I’m wondering if there is a better input device than the mouse I’ve been using. It’s a fairly common Logitech with a wheel in the middle. I’m an old guy and my hands hurt sometimes after working for an hour or two. Over the years I’ve used trackballs and mice. Long time ago I used a drawing pad with a Mac. What’s popular amongst you folks that works well and maybe isn’t as tiring as a mouse?
I do a lot of architectural ironwork, but also tooling and fixturing drawings.
Hi Joe,
I’ve solved my arm problems with a graphic tablet (wacom) + 3d connexion space mouse.
No more pain… I can work all day in a comfortable position.
The problem is that changing from mouse to pen tablet isn’t so easy… so I can’t guarantee that it’s ok for you, it worked for me.
Another device that you can look at is the vertical mouse: it’s a mouse but the handle allows the hand to remain in a vertical position so the joints don’t get stressed.
Hope this can help you.
Cheers.
1 Like
Thanks. I’ll look into those. Yes, I can imagine changing to a pen tablet might be challenging. I tried an Anker vertical mouse and although it worked fine it didn’t really solve the pain issue for me.
Took a look at the space mouse. How does it work? Does it move around like older mice or do you just push, pull, and stuff on that handle?
There is one version that includes things like shift and cntrl.
The space mouse is a very useful device to navigate into your model.
It’s like a joystick that allows you to pan, zoom in and out, rotate in a very smooth way (the hardware is solid, heavy and well made).
This device usually is on the left hand and won’t solve completely the right hand mouse problem ('cause you still need to click on objects and run commands) but can help to avoid all the movements needed to change the view position.
As you stated, there are 3d mouses with programmable buttons that can be used as shortcut to run commands or to call menus or keyboard buttons (and this is another benefit for the right hand that don’t have to do all the work).
Almost everyone I know who bought one said they wouldn’t go back… but the price isn’t so cheap so would be better to start with a basic version… I wouldn’t pay 300 / 400 euros for a device that I use 20%…
I have one space mouse compact and one wireless (one at work and one at home) and that’s enough for me.
I’m on a Wacom tablet, too (intuos 4, old but sturdy). The pen has a tip (left mouse button), and a rocker button (middle and right button). It’s perfectly possible to work Rhino with it, with zero finger or wrist strain. You need to get used to it, though. (I’m using wacoms since mid 90ies).
Blessed Rhino has a ‘dynamic zoom’ feature, so you can zoom by holding the pen’s right button and move/hover the pen up and down. (Sounds more complicated than it is).
Some apps like Autocad or Archicad unfortunately lack such a zoom feature, and thus the pen ain’t a good replacement for the mouse there. No problem in Rhino, though.
(I wrote myself a Autohotkey script, in case I want to use Archicad with the pen, too.)
1 Like
I agree with everything you said and would like to add that the Wacom driver gives you the ability to customize the pen button for each program you use (the driver recognizes the active program and sets the tablet options as the user prefers).
Okay. I see basically how the pen pad would work and that sounds cool. I have watched a couple of youtube videos of folks using the 3d spacemouse and I understand how it is used to move the object around and zoom in and out. I see now I need to think about my work flow and see what makes most sense.
Many thanks for all the input.
Has anyone used a Huion Q630M tablet with Rhino?