3Dconnexion has posted today a new release for Windows.
Release 3.9 includes the implementation of enhancement 4683. The enhancement is related to the automation of the rotation centre in SolidWorks.
What's new for SolidWorks users?
- New "Auto Rotation Center" algorithm
The code for the automatic definition of the rotation centre is completely new. It will now set the rotation centre to model volume centre when the shaded geometry is in full view.
When zoomed in, the rotation centre will be set to a point on intersection of the shaded geometry and the view center.
- Manual setting
It is now possible (in SW2008 and newer) to change set the rotation centre by pressing-and-holding the Control key and clicking on the shaded geometry using the middle mouse button (what we refer to as a Ctrl+MMB action).
Doing a Ctrl+MMB action on empty space will reset the rotation centre to default (volume centre if "auto rotation center" is disabled).
- Rotation Center visualisation
The rotation centre is now represented with a small 16x16 icon. There are three options to visualise your rotation centre: Always, On Motion and Never. These are self-explanatory:- Always: the rotation centre icon is always visible;
- On Motion: the rotation centre is only visible when the 3D mouse is actively changing the view (pan/zoom, rotate).
- Never: as in pre-release 3.9 software. No icon is shown
The option "Auto Rotation Center" is enabled by default when you first install or upgrade to Release 3.9. This and other options can be changed on the "3Dcontrol Properties" dialogue panel: SolidWoks menu -> 3Dcontrol -> Properties.
Release 3.9 is available for your SpaceNavigator (all editions), SpaceExplorer USB, SpacePilot and SpacePilot PRO hardware from the web site
download page.
We would like to thank all of you who have provided very valued feedback and suggestion on how to improve our software. What improvement will come next will -- now as before -- depend very much how what our customers have to say about the software.