{"id":184,"date":"2009-04-19T04:39:47","date_gmt":"2009-04-19T12:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184"},"modified":"2010-07-12T20:45:06","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T04:45:06","slug":"3dconnexion-spacepilot-pro-tinkering-with-buttons-and-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been tinkering with the SpacePilot PRO.\u00a0 I love customization.\u00a0 The SpacePilot PRO offers a high level of customization.\u00a0 I will discuss different facets of the device in future articles.\u00a0 This time I am writing about the programmable buttons.<\/p>\n

\"SpacePilotThe SpacePilot PRO has 21 programmable buttons.\u00a0 Additionally, 10 of those buttons have dual mappings for a total of 31 mapped commands.\u00a0 That is a lot!\u00a0 On top of that, each of the buttons are mapped differently for each program or mode supported by the device.\u00a0 Within SolidWorks itself, there are three different mappings: Drawing, Part and Assembly modes.\u00a0 (There is no mapping just for sketches, but there should be.)<\/p>\n

Many of the buttons are directly related to functionality of the device or specific commands that are defined by intuitive icons.\u00a0 Ultimately, I only recommend changing the mapping for the five buttons.\u00a0 These are the dual mapped buttons labelled 1\/6, 2\/7, 3\/8, 4\/9, and 5\/10.\u00a0 When holding the left hand over the navigation knob, these buttons fall under the pinky finger. Giving the dual mapped button a single quick press initiates the first command.\u00a0 To choose the second command instead, press and hold the button down for a second.\u00a0 These buttons are a little awkward at first (being under the pinky), but I got used to it pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

The 5 dual mapped buttons to the right of the knob (accessed with the thumb or index finger) provide quick access to standard model views.\u00a0 For example, one button jumps to the front or back views of the model.\u00a0 Most of the standard model views are covered by this set of buttons.\u00a0 However, one thing that is missing is the ability to save a named view and to return to it at any time.\u00a0 Given the level of detail that has gone into the SpacePilot PRO, it surprizes me that this ability is missing.\u00a0 I think this is one of the points I mentioned to 3Dconnexion back in February.<\/p>\n

So, you know what I did?\u00a0 I made up for this missing functionality by writing a pair of macros that do just that.\u00a0 One saves the current model view as a named view.\u00a0 The other returns to that named view.\u00a0 I then programmed these two functions to button 1\/6.\u00a0 (I’ve already uploaded these to my resources site here: Quick View Save and Restore<\/a>.\u00a0 These macros can actually be used with any device with programmable functions, or even just as icons on a toolbar.) Let’s hope that 3Dconnexion covers this basic function in future iterations of their 3D mice.<\/p>\n

Hint: for users of SolidWorks 2008 and 2009, I would recommend programming one of the buttons to the letter “S” for the shortcut toolbar.\u00a0 This would practically eliminate the need to touch the keyboard except for typing notes and numbers.<\/p>\n

Overall, I have found that the plentiful number of buttons is a big plus for the SpacePilot PRO<\/a>.\u00a0 These buttons extend the functionality of the device beyond just being a 3D mouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been tinkering with the SpacePilot PRO.\u00a0 I love customization.\u00a0 The SpacePilot PRO offers a high level of customization.\u00a0 I will discuss different facets of the device in future articles.\u00a0 This time I am writing about the programmable buttons. The SpacePilot PRO has 21 programmable buttons.\u00a0 Additionally, 10 of those buttons have dual mappings for … Continue reading “3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,95,9,17,11,5,3],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-macros","category-methodology","category-model-assembly","category-news","category-product-review","category-tipstricks"],"yoast_head":"\n3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views) - SolidWorks Legion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views) - SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve been tinkering with the SpacePilot PRO.\u00a0 I love customization.\u00a0 The SpacePilot PRO offers a high level of customization.\u00a0 I will discuss different facets of the device in future articles.\u00a0 This time I am writing about the programmable buttons. The SpacePilot PRO has 21 programmable buttons.\u00a0 Additionally, 10 of those buttons have dual mappings for … Continue reading "3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views)"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-19T12:39:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-07-13T04:45:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/fcsuper.com\/images\/Blog\/SpacePilot.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fcsuper\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"headline\":\"3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views)\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-19T12:39:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-07-13T04:45:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\"},\"wordCount\":496,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/fcsuper.com\/images\/Blog\/SpacePilot.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"How-To\",\"macros\",\"Methodology\",\"Model Assembly\",\"News\",\"Product Review\",\"Tip\/Trick\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=184\",\"name\":\"3DConnexion SpacePilot PRO (Tinkering with buttons and views) - 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