Prevent loss of AutoCAD selections?

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gnbisanz
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Prevent loss of AutoCAD selections?

Post by gnbisanz »

I just had my new Space Navigator installed this morning, and it seems to be working just fine. I'm currently using it for AutoCAD Mechanical 2007, but I'll mostly be using it for Inventor 11 SP2.

I've noticed an issue that is a bit annoying but not a deal-breaker. I'd like to be able to select objects, then pan and/or zoom with my Navigator, then add more objects to my selection set. Unfortunately, after each use of the Navigator, AutoCAD regenerates and all selections are lost. AutoCAD normally does not clear my selections when I manually regenerate the drawing.

Is there anything I can do to prevent my controller from clearing my selection set after each use in AutoCAD?
tck
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Post by tck »

Try picking the items anyway.
The highlight on the item goes away but the items are still selected, on my machine.
In other words, it doesn't look like they are still selected, but they are.
gnbisanz
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Post by gnbisanz »

Hmm...I tried what you spoke of, but it didn't seem to behave the same way. I picked, moved, then pressed DELETE and nothing disappeared.

I opened the properties window, and selected objects. The properties appeared, but once I touched my Navigator the window changed to "No selection."

Since it appears to (somewhat) work on your system, I wonder if it's a video card issue. I've got an ATI FireGL V3100, driver 8.223.4.1.

I'll put in a support request and see where that gets me.

Thanks for the input!
ngomes
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Post by ngomes »

Hi gnbisanz. Apologises for the late reply.
Version 4.0 of our add-in for AutoCAD 2007 (part of the 3.0 release) does not force the application to regenerate the view.
That said, the application itself may regenerate the view if it determines that is required. 3Dconnexion has no control over that.
Regarding your support request, do note that phone and e-mail support is available for the Standard Edition of the SpaceNavigator. The Personal Edition (PE) is entitled to on-line support only.
Nuno Gomes
gnbisanz
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Post by gnbisanz »

Nuno,

Thanks for the reply.

I've paid for the Standard Edition, so support shouldn't be a problem.

AutoCAD is being forced to regenerate every time I bump my Navigator whatsoever, no matter how miniscule the movement is. Also, the issue isn't necessarily the fact that AutoCAD regenerates, because when I manually regenerate (regen or regenall), I do NOT lose my selections, as is the case when I use the Navigator.

Not to add too much to the topic, but I've also just noticed that my Navigator will override locked viewports when viewing modelspace through a paperspace viewport. That's not cool at all.

In summary,

1. Space Navigator (SE) causes all selections in AutoCAD Mechanical 2007 to be lost, no matter how small the movement.

2. Space Navigator does not respect locked viewports in paperspace, and will instead reposition/rescale model geometry from the intended (and locked) values.

Thanks again for your help. I understand that this issue is out of your direct control, and I appreciate the service I've gotten thus far. If I need to wait for the next version of the driver or 3Dware software, it's alright with me.

George

PS: So far this is working very well in Inventor 11, which was my main reason for purchasing it.
ngomes
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Post by ngomes »

gnbisanz wrote:1. Space Navigator (SE) causes all selections in AutoCAD Mechanical 2007 to be lost, no matter how small the movement.

2. Space Navigator does not respect locked viewports in paperspace, and will instead reposition/rescale model geometry from the intended (and locked) values.
These will be reported to Software Development. There may be a way of detecting that a viewport is locked and prevent the add-in from unlocking it.
gnbisanz wrote:Thanks again for your help. I understand that this issue is out of your direct control, and I appreciate the service I've gotten thus far. If I need to wait for the next version of the driver or 3Dware software, it's alright with me.
No worries. Customers (and Support) do have some level of control. The fact that customers like yourself take the time to report these issues to us, is very much valued at 3Dconnexion.
The issue with add-in solutions is that, in the end, the add-in is limited by the application API. With version 4.0, we have made a considerable effort trying to remove the spurious "regen" that were observed in version 3.2.
Brandt
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Confirm locked viewport problem in Autocad 2006

Post by Brandt »

I am confirming that locked viewports are not respected in Autocad 2006.
Tim McAvinney
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AutoCAD regen issues

Post by Tim McAvinney »

I would like to concur with the "regen" issue in AutoCAD. I use Civil3D and Map 3D 2007. I purchased the Space Navigator mostly so that I could do my 2D Pan/Zoom with the other hand, and leave the mouse for AutoCAD buttons and object selection.

Looking at my screen, AutoCAD may not actually be doing a "regen". What I think is that whenever I touch the Space Navigator, AutoCAD is switching from the 2D wireframe visual style to the 3D wireframe style and back to 2D. I'm basing this on the tell-tale change in the UCS icon. This really makes the Space Navigator useless compared to the mouse, as there is a 2-3 second lag there that does not exist with the mouse pan/zoom. I was hoping for improved workflow here.

