3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Horizon Lock Constrain Orbit Missing Feature Video

[Anonymous]

This post is a final act of desperation.

In the video at the bottom of this post I describe how broken the current SpaceMouse implemetation is, and how great the device could be if these, and other problems, were resolved.

I fear it will never be fixed due to these direct quotes...

'The navigation with the SpaceMouse in Fusion 360 was implemented and is maintained by Autodesk directly.' -3Dconnexion

'Those options are controlled by the spacemouse drivers that 3Dconnexion has crafted for their support of Fusion 360.' - Autodesk

If anyone can help me work out HOW the driver and Fusion 360 communicate, please help me out. Does Fusion use the 3Dconnexion SDK to just read the axis values and control the camera transform internally to Fusion 360, OR does 3Dconnexion  remotely control the camera transform from within the driver software somehow. I assume the support is not add-in or script based. If both companies deny all responsibility for maintaining the SpaceMouse functionality, then me posting this fix and offering my code for free is all in vain. Thanks for watching!

SOUND REQUIRED:

And yes... I did actually program my own faux Fusion 360 just to show how things could, and should, be... 😂

[carlinohefner]

As a quick followup, I figured I'd post a list of the previous requests for autodesk to offer constrained orbit when using the spacemouse, although many of these are worded differently, a quick read of the comments indicates that they are in fact all the same request:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-archived/constrained-orbit-with-3d-connexion-s... (never responded to by AD, locked)

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/constrained-orbit-is-not-working-with-spac... (Dismissed by Phil.E as caused by the spacemouse drivers and not related to Fusion 360 logic. As its been determined that's incorrect: the constrained orbit option is done at the application level not the driver level, as the driver can't determine the current location of the camera to adjust for horizon roll)

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-archived/space-pilot-lock-axis/idi-p/5421537 (an old post, maybe the first request, archived due to lack of votes at the time. This is a good example of how splitting the issue across multiple threads over time makes it hard to realize just how often this has been requested)

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/lock-horizon-horizontally-for-orbit/m-p/69... (while this thread did not start off specifically for the spacemouse, you can see in messages 8-10 that users are mentioning this works for keyboard+mouse but not spacemouse)

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/lock-horizon-in-fusion-360/td-p/6909876 (incorrectly marked solved by josef.kucera with an unrelated answer, due to not fully understanding the question)

In the last one, Schmiffy described the problem perfectly in one of his replies:

"I need to fly speedily around the object like when using the ViewCube drag, or Shift-MiddleMouse drag. I don't want to slowly ease around the object like trying to dock a heavy, wallowing spacecraft in 2001:A Space Odyssey. 😄"

[Phil.E]

Hi everyone.

In August, 2020 I posted a request to get more feedback. In the last 6 months several of you have stepped up and made your cases. Thanks for posting your feedback. We hear you, you've caught our interest.

I've added all of your feedback to the improvement ticket and will update this thread when there is something to report. 

[EricY_Design]

Thanks for taking the time to go through my other post, I didn’t realize Constrain Orbit/Horizon Lock is not available on 3DConnexion, but good thing that might actually mean I haven’t wasted your time…let me explain. From what you described, I don't think the difficulty keeping things upright is entirely because you're unfamiliar with Free Orbit. it is because you're encountering the problem I was describing. In fact the 2 problems are mentioned throughout the links we each posted, they are very much related:

#1 - Only on 3DConnexion

The view can tilt even though the icon is set to Constrained Orbit, essentially you’re forced to use Free Orbit.

“Being forced to fly the helicopter manually”

#2 - On 3DConnexion, Normal Mouse, and Viewfinder Widget too

When using Free Orbit, there are times when the view tilts even though you’ve never intended it to.

“The helicopter doesn’t always respond correctly to my controls when I fly it manually, tilting for no reason” 

How’re they related?

For 3DConnexion users, #1 means you cannot avoid #2. Yet ironically #2 will make you want #1 implemented even more! Whew...

With that said, in the current version I wouldn’t stress over getting used to Free Orbit on 3DConnexion. The "feel" can never be intuitive unless you regularly apply the workarounds on my other post or until #2 is fixed for good. Don’t doubt your hand-eye coordination, it’s not you 🙂

[Fritzache]

The lack of interest for this subject by Autodesk is disappointing. 
and the fact that Fusion is THE ONLY major cad software to miss this function is deplorable. SketchUp has it! SketchUp!

and as someone mentioned: is just applying “constrained orbit” to spacemouse. 
i love spacemouse, I love Fusion, but I can not use them together. 
This is a huge minus for fusion, HUGE.

and people around here insisting that the subject never got traction...are just silly.

 You can not notice the people making screencasts about the subject?!

you can not notice people spending hours gathering lists with threads of the same problem?!

is 2014-2021 not a 7 years period that people request this?

What is the actual problem? 
Understaff?

Lack of interest for clients?

Laziness?

[Anonymous]

I mean you can see the effort they but in by phil E posting a copy paste from 4 weeks ago into the thread yesterday 😉

[EricY_Design]

Hi PhilE,

Thought I’d also bring to your attention that there is a more general intermittent Free Orbit bug at play in parallel which can explain why unavailability of Constrained Orbit for 3DConnexion is more troublesome to some than to others. I’ve summed up how they’re related in message 43 above. I’d definitely call this one a bug and not an improvement request.

