[tbaker2500]

My business partner recently bought a 3d mouse. It's called the SpaceNavigator by 3Dconnexion. Website is 3Dconnexion : Start

I tried it out in SprutCam. It took me a few days to get used to it, but WOW. I am in love with it. It makes rotating the model so much more accurate. Very well built for $75. Just thought you guys might like to know about it.
Tom

[Scott_M]

Hi Tom

I use one too. I have had it for a couple of years now and could not imagine using my CAD or CAM without it.
In fact I wished it worked for more things, I find myself reaching for it in applications that do not support it.

It is well worth the money and makes me far more productive.
I have the big one with all the buttons. Mine is called a "Space Pilot"

I found mine used on eBay for $200.00. Some of the best money I ever spent !!!

Scott

[tbaker2500]

Question for you Scott. I find that the center of rotation for my SpaceNavigator is off the part by some distance. It appears to not be at xyz0, center of the part, OR center of the window. Do you find this as well? I'm using SC7. The options for setting center of rotation work for the mouse, but not for the 3d mouse.

[Scott_M]

Hi tbaker

I never really noticed that before. But was just playing with it and sure enough it was off.
I played a bit more and determined that If toolpath visibility in on, the center of rotation will be the center of the "envelope" including all toolpaths.
If you turn "Toolpath Visibility " off it will return to center of part rotation.

Hope that helps

Scott

[tbaker2500]

Tbaker is so formal! Just call me Tom. :-)

I've been used Sprutcam all evening, and trying to track down exactly what is happening. It certainly is never the center of the model. However, I think it might be rotating around the center of the 1100 model. I have the model display turned off, so I didn't think about it. If turn the 1100 model display on, it does look like it's rotating around the center of the machine model. Any way to disable the machine model that you know of?

[Scott_M]

Hi Tom

I just messed with it some more and my previous statement still stands.
Under "Visualizations" on the settings tab I have model center Rotation point.
If the tool path display is on it will rotate about the center of whatever is on the screen including the longest tool path ie g28 back to home.
If I turn that off it rotates on the center of the model.
If I turn on machine visibility it seems to rotate about the center of the machine.

So I guess it is rotating about the center of whatever is on the screen.

Scott

[tbaker2500]

Thanks. I spent a while longer on it today. It seems that, even when set on Model Center, it rotates somewhere slightly different. And I've been able to prove that it's different depending on what coordinate system I have selected. I often have several origins for different part flips. If I select a different one from the menu, the rotation point changes. I'm really confused. Oh well. Thanks for the help!

[Scott_M]

I wonder who we would have to pester to get a plugin for full support Sprut or 3dConnexion ?


Scott

[tbaker2500]

Sprut claims to directly support it. It's probably something in my setup I haven't figured out yet.

[tbaker2500]

Finally figured out the specifics. If I have global CS selected in the bar at the top of the screen, it will, in fact, rotate around center! I usually have several custom CS's, and have one of them selected. There is no clear rhyme or reason, but other CS selections cause weird center of rotations, but with the 3D mouse AND with a regular mouse. All this despite the system setup for rotate around part center.
So now I'm leaving the CS to global as much as I can. It's weird, it's all super easy to rotate now! :-)