3ds Max navigation enhancements

loocas · Post by **loocas** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:10 am

Hi there,

I'd like to submit some suggestions as to how to enhance the navigation using, in my case, SpaceExplorer in 3ds Max.

1) Please, make the 2D button mappable so that I can assign another VIEW for example, so that I can have FRONT, TOP, RIGHT, LEFT and PERSPECTIVE

2) Also, make the splash screen toggleable, I don't need to see that I'm using 3DConnexion's SpaceExplorer each time. The thing is I run multiple Max windows and each time I run one, while working in the other, it pops up for a few seconds which distracts, obscures my view and delays my work. It's seconds, but still quite annoying. The other thing is, for the time it shows up I'm able to open up a recent scene, but the white rectangle just obscures too much of the view.

3) When in ortho views such as TOP, FRONT etc... (I re-mapped them in the settings so that I use native 3ds Max orthos) when panning it switches to a USER view with the same position. While it looks the same, it DOES NOT behave the same, for example, I can't see the GRID anymore as USER view only shows the bottom one like the perspective view. But the worst thing is, since USER behaves more like perspective (in fact, it is a perspective view but with ortho projection, i.e. without the skew) I CANNOT create objects in the TOP/FRONT view manner, it'll draw the object on the bottom, not in front of me!

These minor things can be very easily fixed I believe while it'll BOOST UP the user experience at least in 3ds Max!

I'll appretiate any comments/suggestions but most of all the hot-fix

cheers

agoenczi · Post by **agoenczi** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:46 am

Hi loocas

Thank you for posting here.

1. You can map almost any key of your SpaceExplorer except the dedicated keys, which are: "2d" (toggle between 2D and 3D), "-" (decrease sensitivity), "+" (increase sensitivity), "PANEL" (displays the driver GUI) and "Fit" (fits the image on the screen). If you need more programmable keys I would propose you buying a SpacePilot which has a display to show some status information and the commands mapped to the 6 standard programmable buttons.

2. Do you mean the 3Dconnexion splash-screen? I will forward your request to our development.

3. This issue is an Autodesk related-one. 3Dconnexion developers are using the API available but don't have access to the programm-code which is Autodesk intelectual property. Please read this post.

loocas · Post by **loocas** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:47 am

Hi there agoenczi, thanks for your reply, I'll further extend my wish below:

agoenczi wrote:1. You can map almost any key of your SpaceExplorer except the dedicated keys, which are: "2d" (toggle between 2D and 3D), "-" (decrease sensitivity), "+" (increase sensitivity), "PANEL" (displays the driver GUI) and "Fit" (fits the image on the screen). If you need more programmable keys I would propose you buying a SpacePilot which has a display to show some status information and the commands mapped to the 6 standard programmable buttons.

- Yes, I understand, however, especially the 2D button would really be super-useful if it was mappable! As for SpacePilot, I did consider it, I actually had the chance to test the device for a week before purchasing my SpaceExplorer. The reason I didn't go for SpacePilot is the fact that the programmable keys, especially switching between different modes, was a bit of an issue as I very often and frequently jump from one app to another etc... SpaceExplorer works for me 99%, the remaining 1% would be the wishes above

agoenczi wrote:2. Do you mean the 3Dconnexion splash-screen? I will forward your request to our development.

- Yes. It's a pain seeing it all the times especially when working in other app and launching Max, for example, it pops up and I can't get rid of it. I don't need to be constantly reminded that I'm using a 3DConnexion device

agoenczi wrote:3. This issue is an Autodesk related-one. 3Dconnexion developers are using the API available but don't have access to the programm-code which is Autodesk intelectual property. Please read this post.

- Oks, I understand. It'd be great if it worked thou, since the flat views cannot be navigated with SpaceExplorer when trying to model something.

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Another wish:

Please, make the nav. cylinder inputs be accessible via MAXScript if not re-mappable. Well, actually, all the buttons should be accessible. I could then re-map the inputs to whatever actions I'd like to do in MAXScript. I.e.: when animating, I could map twisting the cylinder to going through frames and not navigating.

Thank you, cheers...

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