3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 )
by 3Dconnexion
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Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: 3DconnexionFormat: CD
Release Date: 2012-02-12
Platform: Linux, Macintosh, Windows
Model: 3DX-700028
Product features:
- Advanced 6 degrees-of-freedom optical sensor
- Simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate 3D models
- 2 programmable function keys
- SpaceNavigator SE model includes commercial use license and full technical support
- Ideal for 3D designers, CAD engineers, architects
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (3.3 Feet/1.0 Meter)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 )
Customer Review: Really really good device (but not quite perfect - yet!)
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, let me make one thing clear about this review: I did not buy this device to use with any commercial software (CAD, etc). I bought it to use with my own homebrew software project, so my review concerns only the hardware and device driver - i.e. I cannot make any claims either way about how well it works with any popular applications.
That being said, let's put the most important info out there first: the device itself seems to be really well built (though I can't yet vouch for how well it functions in the long-term). It feels well-made; very sturdy, nice materials, with a really good 'feel' to the springs in the cap. Control is smooth and precise, certainly better than any joystick I've ever used - it just feels slick.
The installation process was simple and the training/demo software supplied in the box is decent enough. I particularly liked the 3D tetris-style puzzle - that really shows off the flexibility of a full 6DOF device, and definitely helped get me comfortable using it. I'd say it only takes a couple of minutes to get the basic swing of using the device, and a couple of hours to get comfortable performing subtle or complex motions. I was pleasantly surprised at how quick this was - especially given that I am not using the device with my dominant hand (3DConnexion recommends putting it on the other side of your keyboard to your mouse, and that does indeed seem to work well).
The driver supplies a 'control panel' utility which lets you tweak how the device behaves when used in specific applications. The behaviour and layout of this utility seems sensible, though the degree of control offered is a bit limited; you can't remap axes arbitrarily, nor adjust dead zones, nor apply mouse-style 'acceleration'. As I say, though, this was irrelevant to me, since my personal software ended up communicating directly with the device.
As an aside to any other developers interested in using this device: the sample source code in the SDK works as intended, and provides you with all the example code you need to get started talking to the device from your own software. The 'API' is very simple (if you use 'raw input' mode, as I did) and the device driver happily doesn't do anything 'clever' behind your back which could cause you any headaches. You just get the raw numbers from the device that you'd expect. I had the device working in my software within an hour, with another hour or two spent tweaking it to 'feel' really good (dead zones, power curves, damping, etc).
Given the above, this could be a 5-star rating... but there are a few minor faults which bring it down to 4 stars. Here they are:
- rotations counter-act translations: for example, while pulling the cap fully to the left (causing fast leftward panning), twisting the cap from above will actually reduce the strength of the panning. Each pan axis is adversely affected by 2 of the rotation axes in this way. In a 6-DOF device, all degrees of freedom should be fully independent, so this interaction is not ideal and can be annoying when performing certain camera maneuvers in 3D space. Applications can correct for this to some degree (I added hacks to mostly hide the problem in my software), but I doubt you can rely on most applications doing so (I tried Google Earth briefly, and it did not correct for this problem at all).
- tilting is limited by the base: if you press the cap down, this limits your ability to tilt the cap forwards/back/sideways, since it collides with the base of the device. That's another unfortunate coupling between degrees of freedom which can limit certain camera maneuvers (e.g. moving downwards while tilting the camera up)
- I think the base could do with being *slightly* heavier, especially since there's a lighter notebook version for people who would prefer a lighter option. A heavier base would allow me to use the device slightly more comfortably; I could use fewer fingers, since I wouldn't have to prevent it from sliding.
- I find the buttons on the device hard to use, given how they are positioned. They would be much more accessible to me if they were semicircles built into the rim of the cap.
These definitely seem like minor design flaws which could be fixed in the next version - there's nothing fundamentally wrong with this device as a concept. Even as it is, I would whole-heartedly recommend it to a friend. Or stranger, actually.
More 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 ) reviews:
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Description of 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 )
3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator SE (Standard Edition) 3D Navigation Device USB ( 3DX-700028 )Digital Cameras & Photo Categories
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