Assigning a mouse click to a Space Navigator Button

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Zetec2000
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:29 pm

Assigning a mouse click to a Space Navigator Button

Post by Zetec2000 »

Using a SpaceNavigator SE in Windows XP with Catia V5 R16

Can I assign the button on my SpaceNavigator to be the equivalent of the middle mouse button in Catia?
This is the button that resets the rotation center to the mouse cursor position.

I have the Latest (installed today) version of the driver software
Many thanks,
~Brian
Peter
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center point rotation

Post by Peter »

Brian,
The left and right buttons on the Space Navigator can be configured by using the menus in the 3dx control panel. However, the left and right buttons cannot be configured to duplicate the command issued by pressing the center mouse button (I am assuming that you mean the scroll wheel button on the PC mouse).

Peter
jwick
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Post by jwick »

You can assign mouse buttons to SpaceNavigator buttons if you add three lines to your config file. As follows:

BUTTON_NUMBERS =
{
{ UI_SB1, "Button 1", 1 },
{ UI_SB2, "Button 2", 2 },
.
.
.
{ UI_SHIFT_CTRL_TAB_KEY, "Shift + Ctrl + Tab Keys", 106 },
{ UI_MOUSE_LEFT, "Left Mouse Button", 107 },
{ UI_MOUSE_MIDDLE, "Middle Mouse Button", 108 },
{ UI_MOUSE_RIGHT, "Right Mouse Button", 109 }
}

You will then have the three mouse button options in the Button Configuration tab and you can assign these to any SN button you want.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
gohowl
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Need more explanation

Post by gohowl »

jwick, I need more info on how to set this up on my machine. Which config file do I change, where, etc? I'm not familiar with modifying config files, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Greg
Spaceball 4000FLX
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Post by jwick »

Hi Greg,

If you are using CATIA V5 R16, your default config file will be CatiaR15+.scg.

Open this file with wordpad and add the lines mentioned before. It will probably be in C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3Dconnexion 3DxSoftware\3DxWare\en_us\profiles\default.

Then start CATIA, open the 3DxWare control panel, and choose the "CATIA" configuration (not the CATIA - username configuration). You can then assign your buttons and your changes will be saved into your CATIA - username configuration.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
gohowl
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Mouse click as a step

Post by gohowl »

Got it thanks. How would I make the mouse click a step w/in a new command? Also, I mixed it up on you. I'm using Inventor but your answer still makes sense.

Thanks,
Greg
Spaceball 4000FLX
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jwick
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Post by jwick »

Hi Greg,

You mean inside a keyboard macro? You can't, sorry. We'll have to consider that for our next release.

What exactly do you want to do? Maybe it is something we should add to the 3DxInventor plugin.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
gohowl
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Find in Browser

Post by gohowl »

That's what I was afraid of hearing. In this case I am trying to access "Find in Browser" in an assembly when I have a part highlighted. It looks like this command is not accessible directly with a keyboard shortcut in Inventor; you have to right click to get the shortcut menu and then press "B". I am constantly using this command and it would save a lot of mouse movement to be able to select a part then press a button on my Spacemouse.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg
Spaceball 4000FLX
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jwick
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Post by jwick »

Isn't the command available in the Inventor menus anywhere. As I recall, you can map any Inventor command in the 3DxInventor GUI. If not, you may be able to assign an Inventor macro to it, then an Inventor keyboard macro to that, then a 3Dx device button to activate that keyboard macro.

Of course, you could also assign the mouse button to one 3Dx button, and the B to another button and press and release them in order.
RogiervanRossen
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:36 am

Post by RogiervanRossen »

jwick wrote:You can assign mouse buttons to SpaceNavigator buttons if you add three lines to your config file. As follows:

BUTTON_NUMBERS =
{
{ UI_SB1, "Button 1", 1 },
{ UI_SB2, "Button 2", 2 },
.
.
.
{ UI_SHIFT_CTRL_TAB_KEY, "Shift + Ctrl + Tab Keys", 106 },
{ UI_MOUSE_LEFT, "Left Mouse Button", 107 },
{ UI_MOUSE_MIDDLE, "Middle Mouse Button", 108 },
{ UI_MOUSE_RIGHT, "Right Mouse Button", 109 }
}

You will then have the three mouse button options in the Button Configuration tab and you can assign these to any SN button you want.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
Hi Jim, this is exactly what I am trying for pro-engineer and solidworks.
I can choose the mousebuttons now, but they don't seem to work.

Am I missing something?
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Post by jwick »

Which mouse button(s) are you assigning for these two applications? What do you want it to do in each of these applications?
RogiervanRossen
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:36 am

Post by RogiervanRossen »

For Solidworks:
I'd like to assign the right mouse button to one of the buttons of my space explorer. a button press needs to give a right mouse click on the cursor position. (I am using this now by creating a shorcut key with "autohotkey" and assign this key to a button on the space explorer)

For Pro-Engineer Wildfire:
I'd like to assign the right mouse button to one of the buttons of my space explorer so that it can click and hold on the cursor position. (some menu's in pro-e require to hold the mousebutton some longer.)

The reason that I want to assign these buttons is that I use a tablet.
In both programs right clicking requires the cursor to be very steady.
JohannesL71
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Re: center point rotation

Post by JohannesL71 »

Peter wrote:Brian,
The left and right buttons on the Space Navigator can be configured by using the menus in the 3dx control panel. However, the left and right buttons cannot be configured to duplicate the command issued by pressing the center mouse button (I am assuming that you mean the scroll wheel button on the PC mouse).

Peter
:shock:

WHERE in the 3dx control do you configure the left or right mouse button ???

I was not able to do that unless I made an addition to one of the .scg-files....

and even then it didn't work although I was able to assign the functions of the mouse button to the SN button.

regards JohannesL
3draton
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Re:

Post by 3draton »

jwick wrote: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:26 am You can assign mouse buttons to SpaceNavigator buttons if you add three lines to your config file. As follows:

BUTTON_NUMBERS =
{
{ UI_SB1, "Button 1", 1 },
{ UI_SB2, "Button 2", 2 },
.
.
.
{ UI_SHIFT_CTRL_TAB_KEY, "Shift + Ctrl + Tab Keys", 106 },
{ UI_MOUSE_LEFT, "Left Mouse Button", 107 },
{ UI_MOUSE_MIDDLE, "Middle Mouse Button", 108 },
{ UI_MOUSE_RIGHT, "Right Mouse Button", 109 }
}

You will then have the three mouse button options in the Button Configuration tab and you can assign these to any SN button you want.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
Hi, I'm adding those lines to Desktop_2DMouse.xml in %PROGRAMDATA%/3Dconnexion/3DxWare/Cfg to have the two buttons do different actions,but it seems it still does what it's configured in

Is there another config file where those have to be added.

I'm using a 3d space mouse wireless.
jwick
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Re: Assigning a mouse click to a Space Navigator Button

Post by jwick »

Those lines are not from the current cfg file format. Those are from the old .scg files.
That's not XML and will probably cause that file to not be readable.

For normal use, the 3DxSmartUI GUI should do what you want.
If you want to do something outside the capabilities of 3DxSmartUI, I'll probably have to help you with that.
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