Hello,

I've got a 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator which I use on a daily basis in many apps like CATIA and Fusion 360.

The 3d mouse should also work in MoI (I use v3 and the latest v4), but it doesn't. Navigating with it in the 2d views is absolutely fine, but the 3d view can't be navigated properly. There the behavior of the 3d mouse is very strange. And it's very hard to explain. It's a bit like that MoI can't control more than two degrees of freedom. The behavior is totally different to any of my other CAD apps. I tried every 3d mouse-related setting in MoI, but no change. I also tried different driver versions of the 3d mouse. Actually, the navigation is unusable for me in this current state. :-(

Is anyone here who experiences the same problem?

Hi 3image, I have one over here that doesn't behave like that.

Does it behave odd with just one particular model? What happens if you use it on a totally blank MoI that you just start up?

You might try changing the 3D view to a parallel projection instead of the default perspective. You can do that under Options > View > "3D view projection". Zooming in a perspective view can be awkward due to the non-linear nature of perspective foreshortening.

If a parallel view is more controllable for you, you can make the default on initial start up by saving a .3dm file with it set as parallel and then using that as the startup template file under Options > General > "Template file".

- Michael

You also might try the option under Options > "Rotate/Pan/Zoom options" > "Rotation style" (at the top of the dialog). Try setting Rotation style: Free rotation and see if that is better for you.

By default the rotation is "Rotate around world z axis" which does indeed constrain movement to keep the "up" direction along the world z axis which acts more like you're moving around a table observing things.

- Michael

Hello Michael,

>Does it behave odd with just one particular model?

No, unfortunately not. Actually, I've got two 3D mice, one SpaceMouse Wireless and one SpaceMouse Enterprise (of course on different PCs, haha), but I tested both with MoI, and the behavior is the same.

>What happens if you use it on a totally blank MoI that you just start up?

No difference.

>You also might try the option under Options > "Rotate/Pan/Zoom options" > "Rotation style" (at the top of the dialog). Try setting Rotation style: Free rotation and see if that is better for you.

Not much better. Thing is, I work with both my 3D mouse and keyboard shortcuts to control the camera. I like "free rotation" more for work with my 3D mouse, and "rotate around z world axis" for when I navigate with keyboard shortcuts. Sadly, this setting is only global. Michael, maybe you can add a certain rotation style setting to 3D mouse setting for final v4?

These are my current settings (free rotation):

MoI:


3Dc driver:


These are my current settings (rotate around z world axis):

MoI:


3Dc driver:


Better than before, but all in all it still feels kinda quirky and not so much natural as in e. g. Fusion 360.

As always, thanks for your help, Michael.

Hi 3image, sorry it's not working well for you. Unfortunately that's a kind of unusual method you're using with combining keyboard shortcuts in some instances and SpaceMouse in other instances. I think it could get kind of complicated to have individual settings rather than a global setting for the navigation behavior so I'm sorry it's not likely to happen for v4.

Did you also experiment with setting the 3D view projection to parallel to see if that helps any?

- Michael

>Did you also experiment with setting the 3D view projection to parallel to see if that helps any?

Unfortunately, it didn't help that much. Anyways, I like the parallel projection in MoI, that's why it's my new standard projection now. :-)

I'm curious. Is there a reason, why we have to work with a start-up file to change the projection to parallel permanently?

Hi 3image,

re:
> I'm curious. Is there a reason, why we have to work with a start-up file to change
> the projection to parallel permanently?

It's because that is something stored and read from 3dm model files, it's not a global setting.

- Michael