3D Connexion Space Navigator not working after 10/11 update

[steve7L7BB]

Seem to be having trouble with Space Navigator recently. Started a while back after an update and meant that I had to minimise Fusion to the task-bar and open again before Space Navigator would work. A small inconvenience but as of an update today, Space Navigator doesn't seem to work at all other than zooming in an out erratically. Was working fine yesterday.

Interestingly 3Dconnexion properties does say Fusion 360 when Fusion is first opened but as soon as I open a model it says that I am using Inventor!! and does not change back until Fusion is re-started.

Has there been any Fusion settings changes that I've missed or is this a bug in the update.

Any help would be appreciated. Lost without Navigator.

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thanks for the update, but this is well known behavior.

Let me explain:

• There are several processes running when Fusion is running.
• "Inventor Home" is the one running the data panel.
• When you open the data panel 3D connexion puts focus on that process, this is why you see Inventor.

There is an easy way to get focus back on Fusion:

Click the top level of your browser, where the name of the design is. This will put focus back on the Fusion process.

This is a problem for Windows only.

We are working to improve the 3D Connexion experience from two directions. First with 3D Connexion directly, they are awesome and want you to have the best experience possible with their product and ours,  and second inside Fusion by implementing changes 3D Connexion has only recently made to their drivers. It will take a while but this focus issue is the #1 3D Connexion bug to fix at the moment.

Thanks for your patience, let me know if you continue having problems with it.

[steve7L7BB]

Phil, Thanks for the explanation.

The Inventor/Fusion focus thing I hadn't noticed before and only looked at Navigator properties because it stopped working, so this behaviour as you say was probably there before. But so as you are aware, there is definitely some difference between the current update and previous in this area. Your advice about regaining focus by clicking within the browser definitely solves the problem but I didn't have to do that before this last update. Perhaps by minimising Fusion to the task bar and bringing it back to full screen achieved the same result on previous versions but not current.

Thanks for the solution,

Regards

Steve.

[Phil.E]

This may have to do with a big change we made for this update. We put in a wide systematic update to update the mechanisms that run the dialogs and all UI interactions. We hoped to fix, and DID fix a ton of these focus issues, but the 3D Connexion one was out of scope this release.

I don't think we are done finding ways to improve focus in Fusion, especially with spacemouse, so it's good to know that the change made this behavior different for you.

While you are at it, be sure to get the latest drivers for 3D Connexion, they released new ones last month.

Thanks,

[steve7L7BB]

Yeah I thought that may have been the problem so done that earlier.

Anyway thanks for your help, all up and running now.:)

Steve.

[gublerge]

I have the same issue. I've upgraded the 3DxWare64 driver followed by a reboot with no improvement. The suggested solution does not work for me. Only when I select "move" from the right-click menu the 3D Nav starts working.

[Phil.E]

@gublerge

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to push harder for a fix on this.

Internal reference: FUS-27084

[gublerge]

Hello Phil.e
Actually the Problem was fixed for me with the last update last week. Sorry for not reporting back.

Kind regards,
Gerhard Gubler

[eddelbeck]

Hi there,

got the same issue here. Just bought a Space Navigator and installed the drivers from the 3D Connexion site. Was very disappointed when it didn't work! Thanx for the hint with clicking on the browser! But the general problem still seems to exist?!!

@gublerge: Which update did work for you? My Fusion version is 2.0.2604. and I assume as we are all connected to the Autodesk cloud it is automatically the newest one?!

Regards

Eddel

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Here is a much more convincing solution I received from 3Dconnexion: 

Note : Don't try this solution if you use both Inventor and Fusion as it will disable 3DMouse in Inventor.

"[...] I am working with our development team to find a fix for the Inventor Home switch issue.  This is caused by the behavior of the driver:  when you click to a new application, the executable of that window is recognized by the driver.  In the case of Fusion, there is a secondary executable which is used for the data panel of the application, which has the title “Inventor Home” coming from our default configuration for that file, I believe it was used in the past as the start screen in Inventor.

