My Microscribe MX digitizer works perfectly in Rhino 7. However, I recently upgraded to Rhino 8 and it will not function. My Rhino release is the current one.
After selecting “Connect digitizer” and homing the Microscribe, Rhino 8 fails to detect the Microscribe. When “Please confirm that the Default tip is installed. Return the Digitizer to the home position.”, I select “OK” and it proceed to the command line instruction: “Enter origin with digitizer…”. When I try to select the origin with the Microscribe hand switch, nothing happens. If I instead, select “Enter” to use the Native digitizer coordinates, I am not able to use any of the Microscribe functions, such as Sketch a Curve as Rhino 8 does not recognize any microscribe input. Also, I cannot see the cursor of the Microscribe move in the viewpoint.
I have ruled out hardware as the problem source as the Microscribe handswitch is brand new and functions fine in Rhino 7. I reached out to Revware/Microscribe and it seems Rhino 8 is likely the issue. I noticed the 3D Digitizer plugin menu has changed slightly between Rhino 7 & 8 and perhaps this change broke functionality with the Microscribe, or at least my MX model.
The Microscribe is critical to my workflow and I was hoping to be able to implement new Rhino 8 functions, so any assistance McNeel can provide is appreciated.
Hi @colorado1876 I’ve installed the latest Rhino 8 and am able to run my MicroScribe G, which connects via USB. Can you please install these one at a time and test to see which (if any) cause the MicroScribe to work?
Brian, I tried all the steps in the order you provided. After installing each VS version, I rebooted the computer. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Basically, Rhino 8 does not recognized the Microscribe at all. It won’t accept custom XYZ coordinates and if I instead hit Enter to select the Microscribe coordinates, it can’t perform basic functions, such as tracing a curve in a new Rhino file. For good, measure, I also tried VS 2010 in addition to the other three. After each install, I also checked Rhino 7 and the Microscribe MX works normally.
As your Microscribe works with Rhino 8, I thought maybe it is the computer hardware. So I just installed Rhino 8 in another Windows PC at the Microscribe is not recognized on it either.
Edit: BTW, I reached out to another forum member who has Rhino 8 and a Microscribe to see if he had any similar issues. He has not tested it yet, but agreed to and is aware of this thread. So hopefully he will chime in soon which will determine if mine is isolated or if others may have similar problems.
Update: The other user I reached out to reported that he does not have any problems with Rhino 8 and a pre-USB Microscribe. It seems my case may be an isolated one, perhaps Microscribe model specific. I am going to try install Rhino on another PC this weekend just to rule out the computer (although Rhino 7 works well).
The issue seems to affect MicroScribe MX systems only. A problem has been identified with the recent version of ArmDll64.dll that is provided with Rhino 8. Until an updated DLL is available, you can work around the issue by copying ArmDll64.dll from a current MUS installation or Rhino 7 to replace the version in the Rhino 8 Plug-ins directory.
