SpaceNavigator and Explorer, Browsers, etc.

gschmidl · Post by **gschmidl** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:19 am

I was wondering: does the SpaceNavigator provide even limited functionality for not fully supported applications like Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Firefox and the like? Scrolling alone would be good enough for my purposes, since I'm looking for a device that'll take the strain off scrolling by my not having to use a scroll wheel.

Post by **ngomes** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:20 am

Hi, gschmidl. Please refer to the following post:
Windows apps not working with spacepilot

gschmidl · Post by **gschmidl** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:43 am

Hi, and thanks for the answer. I don't own one yet, I just wanted to know before I buy whether or not it was possible. I assume your answer means that it is.

Thanks for the help!

mhoopes · Post by **mhoopes** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:31 pm

I currently have the SpaceNavigator PE and have installed 3DxOffice. I have two questions:

Since IE7 has added zooming, it there a possibility that you will be developing a driver that will enable that functionality? Also, will smooth panning be available for this application?

Also, if you were to support zooming and smooth panning in my EDA (Electrical Design Automation) applications, I could justify this device for work use. We are using Altium Designer (formerly called Protel) for schematic capture and PCB design.

Altium has a pretty large install base, as their Protel product dates back to 1985, and was the first Windows EDA app. Are you looking into any EDA applications?

Altium Designer also has some 3D model generation features that would be well-served by the SpaceNavigator.

Post by **ngomes** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:18 pm

Hi mhoopes,

mhoopes wrote:Since IE7 has added zooming, it there a possibility that you will be developing a driver that will enable that functionality? Also, will smooth panning be available for this application?

3DxOffice, our product for general Windows applications, is not longer actively supported by 3Dconnexion. Customers are welcome to use the latest version but only in a "as-is" basis.

mhoopes wrote:Also, if you were to support zooming and smooth panning in my EDA (Electrical Design Automation) applications, I could justify this device for work use. We are using Altium Designer (formerly called Protel) for schematic capture and PCB design.

3Dconnexion has an active program to allow editors to integrate the support for our device in their applications. The SDK is a free download, available for Windows, UNIX and Linux, and requires little effort to integrate.
We encourage our customers to report to the editors of those applications that adding support for 3Dconnexion controllers is a great feature.

mhoopes · Post by **mhoopes** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:25 pm

Thanks ngomes, perhaps I'll put something out on the Altium message board.

As far as IE7 goes, do you guys have any plans to support that application?

Post by **ngomes** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:39 pm

Hi mhoopes,

mhoopes wrote:As far as IE7 goes, do you guys have any plans to support that application?

Currently, we have no plans.
Having said that, 3Dconnexion does listen to its customers and develops solutions based on feedback from end-users with Google SketchUp being one of the most recent examples.

mhoopes · Post by **mhoopes** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:00 pm

I received a negative reply from Altium when I brought up the idea of them using the 3DConnexion SDK - the applications guy saw zero benefit (but hasn't tried the product yet):

From: (Altium Designer)
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 3:03 PM
To: Mike Hoopes
Subject: (Altium Designer) Feature Request - Pan & Zoom with Spaceball (reply)
Importance: Low

Michael,

I do not agree that this would be a justifiable allocation of the programmer's time at Altium.

<RANT>
I am happy using the scroll wheel along with the use of the left shift and control keys. This is obviously my personal preference but I do not see a benefit in spending Altium's time on personalizing AD to a particular input device even if it were to be only a second. Maybe the SpaceNavigator and/or Spaceball could be configurable to emulate the scroll wheel or just be made entirely programmable like most other specialized input devices. I checked their products and the Spaceball looks awesome and must be fantastic for 3D users, but Altium's 3D portion is only a viewer. It is therefore an extremely small portion of AD and should remain, in my opinion, just an interface to give me the warm fuzzies.
</RANT>

However, I am intrigued by this product and will consider the SpaceNavigator as a birthday present for my brother since his expertise requires full time use of the 3D environment. <shrug> I already bought him the vertical mouse for Christmas. Oh well.

Cheers!
[Altium programmer]

MH - I've used it with some 2D apps and still think it has value in that realm. Proportional pan&zoom is much easier than digital scroll&click - the latter is subject to overshoot, and requires two hands. If they were encouraged to try it, guys like [Altium programmer] could very well change their minds (like I did). I only tried it because I already use 3D applications. Is 3DConnexion sure they don't want to reach out to the EDA people?

RichT · Post by **RichT** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:52 am

Consider me another Altium Designer user who would dearly *love* to see my Navigator SE supported. Even if it were just zoom and pan

Rich

Post by **ngomes** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:13 am

Hi RichT,

Thanks for your comments. As before, we do suggest our customers to also send this type of feedback to the application editors. There is nothing quite like customer pressure.

RichT · Post by **RichT** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:16 am

I already did

but it doesn't hurt to push both sides

BTW I love the navigator.

Rich

mhoopes · Post by **mhoopes** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:26 am

Altium added SpaceNavigator support in their Designer 6.8 release, as part of a big marketing push for some new 3D visualization features.

I pushed a couple of interactive routing keyboard shortcuts onto the SN (space, shift+space), and have found that I don't have to go to the keyboard near as much. I think it's a useful implementation.

Fred · Post by **Fred** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:26 am

Emails from customers do make a difference. Thanks for the infromation

peterfreedom · Post by **peterfreedom** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:01 am

Hi! Is there any of you who knows how to make the Space Navigator PE works in Altium? I can PAN and Zoom in PCB view but in a 3D View, nothing moves.

I also have some problem with the little DEMO file they sent with the SN PE. The chicken DEMO is not working good at all. Any way to calibrate the SN PE?

Thank you you.

mhoopes · Post by **mhoopes** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:18 am

Peter-

The SpaceNavigator doesn't work in the Legacy 3D view (the one with components). Hit the 3D/2D view toggle shortcut keys ("3" and "2") for the new 3D visualization, which currently only supports the PCB.

As for the DEMO, I'm not sure what to tell you. The calibration in the 3Dconnexion control panel is a single button that corrects for "drift".

Good luck!

Mike

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