Center-of-Rotation/Pivot-Point automatically changing when using a 3d mouse

[J-Bowers]

Any ideas why my center of rotation is moving while using a 3D Mouse? I can't find any setting or config file to adjust this behavior.

This has been happening since we upgraded from Inv 2014 to Inv 2017 and I've just been dealing with it for years now.

I've updated inventor, 3dconnexion drivers, USB mouse drivers, etc etc. I've gone so far as to completely uninstall my 3D Mouse with no change in behavior. I'm starting to think this is a bug of some sort.

In this screencast, I am pressing no buttons. I'm ONLY using the puck to rotate my view. I'm not even using my mouse. (After the initial F4 centering) You'll notice the center of rotation automatically changes to whatever geometry is in the center of the screen. Highly annoying on a long model.

First re-centering happens @ 13 seconds.

Second one happens @ 20 seconds.

Basically, whenever I stop rotating with my 3D Mouse, it auto-recenters.

Inventor Pro 2017.4.2

Win 7 64-bit

3Dconnexion SpacePilot Pro (F/W version 4.11)

3DxWare 10.5.6

3DxWinCore 17.5.6.14829

That's all the info I can think of. Lemme know if you need more info/explanation.

[TheCADWhisperer]

Here is workaround to reset center of Orbit.

Move the view where you want to view it from.

Go into the Orbit command and long left click where you want the center of Orbit. (Hmmm, from your video I can't quite tell if you are doing a longgg left click or not? Looks like maybe you did.)

Now when you exit the Orbit command the 3D Connexion device should use the same center of orbit.

Has worked for me for more than 10 yrs.

[J-Bowers]

I know how to recenter and I have been doing exactly that for years myself. If you look at the screencast, you can see me do this at the beginning. the problem is, the view auto-recenters the next time I touch my 3D mouse.....so that doesn't exactly help my situation, because the pivot point I picked is being overridden.

I actually have a button set on my SpacePilot for orbit so I can manually recenter, but that doesn't help in this situation. Any time geometry passes in front of where I have the orbit centered, THAT geometry becomes the new center. You can see how this would be very annoying trying to orbit around 1 end of a really long part/assembly. (As shown in the screencast, the view recenters from 1 side of the assembly all the way to the other side as soon as I rotate it)

[PaulMunford]

Does this help?

https://designandmotion.net/autodesk/autodesk-inventor-3d-connexion-registry-hack/

[J-Bowers]

No change in behavior after editing that registry value. I thought this was gonna be it, but sadly, no.

[Anonymous]

Was there any solution to this? Because I WANT what yours is doing in that video. I can't figure out how to get a automatic pivot point with the center of the screen.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I believe the issue has been resolved as of 2019.3 (see the last issue in the below document). Please install it and confirm the fix.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2019/ENU/?guid=Inventor_ReleaseNotes_updates_fixed_defects_20...

Many thanks!

[alain_miltenburg]

As of Inventor 2019.5.1 this behaviour is still present. It is especially annoying for large Factory Utilities layouts.

Please fix this or implement a setting if the current behaviour is desirable (somehow).

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Alain,

We seem to be getting negative feedback on the orbiting behaviors. The original thread is about an issue particularly happening with 3D Mouse. It has been fixed by 2019.4 update and the updated 3D Connexion driver.

If you are not using 3D Mouse, I don't think this particular thread applies to you. I think likely you are seeing the Free Orbit behavior. Go to Tools -> App Options -> Display -> 3D Orbit -> select Constrained Orbit. After that, does it work better now?

Many thanks!

[alain_miltenburg]

Hi Johnson,

Thank you for your fast reaction. I was not talking about the Orbit functionality of Inventor. I am indeed still experiencing the exact behaviour reported by the original poster when using a 3DConnexion Space Pilot Pro with the latest 3DxWare version (10.7.4.3350). Please see my Screencast below.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/53471199-61d8-499e-a1bb-9750ad64f872 

Kind regards,

[J-Bowers]

Hello. I am OP and I can confirm that he issue is NOT corrected as of Inventor version 2021.3. This is an issue that has been plaguing me for YEARS at this point.

I've given up on Autodesk correcting the issue.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Folks,

I don't have a 3D mouse to try at the moment. But, I would like to understand the exact issue and see if it is unrelated to 3D mouse. Please go to Tools -> App Options -> Display -> 3D Navigation -> Default Orbit Type -> select "Constrained Orbit."

After that, does the behavior still reproduce with 3D mouse and also with regular mouse?

Many thanks!

[J-Bowers]

Hello. I have changed the default orbit to "constrained orbit" as you asked and the issue still persists.

This issue does not affect orbits using the mouse or keyboard. This issue is only present when using a 3D Mouse. We have two different models of 3D mouse here at the office and both models exhibit the same unwanted behavior regardless of the default orbit setting.

This behavior changed sometime around 2015-2017 (Our company doesn't update every year so I can't pinpoint exactly when it changed.)

The issue is the 3D mouse is automatically picking a center-of-orbit every time you stop rotating......so if you are orbiting around something really long and happen to pause at one end, the center of orbit is re-centered wherever you pause the rotation.

This is such a problem that I have been forced to assign a button on my 3D mouse to be the "F4" key so I can hold that button and left-click the mouse to recenter the orbit where I need it....but as soon as I stop rotating the view it gets overridden to wherever the center of my screen happens to be. Extremely frustrating and borderline unusable on any extremely long parts.

[J-Bowers]

Hello, I made another screencast in an attempt to communicate the issue better.

The exact moment the issue occurs in this screencast is 1:13. But the entire video is needed for context. I have no microphone here so I used extrusion features to help narrate.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/44f89145-2d0b-4d1a-9296-4af208ec8b6d

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I think I will need to contact 3D Connexion, since this is specific to 3D mouse.

Many thanks!

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi Folks,

I have approached 3D Connexion team and our partner shared some tips. The behavior you are seeing with 3D Mouse is an enhancement called "Track Selection", introduced in 2015. To disable this behavior, you could add the following registry key.

1. Exit Inventor.
2. Open regedit.exe.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\3Dconnexion\3DxInventor (create the “3DxInventor” sub-key if missing).
4. Create a new DWORD value “TrackSelection” and set it to zero.

Please try it out and see if it behaves more desirably.

Many thanks!

[J-Bowers]

Thank you. That was the solution.

[alain_miltenburg]

Finally, what a relieve after all those years. 😌 I have made a poll within our department and no one sees this feature as an improvement. Everyone wants this registry key set.

@johnsonshiue: Do you mind asking 3DConnexion to a least make this behaviour optional (and by default disabled) in their driver GUI? People will probably blame Inventor for this behaviour, I can imagine Autodesk wants their users to have the best possible user experience. 😉

Many thanks for your efforts, Johnson!

[J-Bowers]

Yessir. I stood up and danced when it worked. Huge relief.

I agree, making it an option able to be selected through the 3DConnexion GUI would be a great feature. I have been mistakenly blaming Autodesk all these years, completely unaware this was a setting that could be changed.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Folks,

I am sorry I think I was confused also. I did not realize this particular issue was only reproducible on 3D Mouse. We do have other off-focus issue with ViewCube but this is not the one.

In the meantime, I did pass the request to 3D Connexion and it was reported as WIN-884 (3D Connexion's backlog).

Many thanks!