Space Mouse

Purpose

The Magellan Space Mouse, made by Logitech, can be used to control your view or issue animation time slider commands.

Toggling Between Time and View Modes

You can toggle between View and Time ( jog/shuttle) modes in two ways:

1. Click the _* button on the space mouse
2. Click the icon for the space mouse menu at the top right corner of the screen, under the menu bar, to the right of the mag, grid, and crv buttons. Drag to the mode you want and release the button.

The space mouse menu appears as follows:

The button changes appearance to indicate the current mode.

If the View mode is selected, the button appears as follows:

If the Time mode is selected, the button appears as follows:

The default space mouse mode is tumble/dolly View.

The button for the space mouse menu only appears if a space mouse device is connected to your machine. Otherwise the mag, grid, and crv buttons appear flush against the right edge of the window.

Toggling Modes During Playback

You can toggle modes during playback as follows:

• start playback using the Time Slider.
• push the _* button to toggle to View mode (dolly or tumble).
• select _* to toggle back to Time mode.
• stop or reverse play using the space mouse.

  Tumbling or dollying during playback affects playback speed, depending on the power of your computer.

Space Mouse Sensitivity Settings

There are separate sensitivity settings and controls for Time and View modes in the Preferences Interface options window. Lower slider values make the device more sensitive and faster.

See Interface Options in the Preferences section of the Alias Menu Book for more information.

Software Sensitivity

Acceleration threshold/Acceleration factor

In Time mode, you can adjust the Acceleration threshold and Acceleration factor in the Interface Options window. These settings affect the fast forward or reverse playback feel (Preferences Interface options).

The Acceleration threshold value determines how much time is needed during a twist of the cap to switch from single frame to fast playback mode.

The Acceleration factor value is used to adjust how fast the playback transitions into maximum playback.

Hardware Sensitivity

You can also adjust the sensitivity settings for the space mouse in the hardware.

To adjust the translation sensitivity to the next setting, click the _* and 5 button simultaneously.

To adjust the rotation sensitivity to the next setting, click the _* and 6 button simultaneously.

Tip: There are eight possible settings. You will hear a double beep when you are back at the first, the default, setting.

Time Mode Controls:

Jog Forward 1 Frame	twist clockwise and release.
Jog Backward 1 Frame	twist counter-clockwise and release.
Next Keyframe	tilt to bottom and release.
Previous Keyframe	tilt to top and release.
Play Forward	tilt to right and release.
Play Backward	tilt to left and release.
Stop	push down.
Fast Forward Playback	twist clockwise and hold (progressive acceleration of playback).
Fast Reverse Playback	twist counter-clockwise and hold (progressive acceleration of playback).
Rewind (goto frame 1)	push to left.
Wind (goto last frame)	push to right.

Tip: During playback, tap right and then tap left to quickly change the playback direction.

An object must be selected and have some keyframes assigned for the Next/Previous keyframe command to have any affect (this is the same as using the time slider).