Rotation Centre in Sketchup

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cdturner87
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Rotation Centre in Sketchup

Post by cdturner87 »

For myself (and many others I have spoken to) the option to set the rotation center to the cursor would make life so much easier in Sketchup. Currently to navigate Sketchup with a 2D mouse (and a scroll wheel) you can orbit the camera view around the specific point you are working on and this gives you great navigation control. the auto algorithm for the 3D mouse is ok but can never replace this ability to choose precisely where you would like to rotate around from. Often it sets the rotation center far from where you are modelling (or intend to model next), causing the view to disappear off to the side. From discussions online and in the office it seems many people have this issue and solving it would make this product perfect!

I emailed 3DConnexion regarding this feature in September and was told that the Product Team is already looking into it and that the chances are not that bad that this way of setting the rotation point is going to be available in the future.

I was hopeful that they would include it in 3DxWare 10 however it looks at though they have decided against it which is a real shame.

Has anyone a solution to this problem, or can anyone suggest any other brands of 3D mice that have this feature?

Thanks, Chris
Tehrasha
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Re: Rotation Centre in Sketchup

Post by Tehrasha »

Given the change in functionality you want to see, it will take much more than a driver or plugin update. This will require Google to do some additional work within SketchUp itself.

Even if the 3Dconnexion product team writes all the code for them and has it working, until Google pushes those changes into SketchUp, you wont see it.
Spacemice -- Input devices for a 3D world.
cdturner87
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Re: Rotation Centre in Sketchup

Post by cdturner87 »

That isn't correct because it is a feature that was replaced by the auto algorithm. You can see the use of this function and how well it worked in this instructional video: (watch from 1:54)

http://www.vtc.com/modules/products/mov ... arty+Tools

This rather begs the question, why not keep it in as an option?

I would be very grateful if someone from 3DConnexion would comment.

Thanks, C
Tehrasha
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Re: Rotation Centre in Sketchup

Post by Tehrasha »

Yes, I see that, and I am sure that kind of functionality is much more involved than a change in the plugin.

Not sure how old that video is, but the $50 'Personal Edition' of the Space navigator has not been around since 2009-ish. So sometime in the last 5 years, Google removed that option (like they did the 'Earth-Based' rotation in Google Earth) for some unknown reason, possibly because of a major change in how the core renderer works.

If so, 3DConnexion would likely need to recode for the new changes, but it would still be up to Google to push those changes to the rest of the world, not just a driver/plugin update.
Spacemice -- Input devices for a 3D world.
cdturner87
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:18 am
Location: London, UK
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Re: Rotation Centre in Sketchup

Post by cdturner87 »

Thank you for your response Tehrasha. What you have said does make sense, as why else would 3DConnexion have removed the feature? However can anyone actually confirm this is the case though, ie a developer/ product team member at 3DConnexion? I only ask because the impression I got when I put in a feature request was that this is something they are working one (ie. they could implement it without changes to Sketchup). As far as I am aware, the navigation for Sketchup has stayed the same, and I assume that the feature was be based around the orbit tool.

Assuming you are correct, what is the feature / functionality that Sketchup would need to restore in order for 3DConnexion to be able to re-build this? I ask because it seems the next step would be to put in a feature request to Trimble / lobby them for the change.

Thanks.
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