[VitalBodies]

Blender - Ubuntu - 3dConnextion - Installation and Testing:

Where is the latest info on getting setup on Ubuntu and Blender?

There is a lot of info out there but it is hard to know what is outdated and so much of the info is fragmented through many forums.

I personally have a SpacePilot on Ubuntu 9.10 (lucid) and the current version of Blender (2.49) from my Distro.

Is there a tutorial for getting set up? The readme file did not quite have enough info (to brief) on getting this setup.
I have the latest drivers from the 3dConnexion site.

The device works as mouse but not a 3d controller as yet.

Thanks.

[VitalBodies]

Read me feedback.

The "3Dconnexion plug-in for Blender" read me states:
5. Open the 3Dconnexion driver or make sure it is running.
The read me does not state How?

The "3Dconnexion plug-in for Blender" read me states:
7. Go to the 3Dconnexion driver preferences window. In the Buttons Mapping tab, map the Left and Right buttons of the SpaceNavigator to
Button 1 - Button 2 (or Unassigned)

If you did not know how to proceed on step five, step 7 will seem mystical...

One thing to consider int Linux is the word DRIVER is rarely used. Not sure about Mac but in Windows it is a very common issue.

I personally think a video tutorial would be awesome.

[VitalBodies]

The Blender page on 3dConnexion: http://www.3dconnexion.com/index.php?id=108
Plugin: http://www.3dconnexion.com/index.php?eID=sdl&ext=tx_iccsoftware&oid=27237638-d168-4cc6-bc67-4b1fe78de7c4&filename=3DxBlender2_47-Linux-i386.zip&ap1=PleaseSelect&ap2=&ap3=

[VitalBodies]

From the Public Realease Notes - Software Release Version 3.7 PDF

5. UNIX/Linux Software (3DxWareUNIX)
5.1 Description
3DxWareUNIX is the driver software (user-mode application) for UNIX and Linux operating
systems. Five redistributable packages are available for redistribution and each includes the
driver executable and an installation script.
5.2 Supported Operating Systems
• AIX 5.2 ML04 (and higher);
• HP-UX 11 (and higher);
• Linux: Red Hat EL WS 4 and SuSE 9.3; kernel v. 2.6.8 and higher;
• Solaris 8 (patch required); Solaris 9/04 and higher;
• Solaris 10 x86/x64.
Note: Linux kernel v. 2.4, Red Hat EL WS 3 support is no longer available in 3DxWareUNIX v.
1.4.
5.3 Supported 3Dconnexion Devices
• SpaceMouse Plus/Plus XT (serial and USB)
• SpaceBall 5000 (serial and USB)
• SpaceTraveler
• SpacePilot
• SpaceExplorer (serial and USB)
• SpaceNavigator
• SpaceNavigator for Notebooks
• SpacePilot PRO

5.4 3DxWareUNIX Packages File Names
3DxWareUNIX is distributed as compressed (gzip) TAR files with the following file name format:
3Dxware-<OS>_vX-Y-Z.tar.gz, where "<OS>" is the operating system and "X-Y-Z" is the
version number. As an example, the HP-UX file for release version 1.2.7 had the file name
"3dxware-hpux-v1-2-7.tar.gz."
5.4.1 Current version
Current version of 3DxWareUNIX: 1.4.0 (UNIX), 1.4.3 (Linux).

[VitalBodies]

From the Readme files: INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS LINUX:

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR 3DxWare FOR Linux (x86_64) - V 1.4.3
===============================================================================

To install the files for 3DxWare for Unix to the corresponding directories
and to run the driver you need root privileges.



Make sure you fulfill the following prerequisites:

Linux:
kernel 2.6.8 and higher

NOTE:
With SuSE Linux 10.x the usbfs is not mounted by default.
Please make sure you mount the usbfs to get support for the USB controller.
To mount USBFS, please do (as root user):
mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb
You should enter a line for usbfs in your /etc/fstab to have USBFS
mounted at boot time.

You might also find useful hints about USB on Linux here:
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/c122.html
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x173.html



The files for the driver are provided with the following archive:

Linux:
3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.x86_64.tar.gz



Please save the file 3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.x86_64.tar.gz into the /tmp directory
and extract and run the script install-3dxunix.sh:

tar xfz 3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.x86_64.tar.gz install-3dxunix.sh
./install-3dxunix.sh

If you don't choose during installation the possibility to start the driver during login from the
/etc/inittab please make sure the driver is started before you launch your application.


For the USB devices start the driver with the following command:

Linux:
/etc/3DxWare/daemon/3dxsrv -d usb



For the serial devices start the driver with:

/etc/3DxWare/daemon -d /dev/<serialport>
where <serialport> is the name of your serial port to which the device is attached.
Example: /etc/3DxWare/daemon/3dxsrv -d /dev/ttyS0


For the start of the driver from the /etc/inittab the following line is added:
3dx:234:respawn:/etc/3DxWare/daemon/3dxsrv -d <port> </dev>/dev/null 2>&1
where <port> is the name of the port to which the device is attached.



