3D Mouse and Working Remote????

[phlyx]

We have a few of us engineering working remotely and our IT department and IT service have us setup to use SolarWinds to connect to our workstations at work and it works great but there is one thing several of us would like to know.... Is it possible to run a 3D mouse remotely?   We're running Windows 10 and Inventor 2020.  

We all have 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigators at our work workstations and either we have 3Dconnexion 3D mice at home (like SpacePilots) or we took our work unit home.  Everything works with them locally but when trying to use them remotely it seems all we can get them to do is zoom in and out, nothing else.  No spin, rotate, pan, etc.  We can't even run the 3Dconnexion trainer remotely so we know it's just not talking.  We can get by with hotkeys but it's a lot more efficient to use the 3D mouse to move around.  We have posted on the SolarWinds formums but have not received a reply.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[andrewiv]

The only success I've had with getting a 3D mouse to work remotely requires some 3rd party software.  There are a few out there, but you might have to run this by your IT department.

[Cadmanto]

I am confused as to what your setup is.  I tried following what you said and the best I could get out of it was your 3D connexion device is home with you, but thew workstation with the driver on it is at your work location?  And you are not using a VPN connection but rather using Solarwinds to connect?  What PC are you using at home to connect at work with?

My employer allowed me to bring my work station home, so I have all of the software, drivers along with my 3D Connexion device right here at home and I am using the VPN to connect to the network drives at work.  Everything is working just like it does at work.

Windows 10 x64 -16GB Ram
Intel i7-6700 @ 3.41ghz
nVidia GTS 250 - 1 GB
Inventor Pro 2020

[mcgyvr]

3d connexion devices do not work by default fully through VPN connections/remote desktop connection.

I install Inventor/Vault Client at home on my home computer and use it that way (if your home computer is fast enough)..

There are tools that can forward usb device functionality through the RDP connection though (I haven't tried one yet but have heard they can be "laggy").

You may also be able to setup remoteFX through your group policy if your remote computer is on Windows 10 Pro which should do the same. 

[phlyx]

We are not allowed to remove our workstations from work and this was what was offered.  We have machine being built on the assembly floor so occasionally have to go in to help and resolve issues and need our workstations at work.  Would be crazy to haul a workstation to and from work anyway.

Some of us already have 3Dconnexion devices at home and those who didn't, brought their SpacePilots home with them.  We are using SolarWinds to remote in to our wokstations at work and everything works great except for the 3D mouse functions.    

Working with the IT folks we tried VirtualHere USB Server and Client but that didn't help.  Also tried USB Network Gate and that didn't work either.

[mcgyvr]

Your IT department should contact Solarwinds and see what if any support they can offer for USB device sharing/passthrough over the remote client. 

[mdavis22569]

................

[hosford]

One way to have secure data and all the benefits of remote computing is to use PCoIP, Check out Teradici.

I have a few zero clients in my home, the 3Dconnexion devices work well across the network.

Teradici also has software available to do the same remote connection between the workstation and the remote computer. https://www.teradici.com/what-is-pcoip

HP also has remote graphics software, I believe if you have HP computers you get this for free.

[Anonymous]

@phlyx This is a common problem is being solved. 3D mouse working remote. And for this you can use Flexihub software.

Since the mouse is usb connected, there will be no problems with sharing the device.

It's a two part server/workstation software enabling for remote USB and found it here:
I am sure your 3D mouse will work.
Good luck.

[jameshorne0503]

Not having a working Spacemouse to work from home is painful. Especially when there's one sat on my desk 😞 

[pball]

It's actually quite easy to get a 3D mouse working remote assuming your setup meets the requirements. The requirements being Windows 10 Pro on both machines, using MS RDP, and the 3D mouse also being installed both places. Below is a link to the 3Dconnexion forum with a post that details enabling RemoteFX USB support on Microsoft Remote Desktop.

https://www.3dconnexion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2661&p=75728#p75728

[mcgyvr]

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@jameshorne0503 wrote:

Not having a working Spacemouse to work from home is painful. Especially when there's one sat on my desk 😞 

---

@jameshorne0503  Not sure if you saw my comment above but if your computer has decent performance you may want to install Inventor locally and just pull files from the network over the remote connection but work with Inventor locally.. Then the 3d mouse works just fine..

Its super easy if you are using Vault/VPN.. 

