Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on Windows.

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rachael7
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Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:13 pm

Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by rachael7 »

Is there any want to use my SpaceMouse with the native Windows apps 3D Viewer and 3D Builder? I use those apps frequently for viewing and repairing STL files and the built in controls are just terrible - there are literally some viewpoints you cannot achieve with the native controls and they are just screaming for a 3D mouse. Any hope? Thanks!
luping
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Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:54 pm

Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by luping »

Sen your feedback to Microsoft developers to visit https://3dconnexion.com/us/software-developer-program/ to integrate the 3DxWare SDK API into Windows 3D Viewer and 3D Builder, there's the 'Send feedback' button in the applications.
https://3dconnexion.com/us/software-developer-program/
luping
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Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by luping »

Typo error, it's 'Send'.
rachael7
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Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:13 pm

Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by rachael7 »

Thanks for the reply. So am I correct in understanding that it cannot be done unless MS changes their apps?
luping
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Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by luping »

rachael7 wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:46 am Thanks for the reply. So am I correct in understanding that it cannot be done unless MS changes their apps?
Yep, you're right.
jedikalimero
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Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:55 am

Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by jedikalimero »

Well, the thing is, it COULD be done with some programming. In theory, a program could receive the 3Dmouse movements and translate them to mouse movements that the 3D apps from Microsoft could understand. In fact, this approach can be applied to any 3D program that supports mouse movements in combination with mouse clicks or modifier keys to move in 3D.

This is how I can use my SpaceMouse Pro in Ultimaker Cura. In this case, Cura allows plug-ins and there is a plug-in called RawMouse that translates those movements. But if Plug-ins are not available, then the program can intercept the input that 3D Viewer/Builder receives.

I believe there was also somebody who was developing an independent driver for 3DMouses that would allow the use of them for any program by using a much more configurable driver with support for translation into 2D mouse movements customizable program by program.

In fact, 3Dconnexion was developing a similar approach some years ago but they dropped it so we still have that shitty 3DxWare that needs a subdriver for each program developed by each third party program team.
jedikalimero
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Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by jedikalimero »

Here you can find the source code of RawMouse, by the way:

https://github.com/smartavionics/RawMouse
jwick
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Re: Windows 3D Viewer & 3D Builder?

Post by jwick »

This post refers to some emulation work done for 2D slide viewing (Pathology).

I tried it with Windows 3D Viewer. It's promising.

It only has 3 DOF naturally (slideviewing is 2D).
It could be extended to add more DOFs supported in 3D Viewer/Builder.
I see that panning is activated by LMB+RMB+Mouse X/Y.
I didn't see a way to do rotation in the screen plane.

More than likely this approach will never give 6 simultaneous DOF.
Probably just two at a time. But it should be able to pick out the most relevant DOFs at any time.
I'm not sure how useful it would be w/o 6SDOF.
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