REVIEW: Hands-on with the SpacePilot Pro

The device’s most distinguishing feature is its LCD display, which has the potential to lessen the multitude of mini interruptions that can quickly eat up a user’s day.

3D Connexions, makers of 3D input devices, today launched the SpacePilot Pro, marking an evolutionary leap for the product line. The new unit builds on the sturdy, ergonomic design of the company’s Space Pilot and SpaceExplorer 3D mice, by adding more control options and a more refined user experience.

Unlike it predecessors, the new Pro version features a colour LCD screen that displays iPhone-like applets that monitor and channel common office applications such as Outlook E-mail, Calendar Events and Tasks as well as RSS feeds.

The idea, says 3D Connexions president Deiter Neujahr, is the same as that behind the mouse itself: Letting designers keep their attention on the task at hand without the distraction of switching windows or hunting for quick keys.

“The SpacePilot Pro’s LCD Worldflow Assistant gives at-a-glance visibility, whether its e-mail, calendar events or RSS feeds,” he says. “It’s push technology but the user can easily customize what they do and don’t want to see. The intention is to focus you on your design work, with fewer interruptions to your workflow and less clutter on your main display.”

3D Mouse 101
For those unfamiliar with 3D mice, the concept is similar to that of the flight controls available to a jet fighter pilot. Since they don’t have the luxury of taking their hands off the flight stick or thrusters controls, pilots require access to all the plane’s major functionality, from machine gun trigger to changing HUD display modes, to be literally at their finger tips.

While less dramatic, the intent of 3D Connexions’ mice is to provide the same easy manipulation of a model in its virtual space. In the designer’s right hand, the traditional mouse performs is usual function—selecting edges, faces, vertices, menu commands, etc. —while the left hand rests on the SpacePilot’s control cap, which lets users manipulate models over six degrees of freedom. » Learn about the specific improvements on the next page

Pushing the cap straight forward and back, for instance, zooms the view, while pushing and pulling the cap right, left, up and down pans the display view. At the same time, users can tilt a selected 3D object along its x-axis by tipping the cap front and back while a left or right tilt rolls the selected object. Finally, twisting the cap provides control over the object’s spin. The real benefit (and sometimes challenge especially for new users) is that designers can perform all of this manipulation simultaneously so that they can navigate to any particular view quickly.

New and Improved
One of the improvements of the SpacePilot Pro, Neujahr says, is that the company has further refined its model manipulation controls. For instance, the Pro’s cap movement is stiffer than earlier models, lessening the potentially frustrating experience of accidentally tilting while zooming or the object drifting out of frame while otherwise manipulating it.

In addition, the SpacePilot Pro driver software allows users to fine tune the sensitivity of any particular axes through a series of sliders. Users can also selectively turn pan, zoom, tilt, etc., on and off as necessary via the 3D mouse’s function keys. This can be particularly helpful while in 2D sketch mode so that the drafting view doesn’t begin to accidentally revolve in the view port. Then, once in 3D modelling mode, zoom and/or pan can be de-activated so that a model only spins, rolls or tilts but won’t drift off screen or require re-centring. If a view does get out of hand, for whatever reason, the Pro provides a “Fit” button that automatically centres the selected model and normalizes the zoom factor.

Dual Function Keys
In addition to manual manipulation of 3D objects, the Pro provides a pyramid of five dual-function QuickView Navigation keys on the right side of the device that correspond to set views: front/back, top/bottom, left/right and two isometric views. Pressing the first of these keys, for example, rotates a model to its front view, while pressing and holding the same key brings up the back view. The fifth key rolls the selected model either clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Keys along the left side of the Pro further negate the necessity for using a keyboard. At top left, the Pro has the familiar ALT, CTRL, SHIFT and ESC keys as well as another set of five dual-function buttons. Rather than having set functions, these keys are what the company calls Intelligent Function keys in that they are adaptive, performing different commands depending on the active application and the modelling mode its in. » Learn about the LCD screen's app functionality on the next page

In Autodesk Inventor, for example, pressing Button 1 brings up 2D Sketch mode, Button 2 initiates the Extrude command and Button 3 Fillet, although the user can re-designate each of these keys to perform nearly any other of a supported application’s commands. The Pro’s Intelligent Function keys also change to reflect a particular design mode’s common operations. For example, after pressing Button 1 to change to Inventor’s 2D Sketch mode, Button 1 becomes the Move command, Button 2 becomes Trim, Button 3 Dimension and so on.

