Hi Michael,
a while back I came across this, on the topic of a "3D Gizmo", and noticing the current thread I thought you'd enjoy knowing about it, and possibly comparing it to what's ahead in v2's plans.

The first link is there simply as general FYI; please, take special note on the second, at the bottom portion of the page under the heading "Publications", there's a reference to the Kite Geometry Manipulator:

http://www.ds.arch.tue.nl/Research/Projects/E3DAD/
http://www.win.tue.nl/~spranovi/research.htm

Cheers,

- Diego -