Good mouse for SketchUp?
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The good old noisy scroll wheel mouse just died and now I wonder which mouse to invest in. I model a lot in SU (Windows 7) and use as well a 3D Navigator- which btw works fantastic with SU.
Thought about something touch based but the question is if it's impractical or just needs getting used to. E.g Mac mouse or the new Microsoft Touchmouse. (which doesn't have a middle mouse button so no orbit and out of the question)
Is it worth having a few extra buttons to program on a mouse? I travel a lot so something that works on all sorts of surfaces would be good too. Looking forward to suggestions, thanks guys.
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My opinion only but I like a simple basic mouse with a center scroll wheel/button. No extra buttons needed.
I have a 3D Navigator which I tried with SketchUp but I prefer navigating with the mouse and I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts so I like to keep my left hand poised on the keyboard. The 3D Navigator is heavy though and makes a great paperweight.
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@dave r said:
I have a 3D Navigator which I tried with SketchUp but I prefer navigating with the mouse [...] The 3D Navigator is heavy though and makes a great paperweight.
I was thinking to get a 3D Navigator, it looked promising in adverts. You say for sketchup is not the best choice ?
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You might like it for SketchUp. I don't. If I had three hands, maybe I would but navigating in SketchUp with a mouse is so easy that I can't see any reason to make it more difficult.
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This is the best mouse I could find for SketchUp, the Contour Mouse
http://ergo.contourdesign.com/products/product-detail.aspx?id=36
It has a lot of things to recommend it. It has a real middle mouse button. It is super comfortable for long periods, being an "ergo" device. The scroll wheel is separate and used with the thumb, which is much less pain-inducing. There's a rocker switch, too, but I cannot figure out how to use it with SketchUp (it does forward/back in a browser).
The only problem? The scroll wheel tends to get dust in it after a few years, and it goes nuts from time to time. Oh, and the light one seems to pick up dirt like crazy (my mouse looks very unhygienic).
jh
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Forgot to mention a couple of other things about the Contour mouse - it comes in a range of sizes, to fit various sized hands. And it comes in a righty and lefty model, too.
The size thing is a bit odd - I'm supposed to being using a large, but I it seems too small for me. I'm moving up to an XL and see how that goes (they have a 30 day return policy).
jh
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@dave r said:
You might like it for SketchUp. I don't. If I had three hands, maybe I would but navigating in SketchUp with a mouse is so easy that I can't see any reason to make it more difficult.
I also have a 3D Navigator that I never use for the same reason,
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Bob, have you tried it as a paper weight?
I've got two of them and they are actually just sitting in their boxes. One has never been used. they are really nicely made but I doubt I'll ever use them.
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Me too. Got a Navigatore from @Last years ago as a gift. It was touted as a superior control for SU, but as Dave says, it's darn heavy. This means (on the plus side) that it will actually stay put if you adjust your grip to use the buttons...but the sheer weight gets tiring after a time...and you wouldn't need to shift your grip in the first place if the buttons were as handily placed as they are on a scroll mouse.
It maybe does have it's uses for other 3D apps; but not for using SU for hours on end. I seem to recall it was pretty good for navigating Google Earth, but I'm not going to be dragging my PC case out of the desk to get at the rear USB ports every time I want to switch it over with the mouse. (I reserve the front ports for phone, sat-nav, camera and the like)TBH I've never come across anything that beats a bog standard Logitech scroll mouse; the only proviso being that the scroll wheel works smoothly and isn't too 'ratchety'.
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I use a Logitech MX Revolution here. best mouse I've ever had. (the model now is the MX Performance. basically the same design with some tweaks)
as to the navi's.. yup I have one as well.. don't use it since it's no where near as useful as my N52te Nostromo keypad..
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