Spaceballs (3d mouse) 4

[Jakek]

Are you using a 3D mouse/spaceball?

Why?/Why not?

Thanx for the input.

 

[TateJ]

Jakek (Mechanical) 7 Jul 05 13:13
Are you using a 3D mouse/spaceball?

Yes...

Why?/Why not?

Because it's just so darn cool!


And because of all the other stuff too.



SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[ctopher]

I have not tried Spaceball yet. Soon.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[TateJ]

Call your VAR & ask if they can loan you one for 30 days. Tell hem you'll pass it around for others to try also. It'll give you a chance to try one out & maybe - if enough folks like it - your boss might be pressured into supplying them for everybody... It could happen.

SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 /SpaceBall 400 FLX / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer / Windows 2000 Professional

 

[smcadman]

I have the Spaceball 5000 USB and it's highly recommended. The price is a little steep, but if you (or a friend) is a student, you can save $300 with the acedmic price. Another user here saved $200 on the Space Pilot with the academic price.

http://www.journeyed.com/department.asp?DID=3dconnexion&SKW=3dconnexion

Flores

 

[KPKenny]

After looking in the 3Dxware help, I found that Office is only supported for the USB versions -not the serial versions-of the spaceball 4000/5000-maybe that applies to IE also.

I have a serial spaceball 4000FLX and love it! I've had it for 4 years. I find it much easier to navigate Solidworks than using the mouse and keyboard. I use it for both 3D modeling and 2D detailing. It also works great in Acad, though I wish it would work in IE or Office.

Kevin

 

[mreader]

I have a CadMan that will continue to rotate after I've let go. a 'Zoom To Fit' corrects it, although temporarily. I've contacted support previously and had no solution at the time. Time to try again.



ewh,

Does your model just start rotating for no good reason? I had this happen and tweaked and updated my drivers to no avail. I called 3dConnexions and they emailed me a new firmware update for the 5000. They said some of the first 5000's would rotate part's with no input from the user.

Scorch

 

[ajack1]

Once you have used one you would never willingly be without it. If it is your own money you can now get 4000 series on ebay for a buy now price of $115, if it is your bosses money or you are feeling flush consider getting a 5000 series with USB.

If you contract it will pay for itself inside a month or two.

 

[ctopher]

thanks Tatej.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[PlasticFantastic]

I have a SpaceBall 5000 that sits like a $500 piece of art on my desk. I have tried and tried to be productive on it. I have followed engineers who use them to examine the work-flow. Nothing.. For some reason I cannot beat the speed of the keyboard and Wacom pad. Granted I cannot zoom and pan at the same time but my work-flow does not suffer. Perhaps my muscle memory is used to years of working CAD with a keyboard and mouse/wacom stylus. The only reason I keep it connected is that my managers can stand behind me and intuitively swirl around the mouse from their vantage point. This is one advantage of the Spaceball- you dont have to take the drivers seat to effectively view the model

 

[TateJ]

It took me a week or 2 to get the hang of it. I was motivated to make it work - but I was still clumsy with it. The best tip I can give you is to make good use of setting the center of rotation as you work. It's a real pain to try to zoom in on an extremity when the center of rotation is still set to the 0,0,0 origin. Program that feature into one of the buttons. Give it one more try... $500 is a lot to pay for a knick-knack.

SolidWorks 2005 SP03.0 SpaceBall 400 FLX Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer Windows 2000 Professional

 

[rodentx]

Can anyone recommend a good 3D mouse for Mac (primarily for use with Cinema 4D). I believe Spaceball 5000 does not support Macs / OS X.

Thanks!

 

[LOKi42]

yes becasue all the cool kids are doing it

 

[jaycee07]

Need help here guys,
Trying to get hold of an older verion of the software for the 4000 FLX spaceball. 3dconnexion software doesnt load and I am getting a load error.

Any ideas ??

Jaycee

 

[SBaugh]

Have you done a google search for any drivers yet? you should start there.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[jaycee07]

Sbaugh
Been down that road and the latest drivers dont seem to download correctly from "3dconnexion". I end up with an error fault during the install phase.

I am trying to locate the older driver for a 4000 FLX series spaceball.

 

[SBaugh]

There are Driver sites out there. One used to be

http://www.drivers.com

and they had many old drivers for old video cards, devices such as that and many other things. That's why I suggested Google, because

http://www.drivers.com

didn't work last time I checked.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[TateJ]

jaycee07
Need help here guys,
Trying to get hold of an older verion of the software for the 4000 FLX spaceball.

I have these 3 drivers still: v1-3-0, v2-2-4 & v2-3-4

I don't know how to get them to you though... I don't think there's a PM funcion here & we're not supposed to post e-mail addresses. If you can figure out how - I'll hook you up.

Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2005 SP04.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Lava Lamp​

 

[jaycee07]

Thanks guys,
Problem solved - for older Serial spaceballs ie: FX4000 serial etc, you need 3DxWare_3.6.4_win_reg.exe.
This is not at the normal sites and you need to search hard.

Thanks again

 

[TateJ]

I'm using a 4000FLX (serial) & running the latest drivers (3DxSoftware_v2-3-4_win32.exe) with no problems.
Where'd you get such an idea & where'd you find those drivers?

Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2005 SP04.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Lava Lamp​

 

[JamesBarlow]

Currently using a 4000 and I could not imagine working without one.

I started out with a 2000, at least that's what I think it was. I wasn't sure at first so I looked around for the cheapest one I could find. I paid about $20 on ebay for and used it for several years. I gave it another engineer when I got my 4000, which was also from ebay for $100, and he also can't imagine using SW without it.

Since they are so cheap on ebay, and readily available, you should just get one and see. Worst case your out $20, and best case your more productive then before.

For those who are looking for older drivers you can also try IBM and HP sites. I think 3D connexion makes all the units but they are marketed and sold by IBM and HP as well. I found the drive for my 2000 at IBM that still has all the older drives.