CAD Tech Tools

[dirtbikerxz]

Does anyone use any fancy "tech tools" to help with CAD-ing? By tech tools I mean a special mouse, or a special headset etc. Just anything like that.

Or if not, feel free to share your ordinary CAD-ing setup as well.


Currently, I am working on a "custom" keyboard with labeled keycaps for all the various shortcuts of Inventor, I will post pictures when I am done . I also find using my Logitech Mx Master helps a lot because of the secondary horizontal scroll wheel and extra buttons (and comfort).

[AdamHeard]

I use a combination of keyboard shortcuts, and a logitech g700 with 3 sets of commands for Solidworks.

I tried out a g600, but it's just too many buttons and too awkward of an angle for my thumb.

Every once in a while I get my spaceball out and try to get in the groove of it, but I find a combination keyboard commands and middle mouse + middle mouse click is quicker for me to navigate most of the time as I don't have to pull hands off the keyboard.

[Sperkowsky]

I use a g600 which is mapped to various solidworks tools along with a variety of shortcuts I standardized among my team.

The amount of buttons and ring click is really nice if you can get used to using it.

[asid61]

I use some kind of nice mouse with two buttons on the side of my thumb. I mapped the two buttons to "." and "enter" so that I can get through windows a bit faster and type numbers quickly.
Sometimes I use it, other times I don't. In all honesty I find that hotkeys are the biggest improvement that I have made, while the rest remain very minor in effect.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I use a combination of keyboard shortcuts, and a logitech g700 with 3 sets of commands for Solidworks.



I tried out a g600, but it's just too many buttons and too awkward of an angle for my thumb.



Every once in a while I get my spaceball out and try to get in the groove of it, but I find a combination keyboard commands and middle mouse + middle mouse click is quicker for me to navigate most of the time as I don't have to pull hands off the keyboard.

+1 to all of this. I use the same setup and it's great.

[Nbot]

I've never used one but 3D mouses are an option. Here's a thread discussing them.

[pwnageNick]

Originally Posted by Nbot

I've never used one but 3D mouses are an option. Here's a thread discussing them.

I tried using one for a little while when I had access to one. It's definitely a huge learning curve. People I know that are able to use them constantly all the time swear by them and say they can't CAD without them now, so maybe worth looking into.

[CMBrandon]

Our teams have always told us that for CAD they really like our MasterKeys series. Being able to program the keys and color code them on the fly makes the workflow quicker. For mice, the Sentinel III is currently the most popular choice. We have out MasterMouse coming soon which will be AMAZING and super modular.

For those of you that attended our seminar, you got to check out all of these and more.

http://www.coolermaster.com/peripher...terkeys-pro-l/
http://www.coolermaster.com/peripher.../sentinel-iii/

[Brian662]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

I tried using one for a little while when I had access to one. It's definitely a huge learning curve. People I know that are able to use them constantly all the time swear by them and say they can't CAD without them now, so maybe worth looking into.

+1 to this. I previously had access to one, and it was pretty helpful.

I also use a Logitech g600, I cannot live without it. It's a bit awkward at first but once you have that many buttons there is no going back.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Nbot

I've never used one but 3D mouses are an option. Here's a thread discussing them.

That thread is almost 5 years old! Here's what I said then:

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It's not the context of this thread, but this controller looks like something that would be great for precisely controlling a robot that has multiple degrees of freedom. We tried to set up the most intuitive control system possible for our 5-dof underwater robot using a gamepad type controller and it was just short of a nightmare to drive smoothly. This kind of input would have made it much easier to control. It looks ideal for swerve/omni FRC drivetrains as well, since it's not as cumbersome as a 3-axis joystick.

As an interface for CADing, I don't think I would get much out of it. The ability to click/move a mouse with one hand and use shortcuts with the other already makes work very efficient, and as Cory mentioned you can already do the same navigation movements using mouse wheel/shortcut keys. Still wouldn't mind trying it out though!

Since then, I've had the chance to try a 3d mouse with Solidworks, and I could not get into it at all. It's much easier to use a shortcut key and a mouse/mouse wheel to rotate and zoom into place. Probably because I've been using a mouse interface forever, and going through a big learning curve to get used to a joystick seems pointless when there's almost nothing gained from it.

(Unrelated: but I've changed my mind about possibly using one as a robot controller as well. Mixing so many control axis into one joystick always seems to be cumbersome, regardless if it's shaped like a joystick or a doorknob.)


I tend to try to keep most of the hotkeys I use on my home machine close to the default ones in Solidworks. This is mostly so I don't feel completely disoriented when trying to demonstrate something while jumping from computer to computer at the school.

[Basel A]

When I was doing a lot of CAD at my job last summer, I loved using a 3D mouse. There's some learning curve, but it's absurdly fast at a constant task (rotation/panning/other movement). It also avoids having to think about whether rotate or pan is the default mouse wheel click behaviour (it's different between Inventor and Solidworks). Altogether, it definitely made me faster (and this was in my 8th year of doing CAD).

I did find the default controls to be unintuitive. When you rotate down, the object shouldn't rotate up. It's like scrolling on an Apple mouse. Once I flipped the controls, the learning curve wasn't bad at all.

[Chris is me]

I'm a big fan of my G600. I really enjoy having three physical buttons for CAD not tied to a scroll wheel, I think it's a must. When I did Inventor I mapped some of the shortcut buttons on the left to hotkeys, but I haven't set that up for Solidworks yet. My plan is to use the three sets of hotkeys for sketches, assemblies, and view rotation, but I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to map the buttons yet. (Suggestions would be really appreciated if anyone else uses this mouse)

[anthonyttu]

After playing with different 3D mice I went with a 3DConnection Space Navigator. I do agree there is a learning curve but its not that bad. It will quickly make CAD go a lot faster. Especially for someone that knows and uses the keyboard shorts cuts. It also works with almost every program on your computer you will use it way more then you think.

On a negative note it does make it difficult to teach someone to CAD when they won't have all the same tools on there system like they did when using yours.

[bcampbell]

On our team we just teach the students to use their mouse for CAD. When you are working on a robot which has relatively small parts and the top assembly is contained within a couple feet I think it is no big deal to use a mouse.

At work a 3D space ball is a must. When you are working on planes or spacecraft that are massive models it is easier to manipulate with a 3D mouse. System performance also becomes a factor as some models at work of a whole airplane or satellite really bog down your machine. A mouse can be "too" reactive if you are trying to change your view by only a little bit... At work I use the spacemouse pro and most people on the program will not work without one. It also allows use to make adjustments in multiple axes at once.

However, when I am working on the robot I dont feel like it is necessary since the parts are pretty small and performance is super fast.

[sanddrag]

We are beginning to use a 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse for our lead CAD and CAM students. It definitely takes several hours of practice to become proficient, but they're beginning to like it, and they're faster on it than just a standard mouse and keyboard combo. After practice, I'm still about the same speed as my classical methods.

I was very reluctant to try it at first, and I felt like I was not very good at it, but it's starting to grow on me. The real benefit is for orbiting CAM simulations in Inventor HSM. It's very smooth with this mouse. I can also see it being good for doing demos and lessons when I'm teaching, and not necessarily working really fast, but want to focus on the task rather than on constantly manipulating viewing tools.

If anyone in the Western US is looking for some more info on the 3Dconnexion stuff, PM me; I know their product rep for this region quite well.