3Dconnexion's SpaceMouse, CadMouse & Packed Pixel Combo

[Mike Lucey]

Hi Guys,

I'm getting quite a few comments, all good, about my home laptop setup so I thought I'd take a pic and post here.

3Dconnexion SpaceMouse, CadMouse & Packed Pixel Setup.png

As you can see I'm on a 15" MBPR and I am using 3Dconnexion's SpaceMouse on the left and CadMouse on the right. The extra screen real estate is being provided by two Packed Pixels, one horizontal and the other vertical.

The setup works well for me particularly when 3D-ing. The CadMouse has become a natural extension to my right hand. Initially I was slightly skeptical about the full palm on position as I had been used to working with a smaller mouse which I operated using a pencil grip but I now find that even after hours working with the CadMouse my hand does not suffer the finger / wrist cramps as I was getting with the smaller mouse.

The SpaceMouse works well with the CadMouse and operating the two in unisons takes no more than a few minutes to get used to. The combo's resulting ease of 3D positioning and creation has really speeded things up for me and no finger / wrist fatigue is definitely an added bonus.

SpaceMouse & CadMouse being operated.png

The only niggle I have with my current overall setup is that there is a lot of wires involved. The SpaceMouse is a Wireless version so no problem there. The CadMouse as yet is only available in wired mode but I believe they are working on a wireless model. The Packed Pixels require Thunderbolt / Display Port and UBS connections for each unit. I think a lightweight and possibly portable docking station would tidy things up. I'll keep you posted.

There is a 20% discount for all SketchUcation members on 3Dconnexion devices. Details may be had here, http://sketchucation.com/resources/3dco ... -resources and if you are feeling lucky you could win a 3Dconnexion device by becoming a SketchUcation Premium Member (link below).

I am also talking to the Packed Pixel guys about discount for our members and expect to have details in a week or so. I will post details on this thread. In the meantime if you can't wait, Pack Pixels may be found here, Packed Pixels

Mike

[Mike Lucey]

.... nearly forgot! The fifth part of the combo is the CadMouse Pad.

3Dconnexion CadMouse Pad.jpg

Not all mouse pads are equal! I find the CadMouse Pad to be the smoothest I have used so far, probably due to the 'high-quality micro-textured coating'

[Box]

An excellent writeup Mike.
I can't be without mine now.
But 3dconnexion need to do something about the rest of the world sales.
There was no option to buy from them, and get the discount, for me in Australia or South east asia when I bought mine.
Which makes them very expensive in this part of the world.

[Mike Lucey]

An excellent writeup Mike.
I can't be without mine now.
But 3dconnexion need to do something about the rest of the world sales.
There was no option to buy from them, and get the discount, for me in Australia or South east asia when I bought mine.
Which makes them very expensive in this part of the world.

Thanks Box. The setup pics don't have the expert photographer touch but at least it shows things as they are in the 'real world'.

That's a bummer about not getting the discount in Oz. I'll email the 3Dconnexion guys and see if there is anything that can be done on this.

Mike

[Box]

Thanks Mike but its not about me and one discount, it's the huge market out here that they seem to be ignoring.

[Mike Lucey]

Box, I've emailed John at 3Dconnexion and will report back on anything he advises.

[Mike Lucey]

I've had an update from Matt at Packed Pixels and he advises that they are launching a new design in c couple of weeks and at this time we will have a discount Promo Code for Premium Members.

[mo53ley]

Thanks Mike but its not about me and one discount, it's the huge market out here that they seem to be ignoring.

Hi guys, John from 3Dconnexion here. We're not ignoring Australia / SE Asia but we don't have resources to put someone in place there yet (including a webshop operation). Our first webshop outside Europe / US will open in Japan soon.

One of my colleagues (UK based) is responsible for most of our "emerging markets" (basically anything outside Europe and the US). This includes Australia and he tells me we have a couple of really good resellers over there (Digital3D and LEAP).

Kind regards

John

[driven]

hi Mike,
do you ever encounter the massive memory leak that locks up SU when using 3Dconnexion products?

