SpaceMouse won't remember keys!

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on Windows.

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Loki
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:30 am

SpaceMouse won't remember keys!

Post by Loki »

So I've had my SpaceMouse Pro for several days now. I was loving it, but now I'm getting very frustrated with the drivers. For a hardware device that's so expensive, you'd think support would be better.

The program I'm trying to customize for is 3D Coat. Here are my key assignments:

Menu: S (Symmetry)
Fit: A (Frame)
T: NUM7 (Top View)
R: NUM6 (Right View)
F: NUM2 (Front View)
Roll +: G (Grid)
1: SPACEBAR (Tools Popup)
2: B (Color Picker Popup)
3: Z (Undo)
4: Y (Redo)
Esc: ` (Quick Menu)
Alt: F (Pick Point)
Shift: SHIFT (Shift Key)
Ctrl: CTRL (Ctrl Key)
Rot: U (Persp/Ortho Toggle)

Every time I save this custom profile, the Menu, 1, and 2 buttons all get changed to "Tools Popup". It doesn't matter how many times I change them back to what I want, saving always causes them to revert.

So I wiped everything out, started over, turned off profile autosaves, and after spending an hour redoing all my keys and saving them successfully without a reversion, I immediately set this new profile to read only in Windows. As soon as I tried to change to another profile, the driver said my 3D Coat profile wasn't saved (even though it was) and asked if I wanted to save it. I told it no of course, upon which the 3dxWare icon vanished from my taskbar. So I tried stopping the driver, only to get the message it wasn't running. So I then tried starting the driver, only to get the message saying it was already running. Um, ok. I then rebooted my PC and tried loading my read only 3D Coat profile, but that resulted in a 3dxVirtualLCD crash.

I honestly don't know what to do now. If this is the kind of fun I can expect for the foreseeable future, I'll likely pawn it off on Ebay since it's not worth the frustration, certainly not at a price point of $303. I can pay someone to torture me for far less than that. Sorry if I'm sounding bitter and harsh, but I don't fancy having to tel everyone I was wrong when I recommended these things. Yeah I know, I spoke out about them way too soon. Can you blame me? After all, I was excited and having fun at the time lol.

My system: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (patched and up to date), 3dxWare 3.15.2 x64, 3dConnexion SpaceMouse Pro.

The error message:

Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: 3dxvirtuallcd.exe
Problem Signature 02: 1.0.4330.25602
Problem Signature 03: 4eba7c74
Problem Signature 04: mscorlib
Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0
Problem Signature 06: 4e1539fa
Problem Signature 07: 20c8
Problem Signature 08: 143
Problem Signature 09: N3CTRYE2KN3C34SGL4ZQYRBFTE4M13NB
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Bryan
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Posts: 443
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:37 pm
Location: Rochester NY

omatically Save Configurations'

Post by Bryan »

Dear Loki,

If you don't want to your configurations resetting to default settings, you would want to have 'Automatically Save Configurations' checked on under the 'Options' Menu in the 3Dconnexion Control Panel (3Dconnexion Properties Display Panel).

If you have this turned off, you will be asked if you want to save your configuration. If you say 'No' , it won't save it and you will be returned to your defaults.

Sincerely,
Bryan g.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. ; ^ )
Loki
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:30 am

Re: Autosave profiles isn't the problem.

Post by Loki »

Bryan wrote:If you don't want to your configurations resetting to default settings, you would want to have 'Automatically Save Configurations' checked on under the 'Options' Menu in the 3Dconnexion Control Panel (3Dconnexion Properties Display Panel).

If you have this turned off, you will be asked if you want to save your configuration. If you say 'No' , it won't save it and you will be returned to your defaults.
Thanks for attempting to help, which is greatly appreciated. Sorry if I sounded overly harsh too. I was having a really bad day and the driver problems were just making it worse lol. ;)

If I turn 'Automatically Save Configurations' on, the 3DX control panel ends up saving a messed up profile of it's own creation. I thought I was clear on that, but apparently wasn't. I'll break down the problem step by step to see if that helps...

1) I create a new profile based on the default.
2) I manually save it using the file name '3D Coat'
3) I edit all the button mappings (see below).

4) Now if I save it manually OR let the control panel save it automatically, the profile becomes messed up. The instant it saves, several of the key mappings change on their own without any interaction from me. It doesn't matter how many times I change them back to what I want them to be, the control panel will keep changing them to something I don't want upon saving.