Here it is in detail with triggers and workarounds:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/free-orbit-bug-closer-to-a-fix/m-p/10168742/highli...

It applies to regularly mouse, 3DConnexion, and viewfinder widget on both the current PC and Mac versions.

I haven’t received any response from Support on that thread and I’d really appreciate if you could pass it along to the developers as a bug.

[Phil.E]

@Fritzache I appreciate all the energy and attention those of you on this thread are giving this issue. Please continue adding to this post as you have more observations about this issue. I'll keep updating the ticket logged for it as you add new information.

[EricY_Design]

Hi Schmiffy,

I know you've returned your SpaceMouse...but here is how I lock rotation of the sketch plane like you mentioned on 4:30 of your very detailed screencast. The 3DConnexion driver has built-in Rotation On/Off feature accessible only by assigning it to a button, it works like a toggle that disables all 3 rotation axii of the device, so you're left with only panning and zooming. I toggle it on whenever I start a sketch to avoid all the navigation quirks.

Here's a screenshot assigning it to the left button of SpaceNavigator (on PC):

Now with a press of the left button there'll be no view rotations regardless of how you control the puck. Another press restores it to "normal".

There's also a way put it on a radial menu (a flyout menu on the cursor) so you won't waste a button just for this:

Create a new radial menu to be triggered by the left button

Then choose a slot for Rotation On/Off

Now the left button would bring up a Radial Menu for you to choose Rotation On/Off.

Cheers,

Eric

[carlinohefner]

This is awesome, something I'll definitely use as well when sketching. Thanks Eric!

However I want to make sure it's clear to any Autodesk peeps looking at this ticket later, this method above is NOT a solution to the original issue/feature request of this thread (constrained orbit with spacemouse). It's just a unrelated spacemouse tip.

[Anonymous]

Hi Eric, I actually tried that when I still had my device, thanks for the detailed description to help others!

The major issue is, there is no way I would want to use up half of my function buttons (basic SpaceMouse) just to work around a lacking feature in Fusion, and also, I swap back and forth so fast and often, that using the button every time drove me nuts. Also if you need a mixture of 2D and 3D sketch mode you would have to keep manually switching back and forth.

Cheers!

[EricY_Design]

Sure! Yea I should have made clear, that is NOT a solution the issue at hand, but just a modeling aid provided by the driver.

I'm still surprised the lack of Constrained Orbit for 3DConnexion, even a smaller modeler like Rhino has had it since day 1 (they call it rotate around world Z, they're Z-Up). From what I can tell it doesn't involve the driver or plug-in at all, it's simply a the app itself calling the right view transform function depending on the preference, so a 3DConnexion view rotation is no different than regular mouse view rotation, that's all it is. I haven't owned any larger devices with a screen but SpaceNavigator is just an HID-device communicating one-way except for one setting to turn the LED on/off.

[helloK4FK2]

Has there been any progress on this? I just bought a space mouse and the first thing I noticed was the lack of constrained orbit when using the space mouse which makes it pretty much useless to me. Locking rotation and disabling the left and right roll axis helps a little but with rotation enabled I might as well use my standard mouse for zoom and pan and the disabled roll axis only works if you don't rotate up or down.

I now have to decide whether to return the product or wait for it to be fixed which looks like it could be a while.

Is there an alternative product on the market that works with Fusion in the desired fashion?

[Phil.E]

The Fusion 360 development team is working on this right now. The 3Dconnexion development team is working with Fusion developers to implement the drivers correctly. I cannot give any promises that this in fact will be implemented or any date when that might happen for legal reasons. 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I hope this can be resolved rather quickly. But I believe it when I see it in a "what's new" post 😉

[Anonymous]

Hi Phil.E

Is a programmer actually working on a fix for the transform bug now? Is this issue genuinely any further than just 'collecting forum input'? If so, that's very encouraging. I really had given up all hope on this months ago.

[Anonymous]

I know exactly what you mean... 😄

[Phil.E]

This has nothing to do with the transform bug. This is about 3Dconnexion support in Fusion.

[stephen_mcmillan]

Phil E., I don't see how that can be. The two problems are interlinked.

A solution to permit "constrained orbit" with a spacemouse must also fix the rotational transform bug. 

This has been demonstrating by changing the 3D connexion settings, turning off rotation about X and Y, and yet the model rotates off-axis if the view starts in an isometric position.

The issue is tied to rotation about "screen Z" instead of "model Z".

(assuming default preference is Z-up)

[Phil.E]

I'm responding to the original request

"3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Horizon Lock Constrain Orbit Missing"

Currently Fusion does not support the 3Dconnexion sdk. The effort is to do so. 

If that effort fixes any other bugs, great. If not, we can't go about fixing other bugs unless we support the 3Dconnexion sdk. Does that help?

[EricY_Design]

For what it’s worth, I found a new workaround for the transform bug that’s permanent :

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/free-orbit-bug-closer-to-a-fix/m-p/10203298/highli...

It’s the default home view object that’s messing up the transform, so we take a good one from elsewhere, if the devs are reading this it really looks like an easy fix.