Autodesk Inventor 2014 & SpacePilot Pro Rotate Issues!

[phlyx]

We are running Autodesk Inventor 2014 (64-bit Build 246 Release 2014 SP2) on Windows 7 with SpacePilot Pro (3DxWare 10 version 10.2.8 ). There is a really odd thing that happens but it's totally random when it does. Occasionally, with multiple parts, drawings and assemblies open in Inventor I will select one and the SpacePilot Pro does absolutely nothing. Or at least I think it's doing nothing. What it *IS* doing is still manipulating the item(s) in the previous active window so when I open that file it's zoomed way out of the viewing area. I can shut down Inventor and restart it, unplug the SpacePilot Pro and plug it back in, but seems the only thing that will restore the SpacePilot Pro to work with everything is to totally restart my workstation. And that usually entails shutting down a bunch of programs, closing dozens of files, disconnecting from several servers, and taking a nap while everything restarts.

I did narrow it down that when it happens, if two or more files were associated with each other, the first one opened would be the one that would rotate correctly. If I close Inventor and restart it and reverse the order I opened the files, the first one opened will still be the one that responds to the SpacePilot Pro. It only happens when multiple files are open, never happens with a single file open. And if it happens and I open several more files that are not associated with the currently open ones they will all rotate properly.

Happened again this morning so figured it was time to post something and see if someone has some magic they can use to expel these demons.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[phlyx]

No replies on this yet so not sure how I could be the only one ever having this issue

An update to this, too. We also use Creo here and I have the rotate problems with Inventor again today and when I logged into Creo and opened a file the SpacePilot Pro wouldn't work in Creo either. Was thinking this might be an Autodesk/Inventor issue but since it does the same thing in Creo it's pretty much definitely a SpacePilot Pro issue.

[pball]

I've had the same issue in Inventor where the 3D mouse is not rotating the active window but another non-active window. I believe stopping and starting the driver through the start menu options resolves it (until it happens again).

[UtaSH]

Hello phlyx,

I recommend that you contact our Technical Support Team. The colleagues will do the necessary troubleshooting and gather all needed information. If they cannot help you to solve the issue they will escalate the ticket to our engineers.

[phlyx]

Thanks pball. Just went into the 3DConnexion software and clicked on STOP DRIVER, then clicked on START DRIVER and it all works again. GREAT! Thank you!!!

Some of us use AHK (AutoHotKey) and I'm going to write a little routine to start and stop the driver with a hot key so when it happens I can just restart it without scrolling through menus.

[phlyx]

If you use AHK or some other application you can just do this (this is AHK's script to run with CTRL+ALT+3) :

^!3::
Runwait C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\3DxWinCore64\3DxService.exe -quiet -shutdown
sleep, 500
Runwait C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\3DxWinCore64\3DxService.exe
return

And is stops and then restarts the 3DConnexion driver without exiting any programs or stopping what you're working on.