hi guys
just curious how effective the 3d input devices like 3d connexion stuff are, does anyone use one?
I couldn’t live without mine. I love it, any other way of getting around your scene is just clunky.
I have the basic model of the 3D Connexions space traveler.
BUY ONE NOW!!! :lol:
They are REALLLLLY cheap nowadays.
interested in this myself.
i was looking at the cheaper sapce navigator, but that has only 2 buttons instead of the traveller’s 8.
My appologies, I always get confused. I have the 2 button one. Its ace, at the price it is now, there is really no reason not to own one. 
@Blitterswitch…do you find 2 buttons are enough?
…just checked out the prices here in HK and they’re cheaper than online…
If you have the money I would suggest you get the one with the palm rest and the millions of buttons - not the one with the screen though - even the rep I bought mine from said it was a waste of time.
Two buttons is enough to work though, one zooms to the selected object and the other brings up the 3dconnexions config menu - although you can configure them to do anything you want.
I’ve tested the Traveller with the 8 buttons, and I found it a bit annoying to be honest.
I thought it wasn’t heavy enough because I kept lifting it and some of the buttons were hard to reach.
I can image the SpacePilot is very good even though it costs alot more.
10X for ur thoughts guys
I have one and don’t use it
I have a 3D connxion SpaceMouse with 8 buttons and I hardly every used it, not sure why, it took alot of time to set up. Now I use a 3m Ergonomic mouse ( basically a joysick with 3Buttons ) that I couldn’t live without. It is the only thing that stops my wristings and hand from getting f@CKED when I do all nighters. I find it much more accurate then a now mouse - hey if a crane driver and a helicopter pilot use a joystick it’s good enough for me.
One night while working a really heavy project the machine crashed, I had a little temper tantrum and slammed the joystick down breaking it. I was almost crying, I rush ordered another on, and couldn’t really work right until it arrived.
hope this helps.
sorry to hear that adam…
hey if a crane driver and a helicopter pilot use a joystick it’s good enough for me.
heavy duty user
this product is new to me…
switching to a wacom tablet stopped my wrist pain.
its also faster than a mouse after a few weeks
and its much easier when working in photoshop.
i dont like these space pilot devices,
i think it´s faster to work with hotkeys and tablet.
sold mine a few years ago.
i used to have a space ball 3d to play games with.
I’ve got a space pilot. The drivers are nearly worthless and they changed it so it only works with 3d apps.
If i’m paying That much for a special mouse I want to have control over every aspect of it. It should even be able to pan my emails if I want. The old drivers could do that, but don’t work well with max 9. The new drivers work ok in max 9, but not much of anything else.
I’ve got the screen, which is useless, and tons of buttons. Their locations are useless as well so I really only use the two buttons.
I actually only use the thing to control cameras now. Max’s tools for moving camera stink since you can’t use the same methods to move a camera as perspective. I don’t use the buttons, since I came from Maya, so i don’t want to use them for max either.
I would imagine the smaller ones have a problem lifting off the table though, so the wrist rest might be worth it.
Not a very useful purchase overall though.
hmmm…i guess there’s a reason why these devices haven’t taken off.. :?
I would say lack of patience to be honest! If you use it on Google Earth you will be hooked, and the skill you gain from that make it an amazingly productive tool in 3ds max.
Agreed.. it is pretty nice, its also hasn’t really been very long since the ‘cheap enough to be accessible’ version came out
I dig it.. I find it great for modeling interior work without having to kill/hide too many objects. its quite helpful also for dealing with ‘Other’ peoples models that aren’t necessarily clean about naming objects and layer management.
that, and the perspective view, and create camera from view rocks for picking viewpoints with a client quickly 
and I’ve found most of my architects can handle the viewpoint themselves with a few moments of instruction on how the 3d mouse works. (good conversation starter for ornery clients)
Just spotted this on the 3D connexion web site - they have a beta driver that lets you control any app
http://www.3dconnexion.com/supported-software/anywhere.html
…only taken them 3 years 
(sorry for the necromancy)
I have the SpaceNavigator and I would really rate it and say get one, although I got mine over a year ago for under £50 and looking now there around £100 which would have probably put me off at the time.
Flying around the scene like a computer game is good fun, it’s good for positioning cameras, visualising and recording camera animations, really precise when you need to get to an awkward vert as you can zoom really really close to what you want to select, its usefull when drawing splines as you can move/zoom/rotate the view as you draw, I can’t say enough about it.
I don’t use it all the time though, it isn’t as quick as using the mouse+keyboard in some cases, but for certain tasks it is excellent.
Also I have no problem with it lifting from the desk or slipping it is really heavy.
I haven’t used any of the other devices so don’t know how having the extra buttons helps but I don’t think there would be enough buttons for me. I use a Nostromo Speedpad rather than the keyboard. I think everyone should have a Speedpad they are really handy and for £10-£20 there a bargain.