As we are working on a permanent fix, I have a workaround I would like to suggest so that you can keep using your 3D mouse.  Can you please try the following:

1. Close Fusion 360
2. Copy the “ADCefWebBrowser.xml” file from the attached zip file to this location on your computer:  %APPDATA% \3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg
3. Start Fusion and test focus is maintained on the application

This configuration has a tag to ignore the executable for “Inventor Home” so you should now only have Fusion in Focus when using that application. "

I used it with an up-to-date fusion360 + latest 3DxWare drivers (http://www.3dconnexion.fr/service/drivers.html) and it works fine.

Hope this helps,

Alain

[steve7L7BB]

Hi,

I'm on the current version and the Space Navigator issue is still there, but the "Browser focus" fix is fine with me.

Regards

Steve.

[steve7L7BB]

Tried the AdCefWebBrowser.xml file. Put It here: C:\Users\********\AppData\Local\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg

Didn't work for me. Still had to give the Fusion Browser focus with a mouse click.

Steve.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how the driver picks the changes, but it may be usefull to reboot /restart all apps to be sure it is picked up.

Also, I had messed with the files before applying the patch so I did a clean 3dxware+driver reinstall before applying, which means reboot again.

Regards,

Alain

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

Thanks for the helpful workaround!

Today I heard from 3Dconnexion and they are working on a permanent solution for this situation. It is not just Fusion.

[Phil.E]

3Dconnexion has released new drivers for Windows.

I loaded the new drivers into Win 10 and it's a much better experience.

CASE 1: Opening a file from data panel.

* When a file is done loading in the Fusion window, 3Dconnexion switches from Inventor Home to Fusion 360 without any interaction on my part. Zero interruption in 3Dconnexion rotate/zoom/tumble.

CASE 2: Clicking on things in data panel

* If I select something from the data panel to look at the details (not open it) I can see focus goes to Inventor Home (the data panel running process). This is old behavior.

* If I then click into the Fusion design window with my regular mouse, focus goes instantly back to Fusion 360. This is new behavior. It still requires a click into the Fusion window, but focus returns immediately.

Please let me know if you find any different results, or if you have another case to test that I haven't thought of.

Regards,

[steve7L7BB]

Tried the new driver but under Win7 the experience is much the same. When Fusion is first opened I have to click on the Browser before I can use Space Navigator. Once I've done that I can move away from fusion then come back and it works fine in the same file. It's just that first opening of any CAD file that fails. Not a big issue for me but just reporting back.

Steve.

[Phil.E]

@steve7L7BB Thanks for the report. 

Yes on first start, Inventor Home has focus, so a click into the modeling window brings Fusion into focus. We can work on this from the Fusion side.

While it might not be obvious, the new drivers actually improved this experience for people using CADmouse along with Spacemouse, vastly. We can now work from a "clean" state, free of other bugs, to iron out the startup process.

However, you mention file open, so I'm curious. I am finding that clicking the file in Data Panel to open puts focus (temporarily) on the data panel (Inventor Home process has focus). Immediately after the file is fully open the focus goes back to Fusion 360. There are no additional clicks required. This is a huge improvement. But I'm on Win 10, not Win 7.

Can you try this:

1. Start Fusion.

2. Open a design from the data panel.

3. When the file is fully open in the modeling canvas, try your spacemouse.

Does it work without having to mouse-click into the modeling canvas?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

For information, the fix I posted above (disabling Inventor process in the XML config file) still works.

Moreover I discover it actually works with both Fusion 360 and Inventor installed and running at the same time. No side effect.

No clicking, just a 3D space mouse working as expected.

[steve7L7BB]

Perhaps wrong choice of words, "file"

After opening a design/file from the data panel and when fully open and with focus, SpaceNavigator doesn't work other than inconsistent zooming when moving it back and fourth.

Giving Fusion focus isn't enough, I have to left or right click on Browser or something in the toolbar's to get it working. Clicking on the design, background, hovering over menus or clicking the orientation cube isn't enough either.

As soon as I get it working by either of the above, I can move between Fusion and other application without problems but if I close the design and reopen it, I get the same issue.

The Connexion driver always reports Inventor Home until I do one of the above. It then reports Fusion and is fine all the time the design is open.

Steve.

[Anonymous]

Installing the XML file fixed the issue for me.  Thanks for posting it.