Here are the key mappings I set:

Menu: S (Symmetry)
Fit: A (Frame)
T: NUM7 (Top View)
R: NUM6 (Right View)
F: NUM2 (Front View)
Roll +: G (Grid)
1: SPACEBAR (Tools Popup)
2: B (Color Picker Popup)
3: Z (Undo)
4: Y (Redo)
Esc: ` (Quick Menu)
Alt: F (Pick Point)
Shift: SHIFT (Shift Key)
Ctrl: CTRL (Ctrl Key)
Rot: U (Persp/Ortho Toggle)

Here are the key mappings I end up with when the profile saves:

Menu: SPACEBAR (Tools Popup)
Fit: A (Frame)
T: NUM7 (Top View)
R: NUM6 (Right View)
F: NUM2 (Front View)
Roll +: G (Grid)
1: SPACEBAR (Tools Popup)
2: SPACEBAR (Tools Popup)
3: Z (Undo)
4: Y (Redo)
Esc: ` (Quick Menu)
Alt: F (Pick Point)
Shift: SHIFT (Shift Key)
Ctrl: CTRL (Ctrl Key)
Rot: U (Persp/Ortho Toggle)

See the problem? The only reason for turning off auto saves was because, after much trial and error, I had managed to finally create a profile (by starting over from scratch) that wasn't all messed up upon save thanks to a buggy 3DX control panel. This is the same reason why I tried setting the profile file itself (user03.scg) to read only (which causes driver crashes). It was all an effort to make sure my profile didn't become overwritten by a damaged one the control panel keeps trying to create.

Anyways I think I may have figured out the root cause for what I was seeing. I've did a clean install of Windows 7 and the 3DX drivers, then very carefully created each custom key combo, then mapped each of those to buttons on the SpaceMouse Pro. I made sure not to make any mistakes while doing all of this since deletions of custom key mappings seem to be what confuses the control panel. For example deleting the default undo (CTRL+Z) and redo (CTRL+SHIFT+Z and CTRL+Y) key presses that were already there, then replacing them with my own (Z and A respectively) using the exact same names. Leaving the defaults alone and creating my own names, like 'Undo 3DC' and 'Redo 3DC' instead of just 'Undo' and 'Redo', as well as being very careful so deletions of mistakes aren't necessary, seems to prevent any of my issues from happening.

PS: I sure hope we SpaceMouse Pro users get to play with the beta software soon, and I really hope you guys are looking at the Wacom Intuos4 drivers on how to do it right. The ability to create and backup custom profiles that load/change based on which program has focus would be extremely useful. Right now I have to manually select which profile I want to use every time the focus changes between programs that aren't supported. Thankfully the current drivers will change profiles on it's own for apps it does know. It doesn't seem very professional to have poorly developed, mostly useless drivers for such an expensive device, especially one you wish pros and application developers would take serious and support. It also makes it hard for users like me to recommend your products. Just a friendly suggestion.
jwick
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Post by jwick »

Ah, you were deleting macros. That is a problem in 3DxWare 6 that we have been hearing about lately. There is a bug report filed on it.
redhat
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 12:26 am

Same problem here

Post by redhat »

I am having same problem ( driver 6.15.3 )

When switching between programs the driver sometimes reset to default setup, when autosave configuration is enabled.
It makes no difference wether the program I switch to use the spacemouse pro or not.

Also when autosave is not enabled the driver often ask to save the configuration when switching to another program. Regardless of whether changes have been made to the configuration or not!

It is very annoying either having the settings disappear severalt times a day. Or being asked to save configuration when switching to other programs, sometimes several times per hour.


Does anyone know when this problem will be solved?
Barbara
Posts: 534
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 11:11 am

Same problem here

Post by Barbara »

Hello redhat -

The issue earlier in this thread was specific to deleting macros so sounds different from what you are seeing.

The only time we see profiles not being saved correctly is when there is data corruption in a profile or registry key.To correct it you can use the clean install steps to remove the 3Dconnexion profiles and registry entries and re-install the 3Dconnexion software.This is different than uninstalling/reinstalling the 3Dconnexion software, since the 3Dconnexion registry keys and profiles are not removed in a standard re-install.

Try installing with all of default settings then open the application you are working with and make a change such as adjusting speed.The profile name will change from the application name to application-loginname.

If an issue is occurring with a single application, it can often be fixed by removing that profile. You can either restore a profile to its default settings [3Dconnexion Control Panel – Options- Restore all Defaults] or remove that profile [Options - Delete Saved Configuration].

-------------------
Barbara
redhat
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 12:26 am

Re: SpaceMouse won't remember keys!

Post by redhat »

Thank you Barbara.

It is not just one application it has problems with, it is several ( Inventor & Solidworks primarily ).
Unfortunately I lost the installation files, and that version ( Release version 3.17.4/driver version 6.17.4 ) is not available for download anymore, so I cannot reinstall.

It is a matter of plauge or colera:
A newer version might not have this problem.
But newer versions does not have the 3Dcontrol toolbar for Solidworks.

BR Jimmy
Barbara
Posts: 534
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 11:11 am

Re: SpaceMouse won't remember keys!

Post by Barbara »

Hello redhat -

The options from the 3Dcontrol toolbar in the 3DxSoftware driver are located in 3Dconnexion Properties - Advanced in the current driver.

In the 3DxWare driver the pop-ups and toolbars have all been moved to the 3Dconnexion Properties window so that all of the options for your 3D mouse are in one location.

There are other improvements in the 3DxWare driver including an entirely different way of handling profiles. The profile format is different in 3DxWare [.xml] so it does mean initially saving your options and button mapping. It also means that issues like the autosave prompt are now obsolete.

The final 3DxSoftware driver [3DxSoftware 3.18.0] is still available from the Archive link on our downloads page.
------------
Barbara
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