CadMouse - Disable 'free wheel' scrolling?

[metacollin]

Hi, is there a way to disable the scroll wheel feature where it simulates the 'freewheeling'/free-spinning behavior of some other mouse wheels. I hate this feature and never use it, it only gets in the way, but in most mice, it is a real mechanical feature of the scroll wheel. As in, it works because the wheel is actually physically spinning but can be locked down so it requires a finger to move it and immediately comes to a stop.

Unfortunately, the CadMouse seems to emulate this 'feature' in software. I need to disable it, or that addition really needs to be added to the driver/control panel if possible. It makes the mouse nearly unusable, as the thing that makes the automatic scroll engage seems to be the speed at which you move the wheel. I only move it at one speed: really fast. So it engages constantly, and makes it useless.

If anyone knows of a workaround until or if 3Dconnexion adds this functionality in the software (or via firmware update if they actually hard coded this into the firmware), I would greatly be appreciated. I would otherwise love this mouse, but if I can't find a solution, I'll have to return it. No hard feelings, it just doesn't work for me . I WANT to use it. I love the metal base ring, weighting, dat real 3rd mouse button. But it's just not working out right now .

[UtaSH]

Hello metacolin,

we are tracking this feature request with our internal bug number #7061. I will let you know once this is available.

[metacollin]

Terrific!

[metacollin]

You know...if the driver were open source, I could have fixed it myself by now =P.

[jmr]

Seriously, please add this switch asap. We only use macs in our office. Right now this really prevents me from using the otherwise great CadMouse.

[metacollin]

It turns out that this functionality has existed all along, they just couldn't be arsed to add code to send one HID command on OS X =P. The mouse stores its settings on the firmware, so you can set its settings on a platform that is actually supported (instead of merely claimed to be, like OS X. If I can't use my mouse and its features under OS X, then don't say OS X is supported - it's not!).

So, jmr, a workaround for you:

1. Get access to a windows machine, or use VMware or similar (if you go this route, you'll need to look at how to enable HID USB devices in your chosen virtualizer, its different for each one), install the windows 3Dconnexion drivers, open the settings for the mouse. You can turn off 'Smart Scroll' (lol at the name). Flywheel scrolling is off - and for good. It will not return unless you turn it on again.

2. You can also access the other features that are unavailable to us mac users (which is pretty much all of them). I recommend upping the polling rate to 500Hz, or even 1000Hz but be aware that there is some CPU penalty at higher poll rates. But if you want buttery smooth accurate movement, its the way to go!


I'm also looking into writing a small script to simply send the correct HID commands to the mouse. Like, enabling this is utterly trivial. I can write a Chrome app that can send HID commands ffs. It's easy. It should take 10 minutes, not 1.5 months and counting. Please unf--k your mac support (or rather, lack thereof). I do not like spending $100 on something only to find out the company basically lied about it being supported on my operating system.

[metacollin]

Whoops, I meant to say, the mouse stores is settings on its own firmware, so you can change settings on one platform, like Windows, and those settings will travel with that specific mouse. So you can turn off the flywheel scrolling in windows, and it will remain off on the OS X side.

I have fixed my CadMouse. No help from 3dconnexion. You'd think they could have at least shared this workaround (surely it is obvious to them?) but I just happened upon it when I was using the mouse under windows. I had no idea this feature had been available this whole time, I thought it wasn't available on any platform.

[metacollin]

Wasn't joking.

Here, I did 3Dconnexion's work for them:

https://github.com/metacollin/cadmousectl-osx

[jmr]

wow, great job, thanks a lot metacollin!

3dconnexion, isn't it a little embarrassing when other people not from your company do your work?!

[jmr]

My settings were gone after a shutdown. Are u sure they are saved to the firmware (aka eeprom)?

[OddHenry]

Hello, I am unsure if this relates to what you describe as free-wheeling. However, I am experiencing that the scroller will not scroll when moving the wheel in increments of 1, if you understand what I mean. As in, if I scroll really, really slow (For instance when zooming in Maya, or reading articles online) it is not working at all. It only scrolls when turning the wheel fast. It's like I have to jump-start each scroll in order for it to work. Obviously this makes precision work impossible.

[jmr]

Hi OddHenry,

what you describe is exactly what this thread is about! metacollin's solution works, but needs to be restartet everytime I restart on my mac.

[OddHenry]

Thank you for responding jmr
And also thanks to metacollin's fix.

However, I have tried to like described from Metacollin, without success. I have used my Windows laptop to disable smart-scroll, and the plugged the mouse into my MAC. No result. Smart scroll still enabled in OSX.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled on both platforms, so they are both up to date. Still no change. Works fine on Windows, but no success on OSX.
The settings just doesn't seem to transfer over to OSX (with the firmware), like Metacollin suggested they would.

Am I doing something wrong perhaps?

[jmr]

I don't really think the settings are stored in the mouse itself. Use metacollin's code: https://github.com/metacollin/cadmousectl-osx

[OddHenry]

I don't really think the settings are stored in the mouse itself. Use metacollin's code: https://github.com/metacollin/cadmousectl-osx

Please excuse my very limited skills with GIT. I tried following the instructions to the best of my abilities, but I know I am missing out on something very obvious. Hence it is not working for me. I have included a transcript from the terminal window, if you could please take the time to check it and perhaps give me some further directions?

Thanks again

Regards,
Odd Henry

-----------
Last login: Fri Oct 28 00:23:08 on console
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homeb ... er/install)"
==> This script will install:
/usr/local/bin/brew
/usr/local/share/doc/homebrew
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew
/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew
/usr/local/Homebrew
==> The following existing directories will be made group writable:
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/share
/usr/local/share/man
/usr/local/share/man/man1
==> The following existing directories will have their owner set to oddhenry:
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/share
/usr/local/share/man
/usr/local/share/man/man1
==> The following existing directories will have their group set to admin:
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/share
/usr/local/share/man
/usr/local/share/man/man1
==> The following new directories will be created:
/usr/local/Cellar
/usr/local/Homebrew
/usr/local/Frameworks
/usr/local/etc
/usr/local/include
/usr/local/lib
/usr/local/opt
/usr/local/sbin
/usr/local/share/zsh
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
/usr/local/var

Press RETURN to continue or any other key to abort
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ cd <repo clone location>
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ make
xcode-select: note: no developer tools were found at '/Applications/Xcode.app', requesting install. Choose an option in the dialog to download the command line developer tools.
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ cd <repo clone location>
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ cd <repo clone location>
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
Odds-iMac:~ oddhenry$ ./cadmousectl