Grasshopper input frustrations

I love grasshopper. I started using grasshopper a couple months ago and this is the most fun I’ve had with a software out of my 4-5 years of using 3D modeling Software.

Now the displeasure begins…

I recently suffered an arm injury(dominate side) and I can barely use grasshopper. I’m not 100% sure what injury it is yet but it’s limited my ability to use my mouse immensely for almost 2 weeks now. I tried ordering a touchpad and a couple Wacom mini drawing pads to try alleviating the pain. For a software that heavily relies on all 3 mouse clicks it’s hard to adjust.

LMB - easy for both
RMB - easy for both
Dragging canvas - wacom is doable, impossible with touchpad
Zooming in and out canvas - nightmare with wacom, easy on touchpad
Middle mouse button - wacom is very uncomfortable, touchpad easy

May I suggest a solution that I’ve seen in other threads, give 3D mouse support in the canvas… Don’t think, just do it please. Add a hotkey if you really want to swap windows, idk. Touchpad canvas drag would work too (windows 3-4 finger move).

Right now the options for not using a mouse are quite frankly ****. Please solve this issue soon, I’m surprised laptop users/accessibility users haven’t made more of a fuss already.

I would highly appreciate any suggestions and/or help with this problem. Thanks

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Yeap, I had already asked for touch screen support in the past. I don’t know if it would be possible with just a finger input, but it should be possible using pen to keep the tooltips in the mouse hover equivalent event.

They have registered the request since 2017 and it has been moved to Grasshopper2 the previous year, so hopefully it will be possible in the next version.

https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-39691

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I have my Wacom (small Intuos, model CTL-4100) configured such that the larger button on the pen is RMB, the smaller (closer to the tip) is MMB. The four big buttons on the tablet are shift, ctrl, alt and win going from left to right. With the ctrl mapped button and the larger pen button I can zoom in on the canvas with no problem whatsoever in Grasshopper. This is pretty much the same as with regular 3-button mouse using modifier keys in Rhino itself (RMB + modifier key for zoom/pan/dolly viewport) .

I checked also with my Huion drawing surface (Kamvas 13). I have on the side a large button that I can use for zooming in and out. The pen is set up the same as the Wacom (closer to pen tip MMB, farther away RMB). Two of the tinier buttons I’ve mapped to shift and alt, but I don’t need those in GH for the zooming or other stuff, mainly just Rhino viewport.

With both the Wacom and Huion set up similarly I find that zooming in and out is easy.

In both cases I use the button on the pen with my thumb - much better ergonomically than trying to use them with the index finger.

The Huion drawing surface is great since you get to use the pen directly on the GUI so no need to have extraordinary eye-hand coordination where the hand is outside your view.

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Ok I might have to give this a try. I purchased the ctl-4100 and one by wacom as testers and didn’t like the input feel of either. Ctl-4100 feels really floaty and one by wacom has mushy side buttons

A couple things I did tried to my success is readjusting my grip on my mouse and borrowing a ergonomic chair from my friend. Not letting my wrist touch the table seams to help the most (less/no pressure on the nerves in the wrist).

Oh well first world problems I guess. Either way having space mouse support in grasshopper canvas or proper touchpad support has to be included in grasshopper 2

FWIW, This one is also by Wacom.

I didn’t mind the input of this one - it is much better than the Trust tablet I used to play with. But I guess this is all very much down to personal preference.

Ever since I acquired the drawing surface though I have hardly used the small Wacom (CTL-4100). Using the Huion drawing surface is so much more intuitive already just by having eye look where the hand is.

Just last week I injured my dominant arm as well through overexertion (carried heavy load incorrectly for too long - the dangers of shopping for groceries). I had an inflammation two muscles in the forearm severely impacting mouse usage (muscles attached to index and middle finger).

