problems started and since then it seems that users become beta testers, which I know isn't uncommon.

I explained our reasoning before. See here.

Basically, we had to decide whether to share a pre-release driver with our customers (that we knew had limitations) or nothing at all (the driver for macOS 10.15 can't be used in Big Sur). We chose the former, obviously, and continue to work on the driver as before.

We didn't just started working on this one month before Big Sur was launched. We started much earlier but we were unable to address all of the limitations. That's why we still label the software a "beta": we aren't satisfied with the current user-experience like the limited key emulation support.

I'm just curious: what is the opinion of 3Dconnexion CEO on this?

You'd have to ask them but I can say this: I'm an engineer, one of the software developers. 3Dconnexion is investing some of my time to directly engage with customers to ensure we can provide the quickest and most accurate information in an online forum open to all.

[ngomes]

But after upgrading to Big Sur 11.2.3, everything is broken!
No can't connect my mouse to the receiver.
I installed the latest driver (Version 10.7.0 r3295 – Beta 14 – published on 08/02/2021) but it makes no difference.

Reboot the system, then open Activity Monitor and check if the "3DconnexionHelper" is running.

If it is not running, go the "System Preferences" and open the "3Dconnexion" pane (this will start the "3DconnexionHelper" daemon). Again check if it the process is running in Activity Monitor. Then, start Fusion 360 and see if you SpaceMouse now works.

We have reports of the system blocking software after the first reboot. We don't know why.

[Arturs]

[/quote]Reboot the system, then open Activity Monitor and check if the "3DconnexionHelper" is running.

If it is not running, go the "System Preferences" and open the "3Dconnexion" pane (this will start the "3DconnexionHelper" daemon). Again check if it the process is running in Activity Monitor. Then, start Fusion 360 and see if you SpaceMouse now works.

We have reports of the system blocking software after the first reboot. We don't know why.
[/quote]

Thanks! a couple of reboots did the trick.
and nice to know that you need the "3DconnexionHelper" running.
I have had all kinds of application problems today, Big Sur sucks!