[jameshorne0503]

Unfortunately while my home machine would be powerful enough, company policy has dictated we must remote in to avoid any files being on personal machines.

As for the RemoteFX suggestion, that might be possible for some of my colleagues but I don't have administrator rights on my work PC and I'm still running Windows 7 (I know, I'm not happy about it either, I was expecting a new PC in January but it never happened).

[pball]

You could attempt using rdp on Win7 Pro if you have that version, it is supposedly possible from what I've read. But I did not have luck getting my win7 machine at home to forward USB via rdp. If you have reverse, win10 at home and win7 at work it might be worth trying if you have the time.

If you are really adventurous there is a usb over ip project on github. I didn't have luck with it but I could have been doing something wrong. Try at your own risk, the project states it's not production ready.
https://github.com/cezanne/usbip-win

[phlyx]

We're all Windows 10 Pro x64 home and work, same version, same updates.  I'll look at the github but if it's not free or super cheap we won't be doing it.

[pball]

@phlyxif you have win10 pro everywhere you should just try out the windows remote desktop method. It's free and works.

[phlyx]

Thanks @pball .  We have our IT folks looking into this but we use PowerView and SolarWinds Take Control to run remote with multiple layers of security so not sure how much of RDP we can use.

[RFeldges]

We have the CAD Workstations as virtual machines. VMWare Horizon Client is the Software
we are using to connect the VMs from the office or remote. The 3DConnexion products

are working well in this setup as long as you don´t forward the "universal receiver 3DConnexion",

which comes along with wireless products. When enabling forwarding "universal receiver 3DConnexion" the
VM Session starts behaving strange.

I hope you find this experience helpful. Maybe someone has a hint to move on.

[Guido.LangeTuchscherer]

@pball 

This does actually work quite well and without any extra software, thanks for the Link!

In Case somebody wonders I copied the relevant Text into the txt file.

https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2661&p=75728#p75728
3D CAD connexion Maus über RDP:

You need to make the changes on both (host and client) systems.

RemoteFX does not work with the universal receiver. You need to connect your wireless device via cable.

Open GPedit.msc and in the group policy editor open:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Connection Client - RemoteFX USB Device Redirection
Computerkonfiguratoin -> Administrative Vorlagen -> Windows-Komponenten -> Remotedesktopdienste -> Remotedesktopsitzungs-Client -> RemoteFX USB-Geräteumleitung
Here Enable the option "Allow RDP redirection of other supported RemoteFX USB devices " / RDP-Umleitung für andere unterstützte RemoteFX USB-Geräte aus diesem Computer zulassen Aktivieren
Für Admin und Benutzer

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Connections
Computerkonfiguratoin -> Administrative Vorlagen -> Windows-Komponenten -> Remotedesktopdienste -> Remotedesktopsitzungs-Host -> Verbindungen
enable "Allow user to connect remotely by using Remote Desktop Services " / Remoteverbindungen für Benutzer mithilfe der Remotedesktopdienste zulassen Aktivieren

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Device and Resource Redirection
Computerkonfiguratoin -> Administrative Vorlagen -> Windows-Komponenten -> Remotedesktopdienste -> Remotedesktopsitzungs-Host -> Geräte- und Ressourcenumleitung
disable "Do not allow supported Plug and Play device redirection" / Umleitung bei unterstützten Plug & Play-Geräten nicht zulassen Deaktivieren

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Remote Session Environment -> RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 
Computerkonfiguratoin -> Administrative Vorlagen -> Windows-Komponenten -> Remotedesktopdienste -> Remotedesktopsitzungs-Host -> Umgebung für Remotesitzung -> RemoteFX für Windows Server 2008 R2
enable "Configure RemoteFX" / RemoteFX konfigurieren Aktivieren

Now open the command prompt with administrative rights and enter: gpupdate /force
Next restart the machine.

After the restart open the rdp client (press “Start” and search for RDP) and go to the “Local Resources” tab where you click on “More” on the bottom of the window (section "Local devices and resources").
You should see "Other supported RemoteFX USB devices". Open it - it shows the connected SpaceMouse device. Activate the checkbox for the SpaceMouse device. The device will be forwarded to your target system next time when you connect via RDP. 

[phlyx]

Thanks and sounds very promising. 👍 Do all these edits need to be done on the remote computer and the workstation it's connecting to or just one of them?