Chimera with 3d (6-axis) mouse?
Hello I was wondering if there is any support for using a 3d mouse with chimera. In particular, I have a 3dconnexion space explorer, and it does not seem to work in chimera for windows. I have not found anything in the archives pertaining to this, or even its logitech ancestor the "magellan". thank you
Hi Lee, This month I wrote code to allow using a 3dConnexion Space Navigator input device with Chimera on Mac computers. I believe the same code would work for the Space Explorer and other 6 degree-of-freedom input devices from 3dConnexion. Unfortunately 3dConnexion provides completely different device programming interfaces on Windows and Mac and Linux, so my code will only work on the Mac. I do not know when I will have time to develop the code for Windows. Our Mac space navigator support is not yet in the Chimera distribution. I still need to fix a problem where slow rendering causes greatly delayed response to device input. I have not been able to find in the 3dConnexion programming documentation how the events are queued on the Mac and they do not provide driver source code so progress is slow. Tom
Hi Lee, I added Chimera support for the Space Navigator 6-degree-of-freedom input device (costs only $60) for Mac and Windows. http://www.3dconnexion.com/ I expect it will work with other 3dconnexion devices such as your Space Explorer. If you download the current Chimera daily build http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/alpha-downloads.html for Windows or Mac OS and have the 3dconnexion driver installed, the device will move and rotate Chimera models. I have only two button assignments: Button1 or Fit centers the models and scales them to fit in the window, Button2 toggles a mode allowing simultaneous rotation and translation (default off is called "dominant" mode by 3dconnexion). The Windows Control Panel or Mac OS System Preferences lets you change the assignments of the device buttons. You may not have any assigned to be "Button2" unless you change those settings. There are also a few keyboard shortcuts that change modes. Shortcuts or Accelerators are turned on with menu entry Tools / General Controls / Accelerators On. Shortcut "nf" turns on "fly through" mode. Instead of the device behaving as if you are holding the models it is used to control the viewer position (ie. pushing forward flies you forward rather than pushing the models away from you). It is hard to control -- needs more programming work. Shortcut "na" allows the device to move both inactive (frozen) and active models. This can be useful if you are docking a molecule into a map with the mouse and changing view points of both molecule and map using the space navigator. Shortcut "nd" toggles translate/rotate only mode (i.e. "dominant" mode). I just added that today so it won't be in Chimera until tonight's builds. Tom
participants (2)
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Lee Parsons -
Tom Goddard