Making the 3d mouse more useful

[Glenn Schroeder]

Hello,

I find my SpaceMouse Pro very useful when viewing PDF's. It's much easier to zoom in and out with it instead of using the commands and features in Adobe. However, I was mildly frustrated by the fact that the Fit button didn't work. I asked a co-worker, who has some background in IT (and is about 30 years younger than I am), about it. After just a few moments he came up with a fix. It was a while ago, but I'll try to remember the steps he took.

1. He found a keyboard shortcut in Adobe for the "Fit one page to window" command.

2. He recorded a macro of that keyboard shortcut.

3. He assigned that macro to the Fit button on my SpaceMouse Pro.

It works great, and I thought others might find it helpful (or maybe everyone else already knew about it).

[Ömür Tokman]

Hello,

I find my SpaceMouse Pro .....

I've always wondered about these mouses, I don't think the boss will buy one since they are too expensive for Turkey.

[Frederick_Law]

I bought one myself and 15 button mouse.
Looks like they got way more expensive. I believe mine was less than CAD$200.

[Frederick_Law]

Some of the buttons can be program to any key.
Good thing is the driver know which program the cursor is on and apply the correct profile/key.

[Glenn Schroeder]

I bought one myself and 15 button mouse.
Looks like they got way more expensive. I believe mine was less than CAD$200.
3DConnection-02.jpg

Amazon might not be the best place to get those. The small one is less than $150.00 and the SpaceMouse Pro is less than $300.00 directly from the manufacturer.

https://3dconnexion.com/us/product/spacemouse-compact/

https://3dconnexion.com/us/product/spacemouse-pro/

[m2shell]

Great idea to post this; With the proper settings, the 3d Mouse definitely makes it easier to use Acrobat. I solved this some time ago in Acrobat by assigning the "Fit" button to Ctrl-0 "Zoom to Page Level".

[Ry-guy]

YOu can do the same type of functions using the MS Dial and depending on the software you get different functions all together. The dial does NOT have to be on the touch screen to operate.
Here's a YouTube about a different software but they are using the dial in this case as component of the software.

[Tera]

It was a while ago, but I'll try to remember the steps he took.
1. He found a keyboard shortcut in Adobe for the "Fit one page to window" command.
2. He recorded a macro of that keyboard shortcut.
3. He assigned that macro to the Fit button on my SpaceMouse Pro.
It works great, and I thought others might find it helpful (or maybe everyone else already knew about it).

@Glenn Schroeder there's no need to use a macro.
On a pdf file, Press Menu button on your 3d Mouse, click Buttons, choose a button and press both ctrl and 0 (on number pads)
This is the end result :

2021-07-09_15-28-17.jpg (13.44 KiB) Viewed 7216 times

you will be more amazed when you use your 3D mouse in Excel, Chrome & Outlook.

[mattpeneguy]

I've always wondered about these mouses, I don't think the boss will buy one since they are too expensive for Turkey.
2021-07-05_17-46-01.png

Omur,
Tell him it's not for Turkey, it's for CAD...For the turkey, tell him to get something less expensive...Like this:

image.png (48.91 KiB) Viewed 7199 times

[mattpeneguy]

I've always wondered about these mouses, I don't think the boss will buy one since they are too expensive for Turkey.
2021-07-05_17-46-01.png

Omur,
Tell him it's not for Turkey, it's for CAD...For the turkey, tell him to get something less expensive...Like this:

image.png

Kidding aside @Ömür Tokman, you can get the smaller one for 1/3 the price. Personally I don't see a need for all the extra buttons on the "Enterprise" version. I have mouse buttons that can handle all that.

[Ömür Tokman]

Kidding aside @Ömür Tokman, you can get the smaller one for 1/3 the price. Personally I don't see a need for all the extra buttons on the "Enterprise" version. I have mouse buttons that can handle all that.

2000tl is too much for a mouse, would you give $2000 for a mouse that is small without buttons? The reason is not very important, but the dollar-Turkish lira exchange rate difference is huge.
Again, thank you very much for your kind and kind thought.

[DaveG]

2000tl is too much for a mouse, would you give $2000 for a mouse that is small without buttons? The reason is not very important, but the dollar-Turkish lira exchange rate difference is huge.
Again, thank you very much for your kind and kind thought.

You can get the SpaceExplorer on ebay from time to time for less than the price of the SpaceMouse Compact. SpaceExplorer is fairly old at this stage, but it works fine & I find it very comfortable to use.

I don't consider it to be a mouse, it is a more intuitive way of interacting with a model.

[Jim Steinmeyer]

You can get the SpaceExplorer on ebay from time to time for less than the price of the SpaceMouse Compact. SpaceExplorer is fairly old at this stage, but it works fine & I find it very comfortable to use.

I don't consider it to be a mouse, it is a more intuitive way of interacting with a model.

There are two of them there now for right at $100. Not a bad price.

[Glenn Schroeder]

I just remembered another one. The same co-worker who helped me set up the Fit button to work with PDF's also suggested re-assigning the Alt button to Delete in SW. Since I almost never used it before I decided to give it a try, and I really like it.

[CADNurd]

I have the 2-button wired compact version. Probably not as stable-on-the-table as the more expensive version, but I solved that (and saved myself €100) by sticking it down with a few balls of blu-tack.

My 2 buttons are assigned as LEFT = S Key Shortcut Menu . . . and RIGHT = CTRL KEY.

This, combined with a cheap-generic vertical mouse solved all my RSI issues. Wouldn't be able to do CAD without them.

[kawuser]

I have the 2-button wired compact version. Probably not as stable-on-the-table as the more expensive version, but I solved that (and saved myself €100) by sticking it down with a few balls of blu-tack.

My 2 buttons are assigned as LEFT = S Key Shortcut Menu . . . and RIGHT = CTRL KEY.

How did you setup the left button for the S key shortcut?

[CADNurd]

How did you setup the left button for the S key shortcut?

Had to go back and check. Had forgotten, it was so long ago [see screenshot attached]. First thing is to make sure you have a SolidWorks 'Part' file open, then it was just recording a macro (yes, you can do that) containing just a single press of the 's' key.

You might also consider changing the right button to 'Add Mate' when an assembly file is running.

[Jaylin Hochstetler]

Screenshot 2021-08-02 210848.png

Had to go back and check. Had forgotten, it was so long ago [see screenshot attached]. First thing is to make sure you have a SolidWorks 'Part' file open, then it was just recording a macro (yes, you can do that) containing just a single press of the 's' key.

You might also consider changing the right button to 'Add Mate' when an assembly file is running.

You don't have to make a macro you can simply type the shortcut in the box.

[CADNurd]

You don't have to make a macro you can simply type the shortcut in the box.
image.png

Cool. That might have been how I did it originally. That method seems to create the macro for you automatically, but it is still a macro, just auto-generated.

[Glenn Schroeder]

Great idea to post this; With the proper settings, the 3d Mouse definitely makes it easier to use Acrobat. I solved this some time ago in Acrobat by assigning the "Fit" button to Ctrl-0 "Zoom to Page Level".

Thank you. Earlier this morning Adobe spazzed out on me and I had to log into it (I don't remember ever needing to do that before). When I finally got that done my SpaceMouse Pro didn't work with pdf's at all. I couldn't use the Fit button, or use the knob to zoom in and out.

I couldn't remember how restore those settings, but a Google search took me to this discussion (that I, of course, started and then forgot about). After seeing your response with the information highlighted above I tried that. Not only did it make the Fit button work again, the zooming in and out did also.