autocad workstation peripherals

[stephen.manila]

while browsing the interwebs the other day i came across a few pages talking about using gaming keyboards and mice in conjunction with autocad. so i did a little bit of reading/research (things are slow at work) and found out it wasn't to difficult to do, and a new mouse was like $80. i thought why not give it a try. i took to amazon to get the logitech G600 for $49 w/prime shipping, i received it in a few days and i was off and running. the most difficult thing about it was choosing what commands to program on the thumb keys. it has the normal two mouse buttons and scroll wheel up, down, left and right, with third mouse button as a "shift key" for the 12 thumb buttons to make 24 individual keys, plus two other buttons with the scroll wheel that i believe select between profiles you can set. (haven't dove completely into it) after working with it for the better part of two weeks now, its become more second nature, first thing in the morning i have to get acclimated to it and have a little difficulty remembering what and where commands are. some of the commands like copy/past/cut/delete work outside of Autocad which is a plus.
it has helped in some areas of accuracy typing commands like move between 2 points (i mistype a lot) but slowed other processes down just because its new and still getting to the nuances of operation. i believe it will become second nature as long as i don't change the commands often as i feel which ones fit best or needed more.
anyways i thought i would just throw this out there maybe it's something you would like to try or have some experience with or didn't know you could use. let me know if there is something else out there you have tried to work with.


links:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/05...eal-work-done/

http://blog.grabcad.com/blog/2010/08...all-3d-device/

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G600...=logitehc+g600

[Shneuph]

I bought a G502 about 6 months ago and it's been pretty handy.  It doesn't have as many buttons as the one you bought so I can usually remember which functions belong to which keys.  Although, sometimes I still have brain farts and forget.

The Logitech Gaming software makes it really easy to assign custom commands/scripts/lisp to the button.  You can perform many functions all at once.  I use a button for Delete which is handy and one for zoom extents because double-clicking the center mouse button is cumbersome sometimes.  Others I use to set views I commonly use and others to set system variables I constantly toggle like Osnapz.  There may be better commands I could assign which may save me more time but I haven't spent enough time thinking about it yet; work gets in the way.

The one problem I have once in awhile is that I've assigned certain buttons different functions based on what software I'm working in and sometimes they don't get switched.  So, I'll be in outlook and my zoom extents command will run for example.  I usually just have to switch out of autocad (like click into windows explorer) and then back into AutoCAD and it works fine.

[stephen.manila]

yes, software makes it easy. the only issue i had was the g600 has an onboard memory option and setting that i believe are stored with the software. the onboard memory does not allow you to do "text strings" (purge+enter, move between 2pts",etc) it's only keystrokes with "ctl" "alt" modifier for games i guess. you need to change the setting in the software and it allows more functionality. i am rather happy with it, i have been pretty slow at work these past weeks and i have been doing a lot drawing maintenance on old drawings, i have been doing repetitive commands that i programed its helped out alot. sometime i still want to use the keyboard and i may redo some commands with the shift function but all in all i like it. i don't do very techincal stuff that much anymore, so i figured i would learn something while i can.

[john.uhden]

I still miss the days of my Calcomp digitizing tablet in R12.  I taught everyone in the office to use their left hand so that their right hand was free to hit the number pad.  I programmed the tablet menu with all their favorite commands and object snaps and setvars, etc. to be super efficient.

After leaving the company I couldn't afford one of my own so I had to get used to using just a mouse, which was a definite reduction in productivity, although a lot easier to tote around with my laptop.

[ВeekeeCZ]

I'm using a multi-buttons mouses for a decade. Started with Logitech MX100 (very good), then G700 (significantly worse), now Roccat Kone XTD... (HW probably best I've ever had). But sw... hmm. G502 did not fit to me.

From my experience I can tell that assigning 20+ commands under your thumb will not improve your drafting speed. Very likely the thumb will hate you after a while.

The best buttons on the mouse are on the wheel (left for Trim, right for Extend)

But most fast technique using mouse are the guests - simple ones... see HERE I have Delete on 6-9 hours, Move 12-3 hours (= most frequent commands)

Then I have some more commands on the buttons... copy, match (lately more using double click for that), dist... break at one point. But most of the modify commands i have on the keyboard. 1 or 2 keys on the left side of the keyboard...

Combining all of that...

[john.uhden]

@ВeekeeCZ wrote:

"From my experience I can tell that assigning 20+ commands under your thumb will not improve your drafting speed. Very likely the thumb will hate you after a while."

That may be true, unless you are "all thumbs."

[john.uhden]

Ah, yes. QZ and ZX are two of my favorite commands. :]