Anyway, if you have muscular problems you should attend to them sooner rather than later. In case of inflammation you need to get swelling down in the muscles (cold packs and good massage, as well as improving blood circulation) - that will relief also pressure on your nerves. It will take a few days and most likely after that you’ll have sore muscles, but since you very likely rely on your arm as part of your job I’d make sure it gets better. Working around the problem (getting better equipment while still having the problem) is not going to help in the long run. Anyway, I wish good recovery for your arm.

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Hi,

there are more options I believe.

Have you tried using ‘Voice Attack’? There are ways in controlling mouse movement with voice recognition. I personally haven’t tried that, but a friend told me that he did that, although it requires some complicated setup. But I bet you wouldn’t be the first one.

If you are able to write on a keyboard you could also create macros, which bind to mouse movement. Software like AutoIT can also do that for you. Maybe if I find time this week, I could write you a small listener for Grasshopper to do this by directly using the WindowsApi. That of course makes only sense if you are able to use a keyboard. But it seems like you can?!

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It would be great if a Wacom tablet could be used to drag the canvas without the pen. On a two screen setup the tablet would be mapped to the screen with the GH canvas…

I’m using two mice and another interesting thing on a two screen setup would be to limit the mouse to one screen. So left hand mouse for Grasshopper, right hand mouse for Rhino. It would reduce the distance you have to travel with a mouse… I think by a considerable amount…

Since it’s been a while I experimented with multi mouse input, I just googled and found MouseMux which does provide multi mouse input but unfortunately does not work with customized buttons of my two 3Dconnexion mice

Yeah the stylus is just not my vibe. I use a 49 ultrawide and mapping the tablet is just really awkward(ergonomics of using 1/3 of a small tablet). I use windock and having the tablet setup to swap between two halves really limits the usability of my screen. I have it set up so it can behave in multiple ways depending on what I’m tasking on(4 way horizontal split, 3 screen-1 main 2 mini, 1 mega, etc). I use blender with it spread across the entire screen with most of the functions clustered around the middle portion, using the tablet swap screen option would be very distracting swapping between the left and right side of the tablet to navigate the middle of the screen.

Sorry to hear that, dominant arm injuries are stressful. Thanks for the info, ice has helped a ton. I’m taking it much more seriously and have thankfully booked multiple physio and massage appointments within the next 2 weeks(I’m approaching the third week of this injury).

A note on the equipment, I tried swapping to a lightweight ambidextrous mouse alongside a shorten keyboard and ergo chair. They’ve all helped marginally and hopefully will prevent further injuries down the line.

Thanks for the replies, do very much appreciate all the suggestions and comments.

I’m not very sure if I’m too keen on the idea of using voice controls to use my pc. Not sure I would ever be able to match my mouse speed again. I could be wrong though.

Thanks for your very generous offer, but I definitely can not accept. Similarly I might look into remapping on a programmable keyboard in the future.

Current plan is to learn with my left hand with an ambidextrous mouse. Hopefully swapping hands in the future will prevent repetitive strain injuries.

Well my mom had a injury on her right arm and since then she prefers using the left hand for mouse control. Even after recovering.
Whenever I’m at her PC I’ll do the same. I personally find it not so difficult to switch over. But I’m also not a Lucky Luke on the PC. I more a slow developer. But I’m also not doing CAD work anymore. I really trained myself slowing down, working efficient with quality gear. This starts with a proper desk and chair and ends with quality input devices.
Since I’m on a PC the whole day I really need to pay attention on my health on a longer term. This also means doing proper breaks and a lot of general movement when being not on the PC. Often an injury like this can be the result of a much greater health problem.

When we talk about Grasshopper, I never really understood the need for being fast. People tend to create quantity, but forget to actually think about the problem before. Especially in Grasshopper writing code is indirectly also helpful in not having thousands of unnecessary pan and zoom movements. But thats another topic…

Writing a listener to redirect pan and zoom movement is not a big task. It requires a small script of low level code. I just have a very busy week…

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I use a logitec M570 mouse. you operate the ball with your thumb and the mouse stays stationary.