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I had told you before, quite a few days ago, that I was anxiously waiting for the arrival of a demo unit of 3DConnexion’s new SpacePilot PRO. Well, it arrived a couple of days after I wrote that post, and I’ve been playing with it ever since, trying to find out if it’s all I was hoping it would be. Unfortunately for me, I ran into some trouble and so it was that this particular hardware review almost wasn’t. But I’ll tell you all about that in just a few more minutes.

First, let me tell you about the very first thing that caught my eye ever since the moment I saw the unit at that meeting in Orlando.  Well, it’s actually the second thing, because the first one really was the fact that the whole unit seems to be more ergonomic and comfortable to use, a real relief, actually, for those of us that have suffered or still suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. Anyway, let me tell you a bit about the LCD workflow assistant. This is a small LCD full-color screen located at the top of the unit, and it displays visual feedback about the function keys, navigation settings keys, and other information, such as email, rss feeds, important tasks, and calendar. It certainly is attractive, but is it also useful? Well, let’s see… My favorite, of course, is the applet that provides information about the function keys, quick navigation keys and navigation settings in the SpacePilot PRO. It is very convenient to get information on what commands your different keys are mapping to, and the LCD color screen is also easier on the eyes than the little screen on the old SpacePilot.

 

I’m not so thrilled about the Microsoft Outlook email applet, though. The way it is right now, it allows you to see your incoming email, but you can only see email that has arrived to your Inbox, not to any other folders, not even to those under the Inbox folder, and you also still need to have Outlook opened in the background for it to work. The same applies to the Outlook Calendar and Outlook Tasks applets.  The RSS feeds, however, has proven useful to me in the last few days. Basically, it allows you to receive short excerpts of rss feeds of your choice (the news, a blog, Twitter search), find one that interests you, move to it with the arrows, click OK, and read it on your computer screen. You don’t need to have anything opened in the background for this one to work. I’ve been using it to keep track of the development of the Swine flu in my country of birth, Mexico, while working on something else in my computer. Really useful!  

I know, it may seem like this little LCD screen is more bells and whistles, but the really exciting thing about it is that it doesn’t necessarily end here, just with these few default applets. Actually, since it is based on open software architecture, it is possible to create custom made applets for many different purposes. While at the meeting, we were talking about the possibility of having, for instance, SolidWorks tips and tricks delivered to that little screen, or perhaps a small video tutorial, or even a SolidJott applet, why not? The possibilities are endless!

The 3DConnexion cap, the heart of this 3D mouse, works pretty much the same way as it did in the SpacePilot, but, I don’t know if it is my imagination or what, I think it is somehow more sensitive in the SpacePilot PRO than it was before. Perhaps it’s only that the whole unit feels a lot more comfortable on the wrist? Could be.

The Navigation Settings Keys are not so different from what was already available in the SpacePilot PRO. They basically allow you to restrict navigation, to avoid, for instance, rotating the part (turn rotation off) or zooming and panning (turn translations off).  These can prove very useful depending on what kind of work you’re doing; perhaps you just need to rotate the part to select entities from it, for instance. In this case, turning translations off would do the trick.

The quick navigation keys have also been revamped when compared to the old SpacePilot. Now you have five keys, of which three of them enable you to select six standard views of the model (top, front, right, left, bottom and back) by means of a short and long press mode. You push for a short time, you get the top view, you push for a longer time and you get the bottom view. You also have two isometric views, and a button that rotates the model in increments of 90 degrees around an axis normal to the screen.  The Fit button is still there, you help you fit the model to the screen, in case you get lost while zooming or panning.

And now let me tell you about those Function Keys. These keys are by default mapped to ten different SolidWorks commands, relevant to the kind of document you open. There are three default configurations of keys, one for parts, one for assemblies and one for drawings, but you can create your own configurations by mapping the buttons. This is probably what excited me the most about the SpacePilot PRO, and sadly, the one thing about it that gave me tons of trouble just to get it to work properly. You see, according to the description of the product, and what I saw during the meeting in Orlando, I was expecting to be able to use these five little buttons to program the SpacePilot PRO by mapping different commands to each button and then saving my particular arrangement as a configuration for later use. It is an exciting thing not only because now I have more buttons available (these ones also work with short and long press like the quick navigation keys), but also because I can save an endless number of different configurations of keys, and even map other keys in the SpacePilot PRO, and program my own macros for each configuration, as well, by using the custom functions option available through the 3DConnexion Control Panel under the button configuration tab.

