( 15 reviews )
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Posted: Apr 18 2009
I bought this mainly for use with SolidWorks, and for that it works fine. My only complaint is, the buttons are worthless. In order to actuate them you have to be very patient. It is really cool when used with Google Earth, it's like flying.
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Posted: Feb 19 2009
Here's my evaluation of the Space Navigator (used primarily for DAZ Studio). The hardware is first class, solid heavy duty unit sits on the desktop beautifully and is a joy to view and manipulate. The configuration/setup is very poorly done. It is really confusing and does not allow you to actually interact with the controller in order to decide and then immediately set whether you want normal or the inverse directional setting. The number of motions/directions are poorly illustrated and explained. This is not a trivial point, because not having this done right means wasting a lot of time once you understand what you need to do and what works for you. The worst problem is that one of the main control movements is not clearly explained. If you grasp the Space Navigator and anchor your hand on the desktop to provide a firm anchor and simply move it laterally, without tilting or pulling or pushing the center knob (e.g. restrict movement to the lateral plane parallel to desktop) you get a pure motion but this is never properly explained. The other manipulations such as tilting, or pushing or pulling the central knob are fairly reasonably. It is absolutely crucial that you ANCHOR your hand to the surface the Space Navigator rests on, in order to get the purely lateral movement to work properly. If you are not properly anchored and get even miniscule tilt or push pull, you will get unintended "confusing" movements of your target. The configuration/setup and various guides fail to explain this, or do so very poorly. I figured this out purely by trial and error. A very minor complaint is that a popup comes up everytime you open Photoshop and there is no easy way to tell it not to do that. This is trivial and I mention it simply to show that the software people are not paying attention to users. In summary, this is a Superb 3D Controller, hobbled by an unforgiveably poor SOFTWARE for Configuration/Setup. It's a terrible shame. If you are willing to waste a lot of time figuring it out it is a very useful tool. Like too many computer and computer related devices, this product suffers from software ergonomics problems. The programmers have very poor judgement when it comes to making things easy to learn and use. They need to hire people who understand how to do this and then test and revise software based on improving the areas where people are having difficulty. This needs to be done iteratively until problem areas are gone and novice users learn to configure,setup, and use the product rapidly with little or no complaints. Only then will the ingenuity and creativity of the the hardware designers be fully realized and appreciated.
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Posted: Feb 2 2009
I had a few problems getting it installed on a modern Windows XP box. It took three tries, including a complete uninstall, but once installed and enabled the improvement in my Blender3D capabilities (as well as Google Earth) is wonderful and effortless. I also installed it on Ubuntu Linux and am equally happy. Highly recommended! Note: I didn't need the tech support of the SE version, but I'm a very experienced programmer. If your time is valuable, pay the extra $25 just in case.