While these function keys could be the device’s most useful, they do present two potential problems. The first is that remembering what the 10 options (not to mention the 10 alternate mode options) do can be challenging. To lessen this, the LCD display does have an applet that displays the mode and the command performed by each of the keys’ primary and secondary functions. Relying on this applet, however, negates the value of the other applets available.

The second is that these keys are positioned near the user’s left pinky finger—not the most dexterous or brawny of digits. There’s also little in the way of tactile “signposts” on the keys themselves, often requiring a blind hunt for the correct button. The addition of raised bumps on the keys would help. With time, both of these problems would be overcome but they do steepen the device’s learning curve.

The real potential of the LCD screen comes from the fact that 3D Connexion provides a free SDK so that software developers can create their own applets for the device similar to Apple’s strategy for the iPhone.

LCD Display
Improvements to the utility of the SpacePilot Pro aside, the device’s most distinguishing feature is its LCD display, which has the potential to lessen the multitude of mini interruptions that can quickly eat up a designer’s day. Nothing is worse than constantly being pulled “out of the zone” to check e-mail in case something important comes in.

With that in mind, the Pro’s e-mail applet is probably the most useful the unit ships with. Using the star-shaped buttons next to the LCD screen, users navigate to the Outlook E-mail applet and press the centre button to bring up the four most recent messages in their inbox, with sender, time received and subject line clearly shown. As new e-mails arrive, the display automatically updates, allowing users to determine if any need immediate attention. Clicking the centre button again on an item brings the full e-mail up in the main screen. » Learn about potential 3rd-party development on the next page

While the standard applets are a start, Neujahr says the real potential of the LCD screen comes from the fact that 3D Connexion provides a free SDK so that software developers can create their own applets for the device similar to Apple’s strategy for the iPhone.

“Handing out a software development kit will allow third-party developers to produce professional applications to give you access to even more information, on your workstation, on your network or on the Internet,” he says. “For example, it’s conceivable that SolidWorks could create an applet that connects the model you are working on with PDMWorks to gives you supply chain information, inventory information or whatever at the push of a button.”

Although the LCD display’s intent is to prevent needless distraction, CAD managers may have to keep a close eye on their engineers to make sure the opposite doesn’t happen. A Twitter or instant messaging applet, for instance, could quickly become a productivity killer as designers get in the habit of constantly looking down at the LCD. The other problem is that the display doesn’t share the matte finish present on the rest of the device. Its glossy finish can quickly become smeared by fingerprints and further obscured by reflections from overhead office lighting.

Wrapping Up
The last, and potentially most significant, of the SpacePilot Pro’s adoption barriers is its sticker price. Replacing the SpacePilot as the company’s high-end unit, the Pro version retails for $499.

For that investment, however, it’s clear the company has put a considerable amount of work into software development. The device’s driver has been developed to run on all major operating system, including Linux. In addition, the list of 3D and even 2D applications the device has been specifically tailored to support is too numerous to list, but includes every major and minor MCAD product, most surface modelling and 3D animation software and even open source and consumer products like Google Earth and Google SketchUp.

It should also be pointed out that adopters of 3D Connexion’s products swear by them. According to a study conducted on behalf of the company, approximately 80 percent of current 3D mouse users reported increased productivity as a result of using the devices. In addition, the study found that nearly the same percentage felt that the quality of their work had improved.

And if even half of the anecdotal evidence and sponsored research claims are true, it would be hard to put a price tag on either increased productivity or quality.
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