macOS Big Sur and Monterey - Pre-release Driver Available

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on macOS.

Moderator: Moderators

Locked
RVeldhuyzen
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 11:46 am
Location: Veenendaal, The Netherlands

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by RVeldhuyzen »

RVeldhuyzen wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:25 am
ngomes wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:17 am 3Dconnexon has released "beta 14" (revision r3295) of the new driver for macOS. The "beta" builds can be downloaded from the FAQ page linked here. A change history summary is available on the top post.

The issue affecting button support in Blender is resolved (MAC-277). We have also modified the Maya plugin in an attempt to minimize the "flickering" issue (MAC-278).
Okay, this is really early, so don't read too much into it, but .... WOOHOO!
I've been working from 9am this morning and have had to restart Maya at least 42 times so far because it crashed, and have almost gotten used to the flickering.
I just installed this beta and used Maya for a few minutes, but so far NO MORE FLICKERING! :D
I expect to do a few more hours of work today, so I'll check back in later to share how it's going. But so far so good :)
Okay, so it's been two hours or so now and I just had my first Maya "crash".
Again, this morning before installing this latest beta I had dozens of crashes (the 42 I mentioned before was an exaggeration, but after thinking about it, I experienced around 20 or so crashes), since the update just a single one, just now! And still no flickering, the flickering seems to have been fixed.
Working for the past two hours made me feel like suddenly relaxing my shoulders after not realising I had been tensing them for hours, you know. Thank you! :)

But this latest "crash" is a weird one. In the previous beta where you thought you fixed the Maya issues but I reported seeing no change. What I did notice was that the crash where the background would turn black and it would crash a minute later disappeared, that crash didn't happen anymore.
A new crash did occur in the previous beta. Maya would suddenly not respond anymore. When clicking anywhere in a Maya window MacOS would give the error sound like you were clicking in a window that had a pop up active, so your click in the parent window is blocked because the pop-up overrides it. Maya would not respond to clicks, the keyboard or the SpaceMouse Pro, giving the MacOS blip sound when clicking. After a minute or so of this Maya would crash to desktop. The only thing that did respond sort of was the SpaceMouse button I have mapped to "undo". Pressing that would make the command line in Maya display an "undo que is disabled" error (pressing CMD+Z didn't have that effect).

This lates update seems to have fixed a lot. Like I mentioned, just a single crash which was almost the same as what I just described. Maya/MacOS would act like Maya had a pop-up open which would not allow interaction with any other Maya window. I checked, there were no other windows. I could move the Maya windows, but not scale them. I could do anything else in MacOS, just not interact with Maya. Same as before.
The difference was that this time Maya didn't crash. It just sat there, ignoring me :P I had to force quit it to restart.
With maya still open I opened the demo apps in the system tab, both of which showed the SpaceMouse working just fine.
Turning the SpaceMouse off and on again didn't change anything.

Another small issue, not a mayor thing but a small annoyance is the Lock Horizon thing. With it turend off the camera "roll's". With it turned off it doesn't, which is the way I prefer it. I have "Lock Horizon" mapped to a button since I don't think that is a Maya feature, is it?. When Maya launches the feature is turned off. If I press the mapped button, nothing happens. I press the button again the feature activates and the camera operates like I want.

I seem to remember that in the past there was a 3DConnextion menu option in Maya where I could tick a Lock Horizon option. Am I remembering that, right? I think I set that over a decade ago and it just migrated along through updates of the driver, maya and MacOS and even Macs, but this beta might have lost it.
Having that menu might solve this issue without needing to activate the option every time Maya starts?
It's time to roll the dice...
rjtiedeman
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:40 pm

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by rjtiedeman »

I Uninstaled the last driver then installed the newest driver V3295. After restart I had issues with "ADD Device" in the control panel refusing to PAIR the device. However the 3D SpaceMouse showed up in the window. Then ran the Trainer and it stopped working at rotate.

My computer is a stock iMac Pro (2017), 3 GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W, 64 GB DDR4, Radeon Pro Vega 64 Running Mac OS 11.2.

I have removed the Drivers now completely the device is not working with the new beta driver.

Bob
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

rjtiedeman wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:10 pm After restart I had issues with "ADD Device" in the control panel refusing to PAIR the device.
This is unexpected as that component (the pairing program) hasn't changed since the last beta. Something else is at play here.