That sounds really good, only when I tried mapping buttons and saving configurations of keys to use with SolidWorks, my configurations kept changing back to the default values, or I would see strange behavior, such as seeing in the LCD display that the command Offset Faces was mapped to button 4 in the SpacePilot, then pushing button 4 and having Shell execute instead. At some point, I managed to save quite a few configurations for the SpacePilot PRO to use with SolidWorks, but I could only change from one to the other by first closing SolidWorks, then opening it again and selecting the new configuration from the 3DConnexion control panel before opening any document.  

After struggling for quite some time, I decided to seek for advice from their tech support. I can’t complain because they were quick to answer my requests, gave me great attention, and plenty of ideas on what could be wrong and how to fix it.  I was told that perhaps a file was corrupted, in particular because I had a SpacePilot for this machine before and I had installed on top of that, without uninstalling the other one first. Then they advised me to uninstall the software that accompanies the SpacePilot PRO, clean the registries and other tidbits of files left behind, and do a new, clean installation of it. I did just that… several times, actually… With each uninstall/install cycle, I was finding more and more little tidbits that had been left behind, scattered in different places of my hard drive and that could very well be the reason for my problems. I was also finding more quirky behavior from the SpacePilot PRO. At some point during this process, the LCD stopped working and would only display an image of the SpacePilot PRO, even when the buttons were still working. I was beginning to think that I had received the one demo unit that happened to be defective, but it was then that I learned that Jeff Mirisola had experienced similar issues with his demo unit, as well. He helped me out in making sure that I was really doing a clean installation this time around and thanks to him the SpacePilot PRO worked again and I was able to map the function keys one more time.  Still, I continue to obtain strange results when trying to save configurations of function keys.

I’m still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. I tried the SpacePilot PRO with Photoshop and didn’t have these problems at all when creating configurations for function keys. I’ve been told by 3DConnexion’s tech support that the SpacePilot PRO has been extensively tested and has been observed to work properly with SolidWorks, still they realize that it’s brand new and don’t deny the possibility of some issue arising; that’s why they really appreciate the feedback. Personally, I wonder about the possibility of a little bug in the software that may affect the way the 3D mouse interacts with SolidWorks, specially because it didn’t just happened to me. If that’s the case, I’m sure it can be fixed with a new version of the driver or a patch or some kind.

Even with all my struggles to make those function keys work, I still consider this new SpacePilot PRO an awesome 3D mouse, powerful, comfortable like nothing else, and full of potential. My only other huge disappointment: it won’t work with PhotoView 360! How come? Well, maybe soon… In the meantime, I’ll continue exploring this unit, just in case there’s something else, something really great  I still haven’t found out about it.

OK, so this is one of those really cool things about being a blogger and attending an event such as SolidWorks World as “press”: you get to see all these awesome new gadgets before they’re made available to the public or even announced.  The hard part is that you have to keep it a secret, and you can’t tell a single soul (not even your aunt Gladys if you have one) about all the wonders you’ve witnessed until after the formal announcement has been made. That’s tough!

Fortunately for me, there’s no more need to keep quiet. The secret’s out!  And take a look at it. This is the newest and most powerful 3D mouse that anyone has ever come up with and I got to see it in action (and even play with it a bit) back in February, during a meeting I had with the folks from 3DConnexion, while at SolidWorks World  2009, in Orlando.

Like I said before, I got to try one of these for a bit while at the meeting, but it was for only such a brief moment that I’m literally dying to get my hands on one of these units again to test it more thoroughly… all in the name of CAD and science, of course, and always keeping my readers’ best interest in mind. OK, I confess, I fell in love with it since the moment I laid eyes on it!

Until then, I leave you with the information from the press release and a handsome picture for your enjoyment.  For more information on this and other 3D mice from 3DConnexion, visit their website at www.3Dconnexion.com

 

3Dconnexion Launches Its Most Powerful 3D Mouse Ever: the SpacePilot PRO

 

Integrated Color LCD Workflow Assistant, QuickView Navigation Technology, and Intelligent Function Keys Save Time and Reduce Interruptions

 

FREMONT, Calif. – April 16, 2009 – To meet the rigorous demands of design engineers working in powerful 3D applications, 3Dconnexion today announced the new SpacePilot™ PRO. The company’s flagship 3D mouse is designed to deliver advanced control of 3D models, easier access to the power of professional 3D applications, fewer interruptions in the design workflow, and superior comfort. Specifically, the SpacePilot PRO features a new color LCD Workflow Assistant, second-generation QuickView Navigation technology, Intelligent Function keys, and an improved design for enhanced comfort and control.

 

“3Dconnexion’s 3D mice have rewritten the rules on the way design engineers and professionals interact with 3D environments,” said Dieter Neujahr, president of 3Dconnexion. “Our new SpacePilot PRO builds on our market-leading industry experience, delivering the most powerful 3D mouse we’ve ever made. It enables increased performance that ultimately results in better designs, created in less time.”

