3D Connexion CAD Mouse and Space Mouse feedback

Previous software used a Kensington Track ball pretty well, but playing with Fusion 360 and I can/could see the advantages of using the Space Mouse for rotating and such. Wondered if folks had any feedback on the CAD Mouse they sell too, any great advantage over any other mouse? At $100 it's pretty pricey for a mouse, I don't mind spending the $100+ for the Space mouse, just not sure if the other mouse is that much better to warrant the expense, so thought I'd ask the experts.

Thanks, Brian

The Spacemouse is a must have here, I've never tried the cad mouse.

Same here, I changed shops a few years back and was totally lost programming without my space navigator from 3d connexion, kept reaching with my left hand for it. Told my boss next time I'm worth 85$ to get me one lol. Never had any issues with it in either shop.

I'm lost without my Space Explorer and the secondary computer in the other building has a Space Navigator on it. They might take a little while to get used to but as soon as you do it's hard to do without. On the more feature rich devices customizing the function buttons for commands that you use frequently is really nice. Things like picking center of rotation, view changing, zoom extents and lots of other most used commands.

I've been using the 3dconnexion spacenavigator for almost 10 years now. It's great! I use it for SolidWorks, and do a fair amount of my work in the field in some pretty grungy industrial environments. Even with the rough use and getting banged around in my laptop bag, it's never given me any problems.

The only downside is that I've grown pretty dependent on it. I forgot to bring it on one of my trips. It was pretty excruciating trying to get anything done without it... like trying to throw a ball with your non-dominate hand.

Nice to hear all the input. I'll start slow with the Space Mouse and then decide down the road if the CAD Mouse is a worthwhile addition.

I'm still running the one with the ball (5000 series, I think), and like it. Can any of you mousers come up with a good reason to "upgrade" ?

On my laptop I have the spacemouse wireless puck like device, on my desktop I have both the SpaceMouse pro and the CAD mouse.

I did take the time to program some of the buttons on the SpaceMouse Pro to commands I use a lot, like undo, delete, etc. I would recommend the same. I like the Pro over the regular SpaceMouse, but either is better than not having one at all.

Regarding the CADMouse, I like it but would not say it's leaps and bounds better than any other decent quality mouse. One big plus, it is very smooth, especially when paired with the mouse pad 3Dconnexion makes for it. If you like precise mouse clicking on your screen, it's great.
It also has a roller wheel in addition to a middle mouse button, where on other mice the roller is the middle mouse button, and each is programmable. One thing I had to get used to, I was using a logitech mouse, and the CADMouse is a little larger, and early on I'd hit the middle button instead of the right button at times.

If I could only pick one, I'd go with the SpaceMouse Pro (or their newer Enterprise model, which I have not used yet)

SeaMoss said:

I'm still running the one with the ball (5000 series, I think), and like it. Can any of you mousers come up with a good reason to "upgrade" ?

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Aside from a lack of configurable button the old ball devices were fine. All of ours eventually had the rubber skin of the ball come loose then they were removed from service. On each one it appeared like there was clear grease under each skin; from inside the ball? Was weird.

I have the space navigator (the entry level one, with only 2 buttons). I bought it probably 8 years ago. Used it for about a month, for a lot of design work in Solidworks and CAM in MasterCAM.

I liked using it for navigating the model, but I stopped using it because with only 2 buttons I was constantly taking my left hand off it to go to keyboard shortcuts. One of the models with more buttons would be more useful.

I did just take a look at it and it looks like the 2 buttons each can be used to display a pane of 4 options, so effectively you get 8 buttons out of it, but it requires a button press and a mouse click. I don't remember that being a feature when I first got it. Might give it another shot, assuming the new software still works with it.

Check out the basic Spacemouse for sure. You might even like it so much you'll consider a higher end model.

Corym said:

...I did just take a look at it and it looks like the 2 buttons each can be used to display a pane of 4 options, so effectively you get 8 buttons out of it, but it requires a button press and a mouse click. I don't remember that being a feature when I first got it. Might give it another shot, assuming the new software still works with it.

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I hear you. Do you remember the old 3DConnexion/Magellan Space Mice? I liked it so much because it had 11 single step buttons and used it as long as the old, un-updated driver would work but eventually had to retire them. They still worked great but 3DConnexion doesn't make any money supporting the old hardware.

I picked up a discontinued spacepilot on ebay for $75, one with lots of buttons. It looks like the seller has quite a few more. They're HP branded, I'm guessing they come from workstations off lease or something? Searching 396692-002 on ebay should let you find them...

The latest driver works still, but I think it's missing some features like the ability to remap the 6 axis to anything. It works great in solidworks, I can scroll in windows explorer, I can't scroll in firefox and I can't remap the zoom axis to a mousewheel so I could scroll in firefox. Not that big of a deal.

Also, 4-6 LCD buttons won't relabel properly. They stick saying cut, copy, paste and won't change if you remap them. This followed from my work computer to home computer, so I assume something in the software is broken. If you remap the buttons they will do what you've mapped them to, just no label.

I like it so far, pretty stuck using dominant axis for the time being. It does take some getting used to, I'm still faster scrolling around with the mousewheel but I murder scroll wheel buttons in a few months use and want to can the practice...