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This is an offshoot of the thread Since last update Connexion devices not working properly, but there the OP complains of intermittent, unpredictable behavior and seems to have several complaints. I am seeing a much more specific and reproducible version of one of the issues mentioned in that thread.
With "SpaceMouse driver" set to Latest in the Fusion 360 preferences panel, my SpaceMouse automatically turns off rotations whenever Fusion 360 begins editing a sketch. That is, you can pan and zoom with the SpaceMouse, but you cannot orbit. This is great!! It's a feature I've wanted for a long time. And as expected, when you exit the sketch, SpaceMouse rotations automatically return.
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any rational way to disable this rotation lock feature while editing a sketch. For example, if you're working on a 3D sketch, you certainly don't want to be trapped on the original sketch plane. It's also useful to rotate sometimes even in a 2D sketch. For example, to expose an edge or face that would otherwise be hidden and that you want to project onto the sketch plane.
In the past, you could set your SpaceMouse's Rotations On/Off button to activate 3DConnexion -> Rotations On/Off in the driver control panel. This command no longer does anything at all within a sketch, although it continues to toggle rotations on and off normally when not in sketch mode.
It was brought up in the thread mentioned above that Windows users can turn off a "Sketch lock" option in the 3DConnexion driver to disable rotation locking when editing sketches. But a) the Mac driver doesn't seem to offer this option, and b) I don't want to disable it; I want it to work correctly.
My idea of correct behavior is:
- Editing a sketch has the side effect of disabling SpaceMouse rotations. When you finish editing, rotations are automatically re-enabled. (So far, Fusion 360 does exactly this.) For bonus points, disable rotations when editing a sketch only if all sketch curves lie on the sketch plane: 2D sketches lock, 3D sketches do not.
- When editing a sketch, you can use the 3DConnexion Rotations On/Off driver command, bound to whatever button or trigger you prefer on your SpaceMouse, to toggle the rotation lock. If rotations are enabled, disable them and vice versa. This is the part that there's currently no way to do.
- There should be a check box somewhere, either in the driver or inside Fusion 360, that disables automatic sketch lock completely. This is currently true for Windows but not for Mac.
A couple of other, peripheral comments...
The 3DConnexion driver now seems to be aware of multiple design "environments," namely SOLID and SKETCH. Apparently you can bind different SpaceMouse behaviors in different environments, which sounds very promising. But I don't think this feature has anything to do with the problem outlined above. By default, the environments all have the same bindings and the Rotations On/Off command is indeed the default for the Rotations On/Off button in both environments.
It was mentioned in the other thread that you can reenable rotations by jogging the ViewCube with your mouse. This works, and in fact it leads you to a situation where you can freely toggle rotations on and off while remaining in sketch mode. But if you use the Look At button on the Sketch palette, you once again go back to total lockdown with no natural option to reenable rotations. I'm glad this work-around exists, but it's exactly that, a work-around. It's not an actual, reasonable solution to the problem.
Solved! Go to Solution.