 

The SpacePilot PRO 3D mouse provides the highest level of performance features ever available from 3Dconnexion, including:

 

-      LCD Workflow Assistant: The color LCD lists function-key assignments and provides at-a-glance access to Microsoft^® Outlook^® e-mail, calendar and task lists, allowing professionals to access important information for a fully integrated design experience with fewer distractions. Through 3Dconnexion’s open software architecture, the workflow assistant can be further customized to meet the needs of individuals, companies and software vendors.

 

-      Advanced MCAD Navigation: Five new dual-function QuickView Navigation keys
improve error detection, design review, and design presentation by providing one-touch access to the following views: top and bottom, right and left, front and back, two isometric views, and 90-degree view rotation of any view either clockwise or counter-clockwise – for a total of 32 views. A short press activates a key’s primary view command, while pressing and holding a key activates a secondary view command. In addition, new Navigation Setting keys offer simplified and customizable control, allowing professionals to turn pan-and-zoom, rotation and one-axis control on or off, making it easier to define navigation settings for certain work modes.

 

-      Intelligent Function Keys: Five new fully customizable, dual-function keys offer immediate, one-touch access to 10 frequently used commands within any supported 3D application. The SpacePilot PRO automatically detects the active application and assigns appropriate function keys – whether default or customized. The color LCD denotes the function key assignments and application mode so engineers can easily identify commands and design states.

 

-      Superior Comfort: The SpacePilot PRO has a new sculpted, soft-coated wrist rest that positions the hand in relation to the controller cap to support a balanced workflow. The micro-precision six-degrees-of-freedom sensor allows for fingertip control with minimal effort from the arm, wrist and hand, while frequently used commands are conveniently positioned at your fingertips. The intuitive and symmetrical layout of the function keys makes the device usable with either hand.

 

About 3Dconnexion 3D Mice

Unlike traditional mice confined to motion on one flat plane, 3Dconnexion 3D mice enable design engineers to move in all three dimensions simultaneously, using six-degrees–of-freedom sensor technology. By gently lifting, pressing and turning the controller cap, design engineers can easily pan, zoom and rotate without stopping to select commands. Using a 3D mouse together with a traditional mouse engages both hands into a balanced and cooperative work style.

 

3Dconnexion provides advanced and affordable 3D mice that are supported by more than 130 of today’s leading and powerful 3D applications, including Autodesk Inventor^TM, SolidWorks^TM, CATIA^TM, Pro/ENGINEER^TM, NX^TM and Solid Edge^TM. For a complete list of applications supported by 3Dconnexion, visit www.3dconnexion.com/solutions.

 

Compatibility, Pricing and Availability

The SpacePilot PRO is backed by a three-year warranty, and is currently available at a suggested retail price of $499. The SpacePilot PRO is supported by Windows XP, Windows Vista^®, Sun Solaris 8 (SPARC), Sun Solaris 10 (x86), and Linux^® (Redhat Enterprise Linux WS 4, SuSE 9.3 or later). Linux and Solaris support workflow assistant function key assignments only.

 

The entire 3Dconnexion product line, including the Professional Series with the SpacePilot™ (MSRP $399) and SpaceExplorer™ (MSRP $299), and the Standard Series with the SpaceNavigator (MSRP $99) and SpaceNavigator for Notebooks (MSRP $129), are available from professional CAD resellers and major online resellers including CDW, Insight, PC Connection, and PC Mall. For a complete list of resellers or to buy directly, visit www.3Dconnexion.com.

 

About 3Dconnexion, a Logitech Company
3Dconnexion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI), is the leading provider of 3D mice for 3D design and visualization. 3Dconnexion devices support today’s most popular and powerful 3D applications by offering users a more intuitive and natural way to interact with computer-generated 3D content. 3Dconnexion’s award-winning 3D mice serve a wide variety of industries and are used by 3D designers, animators and artists worldwide. 3Dconnexion is headquartered in Fremont, Calif. with European headquarters in Seefeld, Germany and offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.3Dconnexion.com.

This is really a post that began a few weeks ago, when I was kindly given the opportunity of trying out one of 3DConnexion’s new 3D mice for SolidWorks 2009, the SpacePilot. For those of you that haven’t heard of it or don’t know what the big deal of a 3D mouse is, this device allows you to manipulate 3D models and scenes using six degrees of freedom, which is practically impossible to do using an ordinary mouse.   I must confess that I was curious about it, given that I had heard so many people talking about  the benefits of having one these, how much easier and faster it was working with it when compared to  an ordinary mouse, etc., so I was very excited when the opportunity came for me to finally try one.

