Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on Windows.

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mrf
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Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:57 am

Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Post by mrf »

Hi,

Thanks for reading. I am having persistent issues with my radial menus disappearing. I am creating radial menus, exporting my settings to a shared network folder(not the default config folder) and using that file/files to import my settings, because I would like my two Cadmouse products to work the same on my work computer and my home computer, plus I would like changes I make to the button configuration or radial menus to be updated across both. I am guessing that this is creating my problem, not having the 3dxz file in the default location. My question would be, does anyone have their settings synced across multiple computers in a way that actually works? I am using syncthing to sync the 3Dxz files from a seperate folder and reimporting after I make changes. Has anyone used syncthing, or something else to sync the actual per app .xml files located in ~>Users>username>AppData>Roaming>3Dconnexion>3Dxware>Cfg? I would be slightly worried about turning this folder into a synced folder and messing something up. But I am kind of at my wits end with having to re-create my radial menus dozens of times. for several applications
jwick
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Re: Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Post by jwick »

There are several things to investigate here.

Radial Menus are saved on an application-by-application basis. There is no way (with our current GUI) to create them for use in more than one app. They get saved for the current app. You need to be careful which app is in focus at the time of creation.

Also, it is possible to create Radial Menus that are not relevant everywhere. E.g., if a command is valid in only part mode but not assembly mode of the application. We don't check for that.

If a Radial Menu is disappearing, it could have been saved in the "wrong place" or, less likely, there was an error in the XML and the entire file was thrown out (it is actually saved).

Button Assignments (what button does what) are device-specific. A CadMouse is a CadMouse, but a CadMouse is not a CadMouse Wireless. That is, assignments only carry over if exactly the same type of device is used on both machines. The available Radial Menus, though, should be the same everywhere.

Our export/import mechanism is not perfect. It is just copying files. You can do that yourself for only the files you need (Rhino?).

I haven't tried it, but if you could link your %appdata%/3dconnexion/3dxware/Cfg subdir to the same network folder, the syncing should happen automatically. Naturally, you need to have the network connection up all the time to make use of it.
ActiveDirectory is supposed to automatically sync folders in %appdata%. Though I think it is somewhat complicated to set up.
mrf
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:57 am

Re: Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Post by mrf »

Thank you. This explains a lot. I wish I had just gotten two of the Cadmouse Compact Wireless now instead of one wired and one wireless. Rhino is my main program, which doesn't currently support contextual Radial Menus per mode (solids, curves, standard, subD, etc) but I also use Fusion360 on both computers, which does so there will be a lot of buttons to configure individually. There is also still a bug if you switch between Rhino6 and Rhino7, or WIP, but I suppose I should start a new topic for that. Thanks again for clearing things up. If you're not on 3DConnexions payroll, you should be, as I still haven't heard back from customer support on my issues.
jwick
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Re: Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Post by jwick »

The forum is pretty much a direct link to software developers.
We would be curious to hear about issues with switching between different Rhino versions.

There are games you can play with manual control over modes. E.g., I could see having an 8-segment radial menu that would choose the active application mode. Do you have a 3D mouse? I can't imagine that much of this is terribly useful with just a 2D mouse. You don't have many buttons to work with.
Tweak2729
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Re: Proper way to save button config and radial menus

Post by Tweak2729 »

I can't comment on 3D mouse, but with the Cadmouse Compact there are significant issues with the radial menus when using different versions of Rhino on one computer. I have Rhino6, Rhino7, and Rhino8. Rhino8 also has the issue of not showing any of the icons in general, only text in created radial menus, even if it is the only version installed on the computer.
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