Space Mouse Pro - Is it a Disappointment?!?

#1

since 10 Years, 80% of my Job is 3D Application oriented - mainly Maya and frequently Z-brush. I was always fascinated by Maya’s simple Alt + mouse buttons navigation. I am still wondering why other applications have complicated Navigation button combinations. I even would prefer such a navigation for 2D applications as Photoshop etc.

  In my mind Space Moses were the only thing which could be better     than button + mouse combinations. I first saw such a thing in BMW's     FIZ in Munich during a Internship. I didn't used it, but i saw how     intuitive and easy the guy navigated through the scene. I was     mesmerized! 
  
  But i always thought those things are only for engineering kind of     software. 
  
  Recently i heard from a friend, that there are space mouses which     should work with every 3D application. I was surprised that i never     heard of it for so many Years. As i work mainly for Advertising, i     am resistant against it and i really never came across the 3D     Connixion Devices.
  
  Currently i am switching to Modo and i thought about Navigation     improvement - i didn't want to face navigation differences.
  
  I must admit - i didn't red a lot about the 3D Connexion Devices, but     everything i red was great. I couldn't imagine there could be a     problem with them. I was sure i didn't want the basic Space     Navigator because i needed something stable, which can't slide     arrowed as i navigate and off course the additional customizable     buttons..
  
  I ordered a Space Muse Pro. I was so exited es it came on 21     January.
  It looks great, the finish is great and the first "test     drive" was fantastic. So smooth and intuitive. I needed just an hour     of navigating and i was already super comfortable with it.
  
  Unfortunately 4 days later i have some serious drawbacks.
  
  First hours, first very, very big Disappointment: Zbrush is not     supported!? Why this? Is there any explainable Reason for that? As i     mentioned above - i didn't red a lot about the devices,  otherwise i     would know about this Problem.
  
  This First one i could live with, hopping soon someone would make up     his mind.
  
  But here we go with the LIST of problems i have in Maya. Problems,     which i can not ignore because they are destroying my workflow     completely. I am actually faster with the mouse.
  
  1. Navigation should work in every Maya's editor window which     includes 2D Editors as UV Texture Editor, Hypergraph, Hypershader     etc.. In those cases i have to use my mouse again - no good..
  2. Rotation button remapping disappearance - i red about this     problem in other thread, but there is still no proper solution.
  3. Strange Navigation on Groops - navigation pivot is somewhere ot     of bounding box (there are no empty sets out of the actual geometry)     pivot is also not updating in those cases.
  
  Now i am desperate. On one side i have something, which have a great     potential - in my mind, but the reality is different.
  
  My only hope is to here good things about Modo, as i want to switch     completely. 
  
  Otherwise i have to sell the device.
  
  Or you guys can convince me to keep it?
  
  Is there a realistic expectation, that the above described Problems     will be extinguished soon.
  
  I am grateful for any advice.
#2

Hey man,

I used to have one, but I ended up just giving it away. I think I used it for around a week before giving up on it.

It really doesn’t work well for Maya, given the large amount of hotkeys. I found having to constantly move my left hand from the keyboard to the knob just slowed me down.

-AJ

#3

Everyone I know that bought one has them gathering dust on a shelf. The reality is that it doesnt let you navigate much faster and all the drawbacks arent worth it.

#4

Same here. It was OK for small scenes, but it became completely unresponsive (in Max) with more than a million polys, where the standard navigations controls were still totally fluid. I still have mine and plug it in from time to time when they release new drivers, but problems still persist to this day. Fortunately, I only bought the cheapest model…
I have a multi-button mouse and mapped all the navigation controls on it. Dont even need the keyboard. Much faster and much more intuitive than the 3D mouse.

#5

Once the novelty wears out they’re really only useful for a few things. The support is horrible too as they drop platforms and applications very quickly, so if you don’t have the latest and greatest everything (including their hardware) things won’t work.

#6

thanks for the clear opinion about Mayas very limited compatibility… it is according exactly with my short experiance…

as i mentioned above i want to switch to Modo… dose somebody have experience on how good is the device working with this software… i still do not know Modo…

If there is a chance for good workflow in Modo i will keep the Space Mouse…

#7

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