First movement always same direction.... SpacePilot/I-deas12

dick ward · Post by **dick ward** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:04 am

I've been using an old SpaceXX (navigator, I think it was) for about 5 years, with our I-deas cad, very good indeed, until it failed totally in Feb this year. Replaced it with a SpacePilot, with mixed results.
It has quite a large "dead" region, compared to the old model. You have to move the knob a millimetre or so before the model will move. I have got used to that, but now, 2 or 3 times a day, a change happens: any (even very small) movement in this dead region makes the model move, but always the same way (usually +X direction) irrespective of the direction of knob movement or rotation. Further movement of the knob, beyond this central region, then moves the model correctly.
I can make this behaviour go away by moving the knob to the extreme positions a few times (adjusting the driver settings or using the calibrate function does not make any difference). I reported this to my supplier, they were very good and sent me a new one right away, but this does exactly the same thing!!
Anybody else got this problem?

agoenczi · Post by **agoenczi** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:10 am

Hi Dick Ward

If you have such problems, please test the device with the available demos. You will find them under "Start -> All Programs -> 3Dconnexion -> 3Dconnexion 3DxWare -> Demos". I would recommend the "Cube3D Demo", but you can test with one of your choice. Do you see the same drift in the demo as well?

dick ward · Post by **dick ward** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:45 am

That's a good idea, next time it happens I will try it and report back, thanks.

dick ward · Post by **dick ward** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:27 am

I have now tried this, it does NOT happen in the 3Dcube demo, or any other app that I have tried. It seems to be a problem just with I-deas cad. When it occurs, I can make it go away by a view/zoom comand, such as selecting a point and pressing the 'Fit' button on the SP, or by turning perspective view off in I-deas.
I guess I will have to raise it as a bug with UGS.

agoenczi · Post by **agoenczi** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:36 am

Hi dick ward

Right. It doesn't happens in the demos: the device hasn't any hardware issue. And I guess it works well in other applications too (if you could test it in another applications, it would be great). And the navigation is an implementation of UGS...

mileshatem · Post by **mileshatem** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:48 pm

I realize this post is rather old, but I have just inherited a space navigator from another engineer and am having the exact same problem.

A "drift" in a specific direction will occur in I-deas (I am using NX-Ideas5, aka Ideas13). It is especially pronounced when zoomed in on detail areas of large models. The problem also seems to grow with time, such that it "drifts" faster and faster the more you use the navigator on the model. If I use the snap view function, the problem temporarily resides, but comes back as soon as I move or rotate the model any half significant amount.

I've checked the calibration, as Dick did, and it is not the problem, which is especially evident by the fact that the drift is always in the same direction relative to the model, not the screen.

I've also checked multiple other software packages (NX5, Solidoworks, Femap, Google Earth, Abaqus and all of the demos) for the same problem and none of them have it.

So, I guess what I am wondering is if there was ever a resolution found to the problem...

dick ward · Post by **dick ward** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:16 am

Hi mileshatem, no I never did find the solution to this problem. It certainly is only Ideas that causes it (we are also on NX-ideas 5), the quickest way to fix it for a few minutes is to do a screen repaint or a refresh.
I have now ditched the Space Pilot in favour of the old model SpaceMouse Plus. Although the issue is still there with this model, it is much less of a problem. I think this is because the dead zone is much smaller, and the unwanted movement is almost un-noticeable. I also prefer the action, it is easier to make very small, precise movements.
A while ago, one of our old Plus units broke, and I took it apart to see how it was made. very complicated unit, must have been a nightmare to assemble and set up in production. Obviously, the new range has been re-designed for lower cost assembly, but I think they have lost something in the precision of the movement.
I haven't bothered to report this to Siemens PLM as a bug, mainly because I am now happy with the way the older mouse works, but also I suspect not much Ideas development work is being done now.