After plugging in the device and installing the software, I was a bit overwhelmed reading the instructions on how to use the SpacePilot to manipulate parts and assemblies in SolidWorks.  I tried the mouse first on a 360° image that is provided as a practice example, but panning and tilting didn’t seem to go according to how the instructions said it would be.  I was beginning to wonder if I had done something wrong, but when I finally opened SolidWorks 2009 it all became clear to me, as I realized that the instructions referred more specifically to how to use the 3D mouse inside SolidWorks 2009.

The SpacePilot is fully integrated with SolidWorks 2009. As soon as I opened SolidWorks, a welcome message showed up in a window, and more instructions on how to use and configure the unit were also provided. 

A new toolbar had also been added on top of the command manager.

An extra menu, 3D Control, in between Tools and Window menus, was added as well, and a small icon in my systems tray, from which I can access the 3DConnexion Control Panel to configure the device for preferences on speed, buttons, which movement in the mouse (the cap part of the 3D mouse) you want to associate with zooming, etc. I can also obtain help from here.

Moving and rotating objects using the Spacepilot takes some time getting used to, especially when you are right-handed, like me, and are not used to operating anything with your left hand, but once you do, you don’t seem to notice it anymore. It blends so nicely into SolidWorks 2009 and the control and precision you have with this device is certainly something I didn’t think possible. Plus, you still have the use of your 2D mouse for other design operations. It was hard to envision working with both at the same time, but it really doesn’t take that long to get used to it.

It’s amazing how sensitive to the sligthless movement of your hand this device is and how fast and smooth the movement of parts and assemblies can become when you use one of this. No more “hiccups”, like with an ordinary 2D mouse!  Push the cap a bit and your part or assembly pans down, pull it and it pans up,  tilt a bit and the part rotates, twist it and the part spins. In the beginning, I found the device was at times a bit too sensitive for me, so it was very convenient that the sensitivity can be decreased using one of those buttons in the toolbar. I found that by doing this it was a lot easier to get used to it. You can also configure the device in order to limit the rotation to only one dominant axis or disable zoom or pan, thus facilitating the use of the 3D mouse even further.  So far, I haven’t done that, although I realize it may be convenient at certain times.

There are a couple of things that I particularly like about the SpacePilot. One of them is that you can easily select a point in your model (like a vertex or the center of a circular face or edge) and rotate the model about that point, or you can also select an edge, a line in a sketch or a temporary axis and designate it as the new axis of rotation for the part or assembly simply by using the buttons in the toolbar. I don’t know about you, but I find it tremendously helpful to be able to select any axis, line or edge on my model and be able to rotate the model exclusively about that axis.

My second favorite (although not necessarily in that order) is the programmable buttons that come with it. Button Mapping, as they call it. This SpacePilot has six different buttons that can be associated with macros that match your keyboard shortcuts or with practically any command available in SolidWorks as easy as dragging and dropping from a list to each of the buttons in the Button Mapping Panel (access this panel by clicking on the icon in the toolbar).  I know a lot of people love their hotkeys and shortcuts. I don’t usually use them, because I have an awful memory for remembering them. I would probably need a list of them pasted right next to my computer and then look for the one I need in that list… and that would defeat the whole purpose of the shortcut keys altogether. This device makes it a lot simpler, just programming a few buttons with some of your most commonly used commands and macros, and their names always get to appear in the SpacePilot’s LCD screen, to remind you what each button is for.  I know what you’re thinking, six buttons isn’t really that much. Perhaps not, but you can create (and save) multiple configurations, each with six different commands and/or macros, if you wish.

 

Another neat thing of this device is that, when working with assemblies, you can toggle between manipulating the whole assembly and manipulating only a part or component in the assembly, simply by pressing a button in the toolbar. If you are moving a part in the assembly, the rest of the assembly remains anchored in place. When you are done, simply toggle back to moving the whole assembly. Really nice! Oh, and it can also detect collisions between parts and components while rotating them, although I still struggle manipulating the component of the assembly when this option is turned on. I find that the movement is not as smooth, even when I don’t select the option to stop the movement when collision is detected.

So, as far as I’m concerned, everything I heard about it was true. The praises were all for very good reason. This is an extremely useful device for anyone that works with SolidWorks. Sure, it’s also fun with Google Earth, but in integrates so beautifully, that it seems as if it had been especially made for SolidWorks. It really makes your life easier, but be careful because once you try one of these, you get hooked, and you really don’t feel like going back to 2D mouse and keyboard ever again!

For more information on the 3DConnexion products, visit their web site located at www.3dconnexion.com