SpaceNavigator vs Blender

MaxG · Post by **MaxG** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:29 am

Hello 3DConnexion Team!

It would be very nice if there are any plans on Blender (for Windows) support for your amazing SpaceNavigator device...

znissan · Post by **znissan** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:58 pm

Hello MaxG:

Thank you for the positive feedback.

We are evaluating a solution for Blender in the next few months. Feel free to check back!

Ziva Nissan
3Dconnexion, Inc.

MaxG · Post by **MaxG** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:09 am

Hello Ziva!

I hope to use my SpaceNavigator with Blender as soon as possible!

Thanks,

MaxG

Aurrin · Post by **Aurrin** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:18 pm

I, too, would like to see drivers for Blender as soon as possible! (You might pick up a lot of new customers that way, because Blender is free and so has many, many users who would love this!)

Buzzz · Post by **Buzzz** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:12 am

I second MaxG and Aurrin.

Blender lacks an easy way to rotate view.

paulwoody · Post by **paulwoody** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:52 am

I would like to show my hand for also wanting support for Blender.

I am ordering a SpaceNavigator tomorrow for use with AutoCAD but would love to use it with Blender!

atuor · Post by **atuor** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:38 am

I would also like to see Blender support (possibly also for the Linux version)

mchalflung · Post by **mchalflung** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:40 am

I also raise a hand in support for a Blender plugin!..

anyone tried this?:

http://projects.blender.org/tracker/ind ... 9&atid=127

Jwood · Post by **Jwood** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:35 pm

I too would love to see blender support for your controllers! I own a SpaceNavigator, and I am very interested in your SpaceExplorer and SpacePilot. But blender is my primary 3D modeling tool, and I cannot justify purchasing either of these until it's supported.

Absum · Post by **Absum** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 4:51 pm

Linux + Blender + Space Navigator

znissan · Post by **znissan** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:53 am

Thank you all for the great feedback. We are currently looking at Blender and I'll keep you informed of the status....

Again, many thanks for your input, and keep it coming!

Ziva Nissan
3Dconnexion, Inc.

krodelin · Post by **krodelin** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:15 am

All,

I can only repeat most of the things others said. I'm the lucky owner of a SpacePilot and was a bit disapointed that there is no Blender Support.

Especially as the RBC9 plugin (which could work with Blender) does not support the SpacePilot (yet).

Regards,

Udo

Steve F · Post by **Steve F** » Sat May 12, 2007 6:12 pm

I tried the RBC9 plugin. It itself works well, but as a view controller for blender, not so good. You can only translate or rotate one axis at a time. Also, blender view control isn't set up for translate x,y,z.

I've been working with the patch referenced above and have it working on latest release candidate, 2.44.

There is an issue with the SDK license requirement of listing 3dConnixon in the About text of the primary application. Even though the patch to the blender source tree doesn't reference the 3dx SDK, the plugin does require linking with the 3dx SDK static libraries. It is felt that using the plugin would cause blender to fall under 3dConnixon licensing agreement. Would you advise on your position of supporting GPL OpenSource applications? Thanks,
p.s. znissan, please feel free to contact me by pm or email.

Tak · Post by **Tak** » Fri May 18, 2007 5:30 am

Waiting

krodelin · Post by **krodelin** » Fri May 18, 2007 7:34 am

Steve F wrote:There is an issue with the SDK license requirement of listing 3dConnixon in the About text of the primary application. Even though the patch to the blender source tree doesn't reference the 3dx SDK, the plugin does require linking with the 3dx SDK static libraries. It is felt that using the plugin would cause blender to fall under 3dConnixon licensing agreement. Would you advise on your position of supporting GPL OpenSource applications?

Maybe another possibility would be to directly access the device using the HID interfaces. IMHO under *nix using libusb/libhid should make that easily possible. However I'm not quite sure about libhid support for windows.

IMHO this would make the whole solution more dependent of the inner workings of the devices and protocols but it should be possible to integrate them fully according to GPL.

AFAIK the RBC9 plugin does something similar. Read the events directly from the HID device and retrigger them as keyboard/mouse/joystick event.

The thing missing then would be the protocol for some advanced features (e.g. the display of the space pilot).

CU,

Udo