SpaceNavigator - unintended zoom while rotating - win 7x64

[outaTHEbox]

Newbie to both FreeCad and SpaceNavigator but previous SolidWorks experience

Firstly - Awesome Program!

i'm having trouble with the forward/back tilt and to a slighly lesser extent left/right tilt These should do just a rotation but no matter how gentle and careful i am to make sure this is a "tilt" with no up/down motion i am frequently getting rather significant JUMPS in zoom at the same time....the change in zoom is NOT smooth at all.

I need practice but, if i am careful all other motions seem to work as expected.

Forward -Back pressure pans up and down
Left right pressure pans Left to Right
Up down motion zooms in/out (smoothly)
rotate - rotates about axis perpendicular to screen

i tried disabling up down motion and that indeed does disable intentional zoom, but the problem with unitentional zoom remains

The SpaceNavigator seems fine when using the 3dconnexion "trainer"

1) Is this my SpaceNavigator "technique" OR have others experienced a similar problem?
2) is there any way to change the mapping of SpaceNavigator motions to FreeCad movements?


Environment Details:

in Customize:Spaceball Motion settings:
Dominant mode , enable translations, enable rotations are all set.
All motions are enabled at default sensitivity
Global sensitivity is set to default mid range.
i pressed "calibrate"

3D connexion driver version is 10.4.7 'the latest" as of this post

OS: Windows 7
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6706 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: f86a4e411ff7848dea98d7242f43b7774bee8fa0
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[Brutha]

I haven't come across the issue you mention, but I'm on OSX, so I guess things are different. The 3Dconnexion control panel itself lets me map the axes, either generally, or for specific programs - not sure if this is similar in Windows.

I'm using what I assume is the default mapping, which is a little different to yours. In my case, forward and back effectively zoom (by moving the camera) - up and down pan up and down. Might be worth mapping to that mode instead if you can find the setting, just to see if things improve.

BTW, if you're not familiar with space mice, one tip is not to use the dominant mode, where it only moves one axis at a time. Leave it on the full mode, and initially have the sensitivity low: as your hand and brain learn, you can gradually increase the sensitivity until you are whizzing around with very light pressure on the mouse.

I love mine - I find it very unpleasant now in Freecad if I don't have the SpaceNavigator around!

[chrisb]

You may try different navigation styles. See http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... ouse_Model

[Brutha]

You may try different navigation styles. See http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... ouse_Model

I think you still have to use the 3Dconnexion control panel if you want to remap individual movement axes on a SpaceNavigator though? Or are you suggesting trying the different navigation styles to see if one works better than the other?

[chrisb]

You may try different navigation styles. See http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... ouse_Model

I think you still have to use the 3Dconnexion control panel if you want to remap individual movement axes on a SpaceNavigator though? Or are you suggesting trying the different navigation styles to see if one works better than the other?

The latter. I know from myself that it is a question of personal preferences which mouse model to use.

[hajduk]

Hi,

I also had issues with OS X (El Capitan) and the 3DConnexion space navigator.
Some movements and rotations are not properly mapped.
So, I had to remap in/out to up/down and other stuff.
The rotation is still not as intended, but I can get by this through body compensation

I use the 3DConnexion driver for this.
The device works 100% as intended in Sketchup, just FreeCad is funny.

All the best
Martin

[PrzemoF]

You use default settings or it's "funny" after changing Tools->Customize->Spaceball Motion?

[hajduk]

Hi,

it is funny when using the default settings.

Now I made special settings for FreeCad with the following mapping in the 3DConnexion driver, and then it is OK:
in - up
out - down
down - in
up - out

roll left - spin counter-clockwise
roll right - spin clockwise
spin clockwise - roll left
spin counter-clockwise - roll right


Am I the only one to need this?

All the best

Martin

[apachesquirrel]

Hello. I've just downloaded this and also thought it was 'funny'..... but what I think you are seeing is one of the defaults that some people like and others don't. You simply need to click 'flip Y/Z' under customise>spaceball motion and I'm sure that will do what you expect, you can leave the space navigator settings alone.

Chris.

[hajduk]

Hi Chris,

thank you, I did actually not see that setting before remapping everything else...
So I never tried it.

Will give it a shot to see if it is the same.

All the best
Martin