Re-Configuring the Axis / Rotation Settings for Solidworks

[JamesC]

I initially posted this in the Feedback forum. I'm thinking maybe this location is more visited / more appropriate...

I am very interested in incorporating the 3D Connexion wireless spacemouse into my daily life in Solidworks. I purchased one a month or so ago.

However, I have been pretty disappointed in the mapping of the axes of the mouse in relation to:
a) the screen
b) the axes / rotations relative to themselves when the Zoom direction of “Up/Down” is selected.

I would like to use my standard mouse in my right hand, and the spacemouse in my left hand.

Out of the box, the orientation of the spacemouse axes are in direct conflict with the orientation of the axes of the standard mouse. So, immediately, things are extremely awkward in Solidworks.

I was temporarily overjoyed to see an option the change the zoom direction to “up down”. My excitement quickly fizzled when I realized toggling this setting provides yet an even more strange configuration which appears to be an error.

I have attached several images depicting the situation below.

NOTE: A very good friend of mine uses the cad program Alibre. In his software, when he toggles the Zoom direction to be “Up/Down”, his axes are all re-oriented properly (which leads me to believe there is an error in the solidworks interface to the 3D mouse).

I will say the motion feels extremely elegant / smooth, etc. I *want* to be able to use it. (In my robotics-design life, I’d tell the software guy, “You accidentally swapped the Yaw and Roll joints – swap them please and I’d be happy as a clam").

3D Connexion: I hope there is an easy way to reconfigure the axes to work properly. Otherwise, I unfortunately have a device that I cannot use. I want to love this thing, buy one for my office, one to keep in my laptop bag, etc., but for now, I can’t even use it. I've been thinking it might be nice to get the big one with all of the extra hotkeys, etc. But I can't go down the road of using one if the axes are not set up properly.

Is there a way I can reconfigure the axes / rotation settings properly?

-James

[JamesC]

I should Add (I can't seem to edit my post), that I'm using the Wireless spacemouse with Solidworks. I believe my friend is using a wired spacemouse with Alibre. Maybe just the wireless software is messed up?

[Barbara]

Hello JamesC -

The driver for the wired devices - 3DxSoftware - will also recognize the Space Mouse Wireless.
The options and features are different in the two driver types - 3DxWare and 3DxSoftware. The 3DxWare driver adds navigation in web browsers and Microsoft Office applications and radial menus in the button mapping.

While 3dxWare is the supported wireless driver , if you prefer the behavior of the 3DxSoftware driver you can download it by choosing a wired device - SpaceMouse Pro or Space Navigator - on the driver download page.

The wireless driver [3DxWare] needs to be uninstalled before installing the 3DxSoftware driver.
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Barbara

[jwick]

JamesC,

You can configure the Solidworks profile any way you want, but you can not use the new GUI to do it. You should have a saved profile under %appdata%/3dconnexion/3dxware/cfg/solidworks.xml. You can use your favorite XML editor (notepad) to change the assignments of the axes on your device (Input->Output).

The old and new drivers do swap the axes differently. Every user has a different opinion of how it should work in swapped mode (mostly whether the translations and the rotations should swap together). We have one opinion: it should work as in the real world.

You should learn to use it in the non-swapped mode. It may take your brain a day to learn that "up" really is up, not "away" (as in 2D mouse land), but then every other 3D application opens up to you. There is a benefit to working consistently in all 3D apps....but it is your device...

[lb14]

Hello,

I would just like to comment on this issue as well. I am a PTC Creo user as well as a Solidworks user. I use a Spacemouse Pro on my workstation, and just purchased a Spacemouse wireless for my notebook. The change in functionality of the rotation control is really not acceptable in the 3dxware driver. I uninstalled it and am running the 3dxsoftware driver (that I use with my Spacemouse pro), but this loses the popups associated with the LH and RH buttons. I understand that the configuration provided with the 3dxware driver may be more in line with other uses, but as a professional CAD user, I can fully attest that it is not a matter of personal preference to change to the new configuration. Suggestions to change the way you work are not really acceptable.

While the 3dxsoftware driver does allow for the configuration that I want, it would be great to add the button popup feature. Please add this in a future release so that I can use the 3d mouse with full functionality.

Regards,

Luke

[Barbara]

Hello Luke -

With the 3DxSoftware driver both Creo and SolidWorks have a popup menu. The popup menu is mapped to the Spacemouse Pro MENU button and to the left button on the SpaceMouse Wireless in the default Creo and SolidWorks profiles.

To return to the default mapping you can use 3Dconnexion Properties - Options - Restore all Defaults. On the Button Configuration tab you should see 'Popup' or 'Application popup' mapped to those buttons after restoring defaults.

One of the items in the popup menu for both Creo and SolidWorks is 'Customize buttons'. This opens the internal button editor with application commands. This internal editor has priority over the 3Dconnexion Properties - Customize buttons - all button changes need to be done in the internal editor to be correctly saved to your profile.

Is that the button popup you mean ? The popup menu with Rotate | Pan Zoom | Customize Buttons ... ? If you are trying to get to the button commands that are in 3Dconnexion Properties in the 3DxWare driver , this is where you will find them in 3DxSoftware - in the Customize Buttons editors.

In the 3DxWare driver all of the button commands are integrated into 3Dconnexion Properties so that the separate editor windows are no longer needed. And in 3DxWare the commands are searchable. In the Customize Buttons editors you need to open the button categories to locate the command you want.
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Barbara

[lb14]

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for your reply. I tried restoring the default configuration - this results in the LH button mapping to 'Popup Menu' and the RH button mapping to 'Fit'. However, neither button does anything when mapped that way. I can make the buttons do other tasks available under the customization screen (including the virtual number pad), but cannot get either Fit or Popup Menu to work. What I am looking for is the popup that allows to select standard view orientations from a popup (TOP, RIGHT, FRONT, etc...). I don't recall what this was called on the 3dxware driver - and it may be something different from the Popup Menu, but it was nice to have...

Luke