button assignments.... butt out!

[wavemaster]

I am using a space pilot and I prefer to set up my buttons the way I like them.

For several months I have majorly annoyed with the left button no longer being able to be programmed the way I like it.

Today, after getting the latest driver, and quickly attempting to reprogram the left button, I ended up with a little window:

"For a more effective use of your 3D mouse, it is recommended to keep this button assigned to the popup menu command. Are you sure you want to change the assignment?"

What is wrong with you guys?
Your customers can decide for themselves what is most effective for them!

Bunch of busy boddies!

[wavemaster]

Sorry I meant space navigator.

[Barbara]

Hi wavemaster -

The reminder was added to the button mapping in response to questions from customer who were not able to locate the pop-up menu with the navigation options after re-mapping the left SpaceNavigator button.

For anyone who may not have followed the history of the left SpaceNavigator button, this is the button that is the equivalent of the 'Menu' button on the SpacePilotPRO and the 'Panel' button on the SpacePilot and SpaceExplorer.

In SketchUp,Inventor,3dsMax,Pro/E,Creo,Maya, NX, Softimage,Solid Edge and SolidWorks this is the button that is mapped to the pop-up menu. Pop-up menu items vary with the application and include options like 'Rotation Center' and 'Speed'. In applications where button mapping is done outside of the 3dConnexion Properties window, the pop-up menu includes 'Customize Buttons'.

To make sure the pop-up menu remained available, in Release 3.13 the software 'locked' a device button to the pop-up menu. On the SpaceNavigator with only 2 programmable buttons, this reduced available buttons to 1. For this reason, in Release 3.14 the persistent mapping was removed - 'unlocking' the buttons that were mapped to the pop-up menu. The reminder remains so that access to the pop-up menu is not unintentionally removed. Of course when you want the pop-up menu you can re-map it to your button. Without some type of reminder, though, there would be nothing to indicate where the pop-up menu went or how to get it back.

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Barbara

[Bryan]

Dear wavemaster,

In the design of any product or application or software, it is necessary to make design decisions. For some applications, that make use of our input devices, there are plug-ins to provide additional functionality. The user needs to be given access, to change settings, to customize this additional functionality in their application. A button needs to be mapped to a command bringing up this user interface. If a button is not mapped to bring up the user interface for the plug-in, there would be no access to these features for the user and they would locked into the default settings. So in the original drivers to ensure there would always be access to these user interfaces, the left button was dedicated to bringing up this access to the user interface of the various plug-ins. Other than the SpaceNavigator, there were more than enough buttons for users to take advantage. However it was discovered that with the SpaceNavigator only having two buttons, having this button dedicated to bringing up the menuing for plug-ins only allowed a single programmable button. So changes were made in our later drivers to allow this button to mapped to other commands as well with the understanding that if this button was remapped, the menuing to the plug-ins would no longer be available unless the button was remapped again to bring them up. This is why there is message advising 'to keep this button assigned to the popup menu command'. So you are allowed to decide what is most effective for yourself, but you need to understand it may affect your access to settings for your plug-ins.

[wavemaster]

Let's see.....

how about if both buttons are pressed at the same time, then you get the popup menu.

See, how easy that is.


Anyway, you can always open up the control panel, right?

[pepsodent]

Hi,

I want to remap the left mouse so my (pretty obvius) question is how can i still get access to pop-up menu? could i create a shortcut for accessing this?

Thanks,

[Barbara]

Ho pepsodent -

There is not a shortcut for the pop-up menu. If you remap the left button you would need to go back and select the pop-up from the drop-down list in the button mapping when you want to use it.

Whether there is an alternate way to access the commands in the popup menu depends on the application you are using. In SolidWorks for instance you can choose 'Customize Buttons' from the toolbar. Since most of our devices have multiple buttons it is usually easist to leave one mapped to the pop-up.
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Barbara

[pepsodent]

Im using 3ds max, ok so will leave the pop up then....

Thank you,

Best regards,