I am using a Cadman on the left hand and a Marble mouse on the right hand. I believe I've increased my productivity at least 35-40%. After using the one at work for a while I had to buy one for home. I don't think I could live without it now. For the money it was a good investment. The spaceball might have some advantages over the Cadman but for the money it has been a good tool.
I am using a Spaceball 5000 and love it. I can't imagine working with SW without it anymore. You can do some of the same things with just your normal mouse/middle buttons, but the Spaceball literially puts a different spin on your parts that you don't get with your mouse/middle button
Test one out and you will see a benefit right away.
I'm using a Spaceball 3003 I bought on e-bay. On my last job they supplied the engineers with spaceballs, but not here. Well worth the cost of buying one myself.
I am using a Spaceball 5000 and I agree with the above posts that once you use it you can't live without it. Just give yourself time to get use to the feel of it and you will agree that it is a tool you can't afford to not have.
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
--Howard Aiken, IBM engineer
I thought this was going to be about something else
"I see your Schwartz is as big as mine"
I've never been into the spaceball. I had one at Boeing that I never used. I'm left handed. And with CATIA v4 zooming up and down was done witht the arrows....which I could do with my right hand quite comfortably. (and pan was button 3 and rotate was button 2+3). So I really could achieve whatever I needed without the spaceball.
Spaceballs are good for more than 3d modeling, though that is where they really shine. They also make it easier to quickly move around in drawing space.
I find myself using it on web pages also, as it it much quicker than the mouse when it comes to scrolling.
The Space Pilot changes screens as you have diferent windows activated. I use to to go history back and forward in IE. and to scroll through outlook, and since it has the alt, ctrl, esc and shift buttons just like my keyboard i use them for all aplications.
I just changed my spaceball (5000) out for an older model (4000 FLX) due to the newer one causing my screen to jump around. I am no longer able to scroll thru web pages.
When I get a chance, I will see if there are any updated drivers for the 5000. I'm gonna miss it, but the jumping screen had to go.
Does your model just start rotating for no good reason? I had this happen and tweaked and updated my drivers to no avail. I called 3dConnexions and they emailed me a new firmware update for the 5000. They said some of the first 5000's would rotate part's with no input from the user.
Scorch
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
--Howard Aiken, IBM engineer
ewh ... are you using IE or Firefox?
Not sure if it will help in your case but, if it's FF go to Tools > Options > Browsing & deselect the Auto scrolling option.
Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520
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