@John,

the mac plugin is badly implemented, can't be 'turned off' and only recourse is to remove all it's files...

my SpaceMouse sit's unused in it's box...

john

[Box]

Thanks Mike but its not about me and one discount, it's the huge market out here that they seem to be ignoring.

This includes Australia and he tells me we have a couple of really good resellers over there (Digital3D and LEAP).

Kind regards

John

Thanks for the info John. I do believe I bought mine from Digital3D and they were very good, but I was unable to use any sketchucation discount with my purchase.

[ntxdave]

I've had an update from Matt at Packed Pixels and he advises that they are launching a new design in c couple of weeks and at this time we will have a discount Promo Code for Premium Members.

Thanks for sharing all of this information Mike.

Are there any plans to support HDMI?

I have a 17" ASUS laptop and think this could be a neat addition so that I can move the SketchUp trays to the side and have more room to work on my model but HDMI is the only video port I have.

[Box]

What do you mean dave? I have multiple screens using a variety of hdmi, vga and wifi.
All work perfectly with the spacemouse and trays and toolbars can be anywhere.

[ntxdave]

What do you mean dave? I have multiple screens using a variety of hdmi, vga and wifi.
All work perfectly with the spacemouse and trays and toolbars can be anywhere.

No - I was commenting adout the Packed Pixel Combo.

[Mike Lucey]

hi Mike,
do you ever encounter the massive memory leak that locks up SU when using 3Dconnexion products?

@John,

the mac plugin is badly implemented, can't be 'turned off' and only recourse is to remove all it's files...

my SpaceMouse sit's unused in it's box...

john

Hi John,

I am not experiencing any 'memory leak' problems when operating the 3Dconnexion devices. The MBPR has 16Gb onboard and I also use the MemoryPro do app.

Mike

[Mike Lucey]

Thanks Mike but its not about me and one discount, it's the huge market out here that they seem to be ignoring.

Hi guys, John from 3Dconnexion here. We're not ignoring Australia / SE Asia but we don't have resources to put someone in place there yet (including a webshop operation). Our first webshop outside Europe / US will open in Japan soon.

One of my colleagues (UK based) is responsible for most of our "emerging markets" (basically anything outside Europe and the US). This includes Australia and he tells me we have a couple of really good resellers over there (Digital3D and LEAP).

Kind regards

John

Thanks for rowing in John and updating on Oz and Asia sales outlets.

Mike

[Mike Lucey]

I've had an update from Matt at Packed Pixels and he advises that they are launching a new design in c couple of weeks and at this time we will have a discount Promo Code for Premium Members.

Thanks for sharing all of this information Mike.

Are there any plans to support HDMI?

I have a 17" ASUS laptop and think this could be a neat addition so that I can move the SketchUp trays to the side and have more room to work on my model but HDMI is the only video port I have.

Dave,

I'll ask Matt about HDMI support and revert.

Mike

[Mike Lucey]

The untidy wires are bugging me so I designed a simple wire tidier that I'm thinking about having 3D printed.

Wire Tidy 1.png

Wire Tidy 2.png

I stumbled across 3D Printing Price Comparison and it looks like Sculpteo is offering the best price. https://3d-printing-price.all3dp.com

[mo53ley]

hi Mike,
do you ever encounter the massive memory leak that locks up SU when using 3Dconnexion products?

@John,

the mac plugin is badly implemented, can't be 'turned off' and only recourse is to remove all it's files...

my SpaceMouse sit's unused in it's box...

john

Hi John, I'm not aware of that issue. As you would expect, Windows is our largest user base (for a variety of mechanical CAD applications) but we have enough OS X users for me to be aware if this was a widespread problem. Mike says it doesn't affect him so I think the best course of action is to contact the technical support team via our website. I do hope you find time to do this and that they can replicate / solve the issue.

http://www.3dconnexion.com/service/tech ... pport.html

Kind regards

John

[driven]

I reported this back on the 5th November 2015...

