No navigation in OnShape

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on macOS.

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fractalic
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Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:56 pm

No navigation in OnShape

Post by fractalic »

This article (https://3dconnexion.com/uk/support/faq/ ... n-onshape/) is a good starting point for debugging issues where OnShape doesn't recognize a SpaceMouse, but it doesn't go into details of what to do when the test fails.

In case it's helpful to someone else, here's one particular error that can occur and some suggestions for fixing it.

The SpaceMouse driver runs a webserver on your local machine, and as far I can tell it adds a new loopback address so that the server can be accessed at `127.51.68.120:8181`. OnShape seems to use this server to get SpaceMouse data in the browser, but it accesses it over an HTTPS connection. Since this is a local address, the certificate to secure the HTTPS connection needs to be installed locally as well; and it seems that the SpaceMouse server takes care of this for us, but it can sometimes fail.

When things are working properly, we should be able to visit `https://127.51.68.120:8181/version` in a browser and see a version number.

In my case, Firefox returned an error code instead: `SEC_ERROR_BAD_SIGNATURE`. This points to the SpaceMouse driver failing to install the webserver HTTPS certificate. One way to coax it into installing the certificate is to reboot the webserver after closing the browser:
1. Quit or terminate all browser instances
2. Use Activity Monitor or Explorer to Stop or "End Task" the 3DxNLServer process
3. The 3DxNLServer seems to restart automatically, but if it doesn't the cleanest way to relaunch it is likely to reboot the whole machine

If there are still browsers running when the 3DxNLServer starts, it will sometimes but not always open a dialog box warning about a failure to install certificates.
ngomes
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Re: No navigation in OnShape

Post by ngomes »

fractalic wrote: Mon Dec 05, 2022 2:22 pm the certificate to secure the HTTPS connection needs to be installed locally as well; and it seems that the SpaceMouse server takes care of this for us,
That's correct. We document the procedure in a separate FAQ article.
but it can sometimes fail.
We haven't seen it fail but Firefox uses its own secure store for certificates.
In my case, Firefox returned an error code instead: `SEC_ERROR_BAD_SIGNATURE`. This points to the SpaceMouse driver failing to install the webserver HTTPS certificate.
On Windows, the 3Dconnexion software installer will attempt to detect a running instance of Mozilla Firefox and ask the user to terminate precisely to allow the installation of the certificate.
One way to coax it into installing the certificate is to reboot the webserver after closing the browser:
1. Quit or terminate all browser instances
2. Use Activity Monitor or Explorer to Stop or "End Task" the 3DxNLServer process
3. The 3DxNLServer seems to restart automatically, but if it doesn't the cleanest way to relaunch it is likely to reboot the whole machine
Since the Firefox secure store is per-user, the driver will add the certificate but it can only do so if the web browser isn't running.
If there are still browsers running when the 3DxNLServer starts, it will sometimes but not always open a dialog box warning about a failure to install certificates.
The dialogue is shown if the driver detected a running instance of Firefox without the necessary certificate. The dialogue asks the user to close the web browser to allow the certificate installation.

On "portable" installations of Firefox, the driver may not be able to find the secure store and the user will have to add the certificate manually.
Nuno Gomes
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