Altium Tech Tips: Using a 3D Mouse With Altium Designer

Tech tip of the day

 

You may already be familiar with using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts for navigation in 3D space in Altium Designer. However, there are times when you would like to move components to check for clearances in x-y-z space while zooming and/or rolling the board. The usage of a single mouse to perform all of these functions at the same time in Altium Designer can cause strain at the wrists, especially when doing tasks for several components.

 

Navigation can be improved by using a 3D mouse such as the Space Pilot Pro by 3DConnexion. The main 6-degree of freedom knob allows you to pan/zoom/roll while the components on the board are moved using the regular mouse. The multifunctional set-up improves the efficiency of the placement tasks and reduces strain on the wrists. In addition, the customizable buttons on the 3D mouse allow you to switch between programs, executing commands through a single click or any other macros/commands which you can code.

 

This 3D mouse is not limited only to design software like Altium Designer, it can also be used for Microsoft Office and Adobe utilities, regular browsers, and many other commonly-used programs. The Space Pilot’s multi-platform capability is further extended by the ability to assign different setups (functions of the main knob and buttons) for various programs.