[CASE:71137] SketchUp Plugin Error messages... [3DCX-20151102-0018]

after a couple of emails from tech support, the dialog continued on a another private forum, but without resolve...

their are a number of other mac users reporting issues on the 'official' forum...

some refer to the deficiency of in the support for mac with at least one returning product...

My main concern has always been the inability to turn the product off after installing the software...

john

[mo53ley]

Thanks John, I'll look into that and respond when I have more info. Best wishes

[mo53ley]

Hi John, I spoke to our product team and they advised that the OS X driver released on Dec 15 addressed the issues you had reported in the forum. The driver has since been updated (latest version 10.3.1 released on 18th March 2016).

Also, there is a way to disable / enable the 3DxSketchUp plug-in (not sure if this is what you wanted to do). In SketchUp, access Preferences > "Extensions” -> and then check/uncheck “3DxSketchUp”.

Please let me know how you get on with the latest driver! Thanks

[driven]

thanks for the info John, the March driver seems to have resolved both the memory leak and the turning off...

I had by then packed mine back in it's box and was contemplating selling it on...

it would have been prudent for support to email those who had reported issues and maybe made an announcement on a few forums...

sorry for the thread hi-jack Mike...

john

[Mike Lucey]

sorry for the thread hi-jack Mike...

john

No problem John. Glad to see John M was able to put you on the right track.

I wonder is there an app that keeps an eye on installed drivers and updates them automatically when new versions become available?

Mike

[driven]

unfortunately, after testing with the new driver successfully in SU, I noticed an overall slowdown of my entire system…

it continued getting worse, so I tried uninstalling the driver and it locked up my system…

in fact it wiped it out…

I can't boot that mac up after 3 hrs with apple trying to help…

it has all my SU dev work on it, so I hope it's recoverable at a reasonable cost...

I should of sold the ****** thing…

john

[Box]

Bloody hell John that's not good, hope you can get it working again.

[mo53ley]

unfortunately, after testing with the new driver successfully in SU, I noticed an overall slowdown of my entire system…

it continued getting worse, so I tried uninstalling the driver and it locked up my system…

in fact it wiped it out…

I can't boot that mac up after 3 hrs with apple trying to help…

it has all my SU dev work on it, so I hope it's recoverable at a reasonable cost...

I should of sold the ****** thing…

john

That's really not good to hear John, I am so sorry you are having these issues. I have asked the product team for any advice so will update you when I have it.

[Mike Lucey]

unfortunately, after testing with the new driver successfully in SU, I noticed an overall slowdown of my entire system…

it continued getting worse, so I tried uninstalling the driver and it locked up my system…

in fact it wiped it out…

I can't boot that mac up after 3 hrs with apple trying to help…

it has all my SU dev work on it, so I hope it's recoverable at a reasonable cost...

I should of sold the ****** thing…

john

Thats terrible news John.

I hope you manage to get up and running again. It would be worth finding out what the incompatible issues are / were.

I had a computer lock up while in New Zealand a few months ago. I could not pin point what caused it other than an app which I had just loaded. Fortunately I had cloud backup and retrieved the files I needed along with the junk that had been stored over the past few years.

Please keep us posted.

Mike

[driven]

It's in the shop…

the driver caused a kernel panic, when I shut down after failing to run it's Uninstaller.app…

it may well be the straw that broke the camels back, as opposed to being fully responsible…

if they can recover the drive, it should have log info to help work out what happened…

otherwise it's some very expensive data recovery attempt…

john

[Mike Lucey]

It's in the shop…

the driver caused a kernel panic, when I shut down after failing to run it's Uninstaller.app…

it may well be the straw that broke the camels back, as opposed to being fully responsible…

if they can recover the drive, it should have log info to help work out what happened…

otherwise it's some very expensive data recovery attempt…

john

Hopefully you will be able to get your data back. I am now wondering if I should look around and see if its possible to get a good deal for SketchUcation members when it comes to cloud backup.

I was stumped only for the stuff I had in the cloud.

Mike