What I was hoping for with my purchase was to do the pan and zoom functions that are currently being done with the scroll wheel/middle button. At the moment, 90% of my time is spent in the 2D environment where this is all that is needed. The more I use Civil3D though, the more I need to look at my work in 3D and orbit around it. The Space Navigator works great when the "orbit" command is used. It does not, however, work with the "object viewer" command, which I use frequently.

Can we get this fixed? Can the Space Navigator be set so that when you're in 2D mode in one of the orthogonal plane views (top, bottom, front, back, right, left) you get the much more "transparent" scroll wheel/middle mouse button zoom and pan?

One more issue - I notice that even when AutoCAD is not the active window, when I touch the Space Navigator, my drawing view still moves. Is that a good idea?

Sincerely,

Tim McAvinney
Mebane, NC
wvbesien
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Post by wvbesien »

I have the same problem:
After navigation with the SpaceNavigator PE in Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007, the selection is lost, because ADT2007 regenerates the drawing.
Zooming with the SpaceNavigator should be the same as zooming with the mouse wheel. And panning should be the same as panning with the middle mouse button pressed. The SpaceNavigator zooms and pans in an other way.
ngomes
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Post by ngomes »

Hi all,
Regarding the "selections" issue. This has been reproduced in-house and we created a new incident report(no. 4251) to track it. It so happens that it has been resolved. We will verify the fix and we plan to include it in our next release (early January).
Thanks for your input. We value your feedback a lot. Keep it coming!
Last edited by ngomes on Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
mbonk
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Re: AutoCAD regen issues

Post by mbonk »

Hi All,
Tim McAvinney wrote:...there is a 2-3 second lag there that does not exist with the mouse pan/zoom. I was hoping for improved workflow here.
This indeed seems very long. We are not able to reproduce anything as long as that at the moment: We have tried the 3d house.dwg in 2D wireframe and the top and front views: both under a second. Is this model too simple or do you also have a 2-3 second delay with that? I would really appreciate some more feedback on this.
Tim McAvinney wrote:What I think is that whenever I touch the Space Navigator, AutoCAD is switching from the 2D wireframe visual style to the 3D wireframe style and back to 2D. I'm basing this on the tell-tale change in the UCS icon
Indeed it does create a 3D view, but does not you background turn gray as well, or did you have a previous version of the plug-in installed?


Markus
ngomes
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Post by ngomes »

Hi all,

Please refer to this post if you like to check the latest information regarding the "regen" issue.
mbonk
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Post by mbonk »

gnbisanz wrote: 2. Space Navigator does not respect locked viewports in paperspace, and will instead reposition/rescale model geometry from the intended (and locked) values.
Could you please explain what exactly the issue is. That the plug-in unlocks locked layers is currently required so that it can navigate the paperspace view. Is the issue that the layer does not get relocked or are there other effects?
gnbisanz
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Post by gnbisanz »

mbonk,

This problem does not have to do with layers. The problem is that the viewports themselves do not stay locked (position and scale in modelspace) when I use my SpaceNavigator while editing the model while looking through the viewport. The SpaceNavigator essentially ignores the location and size of the viewport "window" that I have created and locked, and instead moves and re-sizes the "window."

Steps to re-create (on my computer, at least).

1. Create some sort of geometry in modelspace.
2. Go to a layout tab, and create a viewport (the remaining steps all occur while in the same layout tab).
3. Double-click the viewport, then pan/zoom with the SpaceNavigator until a desired view is found.
4. Go back into paperspace, select the viewport, right-click, then set "view locked" to "Yes."
5. Add dimensions in paperspace (dimassoc = 2) snapped to modelspace objects visible in the viewport.
5. Double click the viewport again, to set modelspace active, then pan or zoom with the AutoCAD commands. The view stays at the same location and scale, and all of paperspace pans or zooms with these commands. The viewport itself is "locked." Dimensions in paperspace associated to objects in modelspace stay in the same relative location and are still associative to the objects.
6. Now use the SpaceNavigator to pan/zoom. The behavior is identical to that of step 3! The objects in modelspace move, rather than the viewport and annotations as a whole. This completely orphans the dimensions placed into paperspace, and position/scale information that was locked into the viewport is now corrupted. The SpaceNavigator does not understand or respect the fact that I have "Locked" the viewport in AutoCAD (or anything based in AutoCAD, such as AutoCAD Mechanical).

Thank you for your continued interest in this topic. Hopefully this is enough detail for your needs, but if you need any clarification please let me know.
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Post by mbonk »

Hi gnbisanz,

Thank you for the test scenario. I just got back from the christmas break, but I will take a look at this as soon as possible this week.
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