The SolidWorks Geek

On April 16, 2009 3Dconnexion announced the release of a new addition to their line of 3D mice, the SpacePilot PRO. I recently received my review unit from the company and I was very excited since I have never had the chance to use a 3D mouse in the past. As soon as I opened the FedEx box, I had the mouse connected and running within 15 minutes.I was like a kid a Christmas and I couldn’t wait to see what all the buzz was about. Let me just say… I wasn’t disappointed.

The Heart of a 3D Mouse

If you are like me and you have never used a 3D mouse before then you are missing out. Over the years of using SolidWorks, I have become very proficient at manipulating the view in the Graphics Area by using the scroll wheel on the mouse. With nothing to compare it to, I thought the a regular mouse was more then sufficient for rotating, panning and zooming. But just 10 minutes after using the SpacePilot PRO, I know I will never go back to just using a regular mouse in SolidWorks.

Looking beyond all the buttons and displays, the Controller Cap is the heart of the SpacePilot Pro. The Controller Cap allows you to quickly and easily move in all 6 degrees of freedom simultaneously. With the scroll wheel on your mouse you can rotate the view, zoom and pan but not at the same time but with the SpacePilot…. It is so easy to manipulate your view. And it is not as hard as you may think, I am a complete novice and I was able to become very comfortable within a couple of minutes. After installing the mouse, I actually spent an hour playing in Google Earth using the SpacePilot. I felt like Superman flying around the planet effortlessly. If you ever get a chance to do it, I highly recommend it.

The Color LCD Workflow Assistant

The SpacePilot PRO brings the addition of a new color LCD screen called the Workflow Assistant. This screen gives you a “at-a-glance” access to your MS Outlook e-mail, calender and task lists. It also displays the commands that are mapped to each of the function keys depending on what program is currently active. There is also a RSS Feed functions that provides you with a list of recent articles that are posted for the sites you subscribe to.

Setting up your email, calendar and task list is beyond easy. Nothing has to been done in the software, all you need to do is open Outlook and you will instantly be able to view everything on the screen. The RSS feed took me some time to figure out, I couldn’t find anything in the documentation on how to set up RSS feeds but after a few minutes of digging through the control panel I was able to add all the feeds I wanted.

I know that the LCD screen was one of the top selling points with the mouse but I must be honest, I very rarely looked at it except to view which commands were mapped to the function keys. I was also a little disappointed to learn that there was no notification of new emails or scheduled meetings. In fact, the only way to see if you have new emails or scheduled meetings is to open Outlook Mail or Outlook Calendar on the screen. I guess I have been spoiled by on-screen notifications.

With that being said, I think there is still a huge potential for the Workflow Assistant. 3Dconnexion did the right thing by creating a open software architecture for the mouse. This will allow developers to create some compelling software applications for the Workflow Assistant. The first person to develop a decent Twitter app for the SpacePilot PRO will forever be my personal hero.

Navigation Keys

The Navigation Keys are conveniently located to the right of the Controller Cap. It is the perfect location because you can quickly switch between all of the standard views with your thumb. After a while I was able to switch through all 32 standard views with out even looking. This allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing on the screen. You might be thinking, “32 views from 5 keys… really?” Well, three of the buttons give you the Front, Back, Left, Right, Top and Bottom views. The middle button gives you two isometric views and the rest of the views are achieved by the last button on the top left. This button rotates the view by a preset increment, the increments and the standard views add up to 32.  Each button has two views associate with it. quickly clicking the button gives you the first view and clicking and holding the button will give you the second view. Once you get used to it, it is extremely easy.

Intelligent Function Keys

On the left side of the Controller Cap are the Intelligent Function Keys. These 5 keys are fully customizable to allow you to quickly intiate up to 10 commands. So what makes them intelligent? Well, the SpacePilot PRO automatically detects which application is active and if it is a supported program, the keys will remap to the functions for that program. If you have been a long time reader of the blog, you should know how much I love the Shortcut Toolbar. To be honest, I only need one function key in this group and it wasn’t available by default; so the first thing I did was remap the center button to the Shortcut Toolbar and I couldn’t be happier.

Conclusion

I am in total love with the SpacePilot PRO and it is not because I got mine for free. In fact, I am considering moving so 3Dconnexion won’t be able to find me when it is time for me to return the unit. If you are a professional designer or 3D modeler you would find the SpacePilot PRO extremely helpful. The list price ($499) may seem a little high but your company will make that money back in time saved. I think that as developers begin creating killer apps for the Workflow Assistant, it will be extremely difficult to ignore the SpacePilot PRO.

Specifications

The SpacePilot PRO is back by a three-year warranty, and is currently available at a suggested retail price of $499. More information can be found on the manufacturers website at http://www.3dconnexion.com/spp/index.php.

- Operating Systems:

• Windows XP and Windows Vista
• Sun Solaris 8 (SPARC); Sun Solaris 10 (x86)
• Linux

- Processor:

• PC – Intel Pentium 4/III or AMD/Athlon processor based system

- Disk Space:

• Windows – 250 megabytes