Customizing the mouse cursor?

[Nebur98]

Hi,

is there a way to change the shape of the mouse cursor in NX7? I had a look at the various settings but so far I only found option to change the radius of the cursor.
I would love to have an arrow shape instead of the reticle.

Cheers
Nebur

 

[cowski]

I'm not sure that you will want to change it even if you could. Some of the older functions give different results depending on where you select entities within the circle (eg simple fillet and trim corner).

 

[JohnRBaker]

Cowski is right, the shape and size of the cursor provides visual feedback showing the 'pick circle' where object selection takes place. While technically we could replace the graphic used for the cursor, without the 'circle' you would NOT be getting any feedback and eventually you'd start to lose productivity as the lack of this feedback started to degrade the precision of the your selections.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Nebur98]

Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still new to nx and find it difficult to select small objects because they are mostly covered by the beefy cursor (e.g. points in the sketcher). I know, using the selection filter solves the problem but initially it seems complicated (at least for an nx newbie).

Whatever, I was hoping that there would be other cursor shapes available. The question is answered. Thanks!

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that you can change the SIZE of the 'selection ball' by going to...

Preferences -> Selection...

...and expand the 'Cursor' section of the dialog where you can choose from 3 different sizes for the 'Selection Radius' as well as add 'Crosshairs' (but be warned, using full Crosshairs can impact the dynamic performance when moving the cursor).

BTW, to make selection work perhaps a little better for you, while you're in the Selection Preference dialog, in the 'QuickPick' section, toggle OFF the 'QuickPick on Delay' option. You will no longer automatically go into the QuickPick mode (... are displayed) unless YOU hold down MB1 for longer then approximately 0.5 seconds. I much prefer to ONLY have QuickPick come up WHEN I WANT IT TO, not when the system decides to invoke it.

Anyway, give this a try and see what you think.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Nebur98]

Thanks for the tips. I already played around with the different radius settings. The thing is that I'm used to a "sharp" cursor instead of the circle. I'm sure with some more time it will feel more natural, still I think that the arrow I'm used from other CAx is easier to use simply because you don't cover the point you want to click with the cursor.

Turning off the auto quick pick was one of the first things I made, at least for an beginner that needs to take some time thinking what he's picking it is a real annoyance.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Even for a power-user I don't like the automatic nature of this feature, although from a User Interface design point-of-view, it does make it very 'discoverable' (the current $64 word in the realm of software development).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Nebur98]

In the end I have now the arrow cursors I wanted. I was able to locate the cursors in the file windowsui.dll and changed all cursors that seemed to correspond to the "small radius" cursor group with my own versions. The dynamic behaviour of the cursor is still there.

In case anybody wants to play with it:
I added an attachment with a patch programm that applies the changes to the windowsui.dll. The file is in the intallation folder in \UGS\NX 7.0\UGII\. You need to remove the write protection from the file before running the patch and it would be wise to copy the orginal file before so you can easyly go back to the original file.

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Nebur98,

I removed the write file protection then I tried your patch programm and I have got the following message (see attachment file)

any Idea ?

Regards

Didier

 

[Nebur98]

Hi Didier,

well, the error message says it all. You have another version of the file installed, so the patch refuses to modify the file. I made the patch based on NX7 32bit 7.0.0.9 with MP2 installed. It works only on exactly the same original dll.

Cheers
Nebur

 

[PSI-CAD]

Hi Nebur,

Ok, it works now after installing NX7.0.0.9 MP02.

My first impression is that I like the small cursor appearance.

I understand that you need to developped a new programm for each Nx patch ???

Regards

Didier

 

[Nebur98]

Hi Didier,

happy to hear you like it.
And yes, most likely you would need a different patch programm for every version of NX assuming that the affected dll changes.

I still hope that a later NX version might gives us more options regarding the cursor style and the "selection ball" radius.

cheers
nebur