Anybody else using a SpaceNavigator?

273 · 08-16-2013, 03:51 PM

I have searched and found a few announcement threads regarding them and one thread asking for help with a similar device but not much else.
So, I thought I would ask whether there is anyone else out there with one of these things, what you use it for and whether you've messed around to get it to do anything interesting?
Currently I only use mine for Google Earth and Second Life clients. For Google Earth alone though I think it's worth having as it makes navigating so much more quicker, more fluid and more intuitive.

Ztcoracat · 09-04-2013, 12:28 AM

Hi: 273!

I have never used Space Navigator.

However I use a similar application called "Celestia"
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/gallery.html

It's really nice planetarium software:-

With Celestia I can navigate all over the universe and study all of the galaxies and red giants.
Haven't really gotten the application to due anything all that intresting but I also haven't gotten as familuar with it as I'd like.
Perhaps with time I will tweak this app a tad.

Space Navigator looks like an intresting device-
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2082798,00.asp

Can I use it to manipulate GIMP?

273 · 09-04-2013, 01:19 AM

Hi Ztcoracat,
Thanks for reminding me, I keep meaning to play with Celestia.
I see that it is possible, according to 3dconnexion who market the device, to use a Space Navigator with GIMP though I haven't tried this as I don't use GIMP often and would worry the system changes made mean it would work with GIMP or Google Earth and Second Life but not all three together.
Sadly since it's a fairly expensive and relatively rare device there doesn't seem to be much you can do with it.
One thing that sounds good is use with Blender which I am reminded I must try it out with even though blender confuses me greatly.

Ztcoracat · 09-04-2013, 01:42 AM

I know exactly what you mean 273; Blender confuses me as well and I'm pretty good with GIMP:-
That app eludes me-

Quote:

Sadly since it's a fairly expensive and relatively rare device there doesn't seem to be much you can do with it.

Thank kinda stinks! IMO expensive devices should come with all kinds of capabilities, options and good functionalities to boot--

I think you'll like Celestia.
I have it on my Fedora machine and it runs great!

273 · 11-03-2018, 08:37 AM

For ages I thought that this would no longer work after systemd but, thanks to another USB product's udev rule I found out that the /etc/udev/rules.d/60_spacenavigator.rules online is outdated and needs to be amended to:

Code:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="046d", ATTR{idProduct}=="c626", SYMLINK+="input/spacenavigator", MODE="0666"

And Google Earth's drivers.ini no longer needs any lines adding to support the device, one simply checks the option to allow controllers in the settings.