Demos:

After unpacking 3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.x86_64.tar you can find two demos:
The cube demo: /tmp/xcube and
a value demo: /tmp/xvalue

Those are two simple demos that work with the setting "Any Application". You may copy the
binaries to your favourite location for binaries.



Known issues:
- On Red Hat EL 5 the driver will not start from /etc/inittab if root logs in to :0

- the driver has to run with root privileges(or started from the inittab)
Reason: Linux doesn't provide write access for standard users to USB devices
in /proc/bus/usb

- SuSE 10.1 does not have the required USBFS activated/mounted per
default. Please get root permissions and mount the filesystem via:

mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

For permanent effect, edit the file /etc/fstab and change the line

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0

to

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0


You can find more informations on USBFS at the following pages:
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x173.html
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/c122.html

[VitalBodies]

FROM THE README

===============================
3Dconnexion plug-in for Blender
===============================

Purpose
-------

This software distribution enables the use of 3Dconnexion devices (such as the SpaceNavigator) with Blender v2.46 or newer. You are strongly invited to use Blender v2.47, which includes important bug fixes related to input devices control.

How To
------

1. Download and install the latest 3Dconnexion driver from:
http://www.3dconnexion.com

2. Download and install Blender (only v2.46 or higher, v2.47 strongly recommended) from:
http://www.blender.org

3. After the installation for Blender is complete, open the folder containing the Blender application. Typically that resides inside C:\Program Files\ on Microsoft Windows, and inside /Applications on Mac OS X. Inside the Blender folder, you should find a "plugins" folder next to the main "blender" executable. If it's not there, create it.

4. Copy the 3DxNdofBlender.plug file into the aforementioned "plugins" folder. You should then have the following directory structure (the names could be slightly different):

blender (folder)
+- blender.exe or blender.app (executable)
+- plugins (folder)
+- 3DxNdofBlender.plug

5. Open the 3Dconnexion driver or make sure it is running.

6. Open blender.

7. Go to the 3Dconnexion driver preferences window. In the Buttons Mapping tab, map the Left and Right buttons of the SpaceNavigator to
Button 1 - Button 2 (or Unassigned)

If you are using another 3Dconnexion device, simply make sure that the buttons labeled "1" and "2" are associated to the functions "Button 1" and "Button 2" in the relative drop down menus.
Then click the "Save" button and provide a meaningful description for your custom configuration. If you already have one, you can add these settings to that.

8. You should now be able to use the device inside Blender. Use the Left button to toggle modes (turntable/fly/transform mode) and constraints (unconstrained/dominant). Dominant mode is a mode where you can change only one axis at a time.

System Requirements
-------------------

All the requirements of the main blender application apply.

Got Problems?
-------------

You're invited to report issues and give suggestions to make this software better to the following forums:
http://www.blender.org/forum/
http://www.3dconnexion.com/forum/

Please note: although Blender v2.46 does support NDOF devices including all 3Dconnexion's devices, there are a few bugs in the application that make it difficult to control it with external NDOF input devices. You are *strongly* invited to use Blender v2.47, which solves the most critical bugs.

License
-------

This software is covered by the LGPL license v2.1. Refer to the COPYING and COPYING.LESSER text files.

Disclaimer
----------

The full disclaimer of the accompanying LGPL license applies. Please read the COPYING and COPYING.LESSER files included in this software distribution.

History of Changes
------------------

v0.1 - 31 July 2007
- Initial version.

v1.0 - 16 June 2008
- Fixed scaling for

________________________________
Copyright 2007, 2008 3Dconnexion, Inc.

[VitalBodies]

I thought it might help others if all the basic info was in one thread so I added some of the more juice content of the readme files to this thread.

In my own case I gathered the following information in hopes someone might be able to help:

In Ubuntu (at least on my system) these commands get these results:

[VitalBodies]

In synaptic if you do a search for 3dconnexion two files show up.
libspnav-dev and spacenavd
They did not help either so far as I can tell.

I did load the 3dconnexion plugin in the home/user/.blender/plugins folder.

I am pretty much at an impasse.

Not sure how to test the driver, run the demo or load the driver or see the driver at this point?

I have the USB version of the SpacePilot.
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

[VitalBodies]

Anyone?
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

[VitalBodies]

_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

[VitalBodies]

Not sure what happened on my last post but the content disappeared.

We started a blog post about getting the driver going in Ubuntu as we were able to finally get it running.
Search "VitalBodies getting a 3dconnexion device running in ubuntu" and you should be able to find it.
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

[RoboticGolem]

I did get it working, after much MUCH looking around.

I noticed a source file with the i386 blender plugin from 3dconnexion.

I downloaded the header file I needed from the blender source tree and managed to get it to compile on my 64bit system. That works great with the 2.49.2 (official) version of blender.

If anyone needs this, I'll gladly send it.

Ubuntu 9.10 64bit
Blender 2.49.2

[VitalBodies]

SEND IT!
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

[RoboticGolem]

if it works for you too.

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0kgLTnSwZzUNTI2ZDA2YTUtOTZjZi00YzJmLTg2OTktMjFmMTFkMTA2Yzlk&hl=en

and anyone else who happens along this.