Also, why did you have to pair your device after installing the new beta? Did the device not work at all after reboot? If so, check if the daemon ("3DconnexionHelper") is running and, if not, reboot once more.
alanfleming
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:11 am

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by alanfleming »

Another quick question. If a kext is no longer being installed, why is a reboot still necessary? From the look of the files in the manifest in the pkg, there is nothing in there that can't be installed programmatically and without a reboot.
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

alanfleming wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:31 am Another quick question. If a kext is no longer being installed, why is a reboot still necessary?
To complete the uninstall of previous 10.6.x driver installations.
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

RVeldhuyzen wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 8:42 am Okay, so it's been two hours or so now and I just had my first Maya "crash".
Thank you for the report, RVeldhuyzen.

Clearly, we have made progress but we're not yet quite there. A crash is still unacceptable.

If you can spot a pattern with these crashes, please let us know. This may be very helpful for diagnosing the issue.
Having that menu might solve this issue without needing to activate the option every time Maya starts?
That menu isn't available anymore. We're looking at finding a workaround for you (may require editing a plist file in a future driver update).
marcarch
Posts: 164
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:41 am

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by marcarch »

ngomes wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:35 am
alanfleming wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:31 am Another quick question. If a kext is no longer being installed, why is a reboot still necessary?
To complete the uninstall of previous 10.6.x driver installations.
Reboot should avoided on Big Sur machines
zoomer
Posts: 280
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:53 am

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by zoomer »

ngomes wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:35 am To complete the uninstall of previous 10.6.x driver installations.
Hmmh, I have never had installed any 10.6 driver on my M1 Mini.
Shouldn't the Driver recognize that and spare Reboot ?
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

marcarch wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:43 am Reboot should avoided on Big Sur machines
On any operating system, not just macOS 11.

We will look at improving the installation process once we have a stable driver (and key emulation is working as well as in macOS 10.15).
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

zoomer wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:46 am Hmmh, I have never had installed any 10.6 driver on my M1 Mini.
Shouldn't the Driver recognize that and spare Reboot ?
Driver 10.7.0 will be available for all supported versions of macOS, not just Big Sur.

As mentioned just above, we will improve the installation experience once the higher priority work is done.
rjtiedeman
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:40 pm

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by rjtiedeman »

ngomes wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:18 am
rjtiedeman wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:10 pm After restart I had issues with "ADD Device" in the control panel refusing to PAIR the device.
This is unexpected as that component (the pairing program) hasn't changed since the last beta. Something else is at play here.

Also, why did you have to pair your device after installing the new beta? Did the device not work at all after reboot? If so, check if the daemon ("3DconnexionHelper") is running and, if not, reboot once more.
I removed everything and re-installed the latest Beta driver. 1. Paring came up right away. 2. Trainer stops working at step 4 - rotate and 3. Vectorworks 2021 works for a while until rotated parts disappear into 3d space.
ngomes
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3390
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am
Contact:

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by ngomes »

rjtiedeman wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:01 pm I removed everything and re-installed the latest Beta driver. 1. Paring came up right away.
Do you mean the pairing panel came up without you explicitly opening it?
MrsspookyPooky
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2021 9:31 am

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by MrsspookyPooky »

Does anyone know if there is a new Big Sur driver coming out any time soon? I just bought a SpaceMouse Compact and I now have a blue-lit paperweight because the beta driver that's out now does not work at all for my applications. should I return this for a refund, or will there be a new driver to try?
FabLab RUC
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:18 am

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by FabLab RUC »

Today Apple dropped macOS update 11.2.1 fixing a battery related issue. I installed the update and resumed work as usual only to discover a new weirdness in relation to my already quirky CADMouse Wireless. Now the scroll wheel in a new and unstable way. If I scroll fairly slow it behaves as I would expect, but speed up and suddenly the scroll doesn't stop when your finger stop but keeps going at full speed endlessly or until the it reaches some end og page.

This is getting ridiculous! Over the last year my CADMouse went from useful tool to erratic annoyance! I don't know if this mess is Apples fault, 3DConnexions or a combination but it's a mess none the less. I should request a refund from my local dealer but since there is no hardware defects I would probably have to fight them tooth and nail to no avail. Instead I'm gonna write off my investment in 3DConnexion hardware, uninstall the buggy beta driver and find an old wired mouse in a drawer.

I hope you find solutions down the road because the current state of the interplay between your hardware and Apples OS is a painful user experience.

best regards
rjtiedeman
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:40 pm

Re: macOS Big Sur - Beta Driver Available

Post by rjtiedeman »

ngomes wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:07 pm
rjtiedeman wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:01 pm I removed everything and re-installed the latest Beta driver. 1. Paring came up right away.
Do you mean the pairing panel came up without you explicitly opening it?
When the control panel opened it was paired. I did not do anything. See screen image.
Attachments
paired.jpg
paired.jpg (99.89 KiB) Viewed 27202 times
Locked