Software needs some love

[nothamid84]

Hi,

I love 3Dconnexion spacemouse; I can't do CAD without it, so much so that I own two of them, one at home so for occasional work from home days I am not handicapped. But the accompanying software is outdated and needs improvement. Here are my main complaints:

1. There is no option to sync your settings with the cloud. If you want to use the same settings on a different device you have to export, transfer file and then import them on the other machine.

2. Editing of custom buttons does not work properly. Sometimes it tells you that it's old macro and cannot be edited, then you have to make them from scratch, which is painful if you have many. Also it takes multiple steps to get to the actual edit window for a button. These are the steps: 3Dconnexion Settings > Buttons > e.g. LEFT > scroll to the Radial Menu preset > Radial Menu Editor > e.g. button #2 > scroll to Macros > locate the custom button macro > finally you are in Macro Editor. Now imagine you want to add/edit 16 custom buttons... There must be a way to easily launch Macro Editor so users can make the macros independently then in the settings just add them.

3. 3Dconnexion Viewer: I have love hate relationship with it. On one hand it's a nice, relatively light, spacemause-compatible viewer for some CAD file types. On the other hand it lacks some basic features:
3.1 Style is by default Shaded and there is no way to change this. But I believe for most CAD users Edges is the most common and useful style type (because you see, well, edges of the design).
3.2 There is no measure feature.
3.3 Supported formats are limited.
3.4 There is no option to change the default up (which is Y; okay some people are used to this, but some prefer Z, just leave the choice to the user).
Had it not been for the above problems I would use 3Dconnexion Viewer as my default CAD viewer.

Thanks

[luping]

Use third-party cloud syncing software like box or OneDrive to sync 3DxWare settings.

The 3Dconnexion Viewer is built upon the French open source OCCT 3D modeling kernel with some basic neutral formats support which is supported by the OCCT modeling kernel, don't think about any proprietary format, it needs expensive licensing fee to get the proprietary CAD format supported. It's only used as a basic 3D viewer to test the hardware. If you want the measure feature, you can try the feature-rich open-source FreeCAD, which is also built on OCCT modeling kernel.

[nothamid84]

Use third-party cloud syncing software like box or OneDrive to sync 3DxWare settings.

Yeah, that's what I already do. But this is still not conveniet. My post is about suggesting new features to imporve the user experience.

The 3Dconnexion Viewer is built upon the French open source OCCT 3D modeling kernel with some basic neutral formats support which is supported by the OCCT modeling kernel, don't think about any proprietary format, it needs expensive licensing fee to get the proprietary CAD format supported. It's only used as a basic 3D viewer to test the hardware. If you want the measure feature, you can try the feature-rich open-source FreeCAD, which is also built on OCCT modeling kernel.

That's waht I already do; I use other software (eDrawings to be specific) to open and measure CAD files. Again, my point was to suggest features. 3Dconnexion Viewer is such a clean and light viewer, installed by default anyways when you have spacemouse. It's shame if it cannot be used for real. And I understand your point about proprietary formats. But that was just one of the points.

[luping]

Use third-party cloud syncing software like box or OneDrive to sync 3DxWare settings.

Yeah, that's what I already do. But this is still not conveniet. My post is about suggesting new features to imporve the user experience.

The 3Dconnexion Viewer is built upon the French open source OCCT 3D modeling kernel with some basic neutral formats support which is supported by the OCCT modeling kernel, don't think about any proprietary format, it needs expensive licensing fee to get the proprietary CAD format supported. It's only used as a basic 3D viewer to test the hardware. If you want the measure feature, you can try the feature-rich open-source FreeCAD, which is also built on OCCT modeling kernel.

That's waht I already do; I use other software (eDrawings to be specific) to open and measure CAD files. Again, my point was to suggest features. 3Dconnexion Viewer is such a clean and light viewer, installed by default anyways when you have spacemouse. It's shame if it cannot be used for real. And I understand your point about proprietary formats. But that was just one of the points.

I see no obvious return of investment of engineering resources by a small hardware company.