[dmealer]

Hello, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a safe newyears. At work we are considering buying a connexion Spaceball 5000 to use with Mastercam. Does anyone here have any experince with it? Are they worth the price? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and have a good day!!!!

Dalen

[santiniuk]

Dalen,

Cannot comment on the Spaceball 5000 but we use the Spaceball 3003 model at work.
Software is Catia.

Although I am not a heavy user of Catia I know enough to survive. If not I have to bribe one of the cad designers to help me out

All I can say is it's like having your left arm chopped off when I have to use a cad station without the spaceball fitted. (Not all stations have them fitted)

It really does increase the efficiency of your time. I also find it less tiring on the body.

Not a lot more I can add but they are very good.

Regards

[NEATman]

I had one on my machine at work and I could never get used to it. I was working on large models in solidworks. I acually gave it to someone else in the engineering department when theirs broke. I really did try to use it as intended, but the software was flaky when working in big assemblies. Sometimes it would cause it to crash. I learned that just using hotkeys was faster for me, and more reliable. There are many other people in the department who "can't function without it" but I know that I am faster then they are (and they always come to me with questions on solidworks). One other note, for all the people who "Can't live without it", I don't know one who has shelled out the $500 to buy one for thier home computer.

Keith

[santiniuk]

$500 Ouch !

Well I certainly could not justify that expense for home use. I'm not familar with Solidworks but I understand it to be linked to Catia in some aspects.

Certainly in Catia when putting parts together as an assembly (or product) the spaceball is ideal. If you drop the compass onto a part you can position the parts quickly prior to applying the constraints.

Never had any issues related to the spaceball software that I am aware of.

I know a couple of cad designers that prefer hotkeys but I would say that overall the majority like the spaceball. I guess how well it integrates into the software for functionality is another unknown.

Cheers

[Cammotion]

I too use a Spaceball 3003 at work. I like it a lot, especially if you have make a lot of successive "picks" on geometry. They are expensive, but I found one on ebay for about $50.

That said, in the later versions of my CAD/CAM software, the mouse wheel when pressed will rotate, and when used with the control key, will pan, zoom, etc. Try all combinations of mouse buttons with either control, alt, or shift. You may find some utility there. The arrow keys sometimes work also.

Bill

[Boros]

I use the 4000 series spaceball both at home and work mainly on UG and mastercam.
I also play with Solidworks, Catia, Cimatron, Inventor and various other cad/cam systems using the 'spaceball'

I believe the only difference between the 4000 and 5000 series is USB rather then serial connection and maybe some sensitivity issues. Otherwise in functionality they are identical.

I would recommend one to anyone using a cad package. You productivity (and enjoyment both increase with the use of the spaceball.

I picked mine up off ebay for less that $100 US well over a year ago and (touch wood) it has been as good as gold. In my opinion its without a doubt worth the money even if you spend three or four times what I forked out.

One thing I must add is that the functionality under Mastercam seem to be limited as compared to other cad/cam packages. Maybe it’s just that I don’t have it setup correctly. Can someone shed some light on this for me?

Boros

[scotts333]

No Mastercam doesn't function correctly with it. Rumor I hear is that it will be corrected in "X".

[Ymryl]

Space Ball support has been implemented in X

[dmealer]

I would like to thank everyone for their help in this matter. I have purchased a new Spaceball 4000 off of ebay. When it gets here I will put it through it's paces with Mastercam and solidworks. I would like to mention the fact that I purchased what was advertized as a Spaceball 3003 on ebay. When it arrived it refused to function. I contacted Connexion's support department. Those guys are great!!!!!! After some investigating...we discovered it was actually a old spacecontroller by spacetech. Connexion bought them out years ago. Avoid these older models at all cost if you are running Win XP. Although the unit beeped as it was suppoesed to upon boot up, it will not function. The drivers are just to old for newer software. I was lucky, the lady I bought it from understood and refunded my money. Connexion's support told me that If you are in the market for a used unit, try to stick with at least a 3003 or above for newer software. Once again, their support department is great.

[dmealer]

Well, my spaceball is in and I can only say one thing....I love my spaceball. I never want to run Solidworks without it. It does ok in mastercam.

Thanks for all the help guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[santiniuk]

After a couple of weeks more than usual usage of Catia at work I can certainly say the spaceballs are superb.

I checked our models and they are only Spacetec 3003 models so quite old. Would love to try the 4000 series...

They just feel so natural to use when constraining parts together to make an assembly.

Pricey but if your using them day to day highly recommended.