Mouse recomendation for CAD

Fenza · 9 Nov 2014 at 01:09

So I've had a Corsair M95 a few months now and well I hate it...

I bought the M95 because of it's button layout and sheer number of buttons (9 for thumb and 3 for index finger). Looks perfect, feels great. Even the thumb button layout is comfortable but all the buttons are so damn hard to press. I use the thumb buttons as modifier keys so I'm always holding them down rather then merely pressing them once.

My old Logitech mouse served me well for years but I need more buttons on the mouse. I'm really in need of a comfortable mouse with many buttons I can use all day every day without straining my hand and wrist just to hold down a button.

If anyone has any ideas of what I can look at I'd much appreciate it. Any unorthodox items will be looked at too, though I'm used to ordinary Mouse and Keyboard setup.

Cheers.

Fenza

Mercutio · 9 Nov 2014 at 08:37

check the logitech "G" range of mice. The G700 in particular has a lot of buttons in easy to reach places (e.g 4 under the thumb).

Fenza · 9 Nov 2014 at 23:23

Hey Mercutio, cheers for your imput. The G700 looks pretty good, 5 buttons for the index finger and those 4 for thumb look quite close together so may be able to press two at the same time effectively making 6 buttons. Yet another disappointment of the M95 was it's inability to stack multiple buttons, a feature my ancient Logitech did well.

Have you got/tried the G700? Soft/delicate buttons seems to be a must for me.

Fenza · 9 Nov 2014 at 23:32

I've come across the Mad Catz M.M.O TE which looks ideal but also 'chunky' and I can't imagine the buttons being delicate / easy to click.

Here's some pics

Mad-Catz-M-M-O-TE-Gaming-Mouse-Has-a-Ludicrous-Number-of-Buttons-Gallery-454875-9.jpg

Cheers.

Fenza

SPG · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:19

Mircosoft explorer touch mouse and X button mouse control.

I detest having to use the scroll wheel as a button. It is so uncomfortable, and all of the above are not required in the slightest.

gradyhawks · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:35

I use a Roccat Kone+ for work, lost of spare buttons you can program small macros too. between that and settings qwe,asd and zxc" for various tools, I've gotta rather quicker with CAD.

One of the keys acts as a shift key for the others, meaning you can have some 9 or so extra clickers to click, software is really nice as well. Oh and you can add or take away weights inside. Its quite big though, so you need to have proper man hands.

Elric · 10 Nov 2014 at 13:21

what about one of those 3dconnection things.

ZXSpectrum · 10 Nov 2014 at 13:53

3D Connexions "things" are actually not really a mouse. They are an accompanying product to a mouse. They are great for CAD but not as an actual mouse.

We sell a lot of simple mice for CAD work such as the Logitech RX250. For a bit more higher spec, as someone else has said, the Logitech G series are great and for the top daddy the Logitech Performance MX Laser mouse is a great product.

Fenza · 10 Nov 2014 at 14:10

Hey SPG, the X Button Mouse Control looks really interesting, I'll have to try that. I've always hated scroll wheel button and in CAD I'm forever double clicking it! so the option to change that would be fantastic

The ability to change it only in certain applications is perfect so I'll definitely give it a go.

Cheers.

Fenza

Fenza · 10 Nov 2014 at 14:27

Hey gradyhawks, cheers for you comment. The Kone+ doesn't have as many buttons as I'd like but looking at their website they have one called the Tyon which may be worth a look at. It has 9 button in total with two of them being switch like (up and down clicks), so there's a total of 11 buttons which is great.

Trouble is I have puny little hands haha, probably why I have this problem in the first place.

Cheers.

Fenza

Fenza · 10 Nov 2014 at 15:58

I'm sure the 3Dconnexion things are great for most people, but I do really like to keep my left hand on my keyboard. I've had a go with a colleagues 3Dconnexion thing and certainly see the appeal but it's just not for me.

I'd like to have a huge number of keybinds. I'm used to using ~50 key combinations using Shift - Ctrl - Shift+Ctrl modifiers for gaming but 3D CAD applications have so many features it's ridiculous and I quite simply have to keybind them all so I really want to find a mouse that'll allow for over 200 keybinds.

I'm currently using QWERASDFGXC with three modifiers allowing a total of 44 keybinds but can also use numbers 1-5 upping that total to 64 which is clearly no where near 200+
I'm using Autodesk Inventor mostly at the moment and that seems to allow numbers to be used for keybinds which is great.
Ok so I've just worked out I can comfortably reach 25 keys without really moving my wrist more then what I'm used to, so in order to achieve 200+ keybinds I'll need 8+ modifier commands on the mouse thumb, any others on top are just extra. I usually use the top buttons for keys like Escape, Entre, Delete and Home View.

My Corsair M95 has 9 buttons on the thumb but only 7 are comfortable to reach and can't combine so I'm limited to 175 with this mouse. Not that I've bothered to bind that many keys this mouse is horrid...

Think I really need to go to a shop and try a range of mice to find what I'm looking for.

Cheers.

Fenza

ZXSpectrum · 11 Nov 2014 at 14:02

A friend of mine is a heavy Catia user and he uses the 3D Connexions products a lot. Most people that use them have the same opinion. Once you use one and get used to it you will wonder how you did without it.

Fenza · 11 Nov 2014 at 23:43

Hey, ZXSpectrum I do really like the 3D Connexions and certainly see the appeal after trying a colleagues, but they don't solve my ultimate problem.

I feel that to be the most efficient I need to rely as little as possible on mouse movement and the way I think this is most achievable is to have just about every feature I use to be keybound. Rather than searching for and clicking a feature with my mouse it's a mere key press away, which also keeps my cursor where I want it and not flying all over the screen loosing track of where I was.

In the spirit of 3D Connexion type products I've had a look at Gamepads (or what ever they're called). The theory is that using keyboard like I originally intended neglects my left thumb where as Gamepads can make use of it hopefully for such actions as arrow keys or another modifier. The other benefit would be to map all of the keys as numbers which would be great for CAD.

A Gamepad such as this one could allow me to steer away from crazy mice with ridiculous buttons.

Tell me what you guys think. FYI I haven't disregarded 3D connexions all together, I just haven't seen one that fits my needs.

Cheers.

Fenza

Fenza · 11 Nov 2014 at 23:53

I like the idea of that Gamepad, reaching 25 keys on a keyboard isn't the most elegant of solutions. This Gamepad only has 14 but if the 15th on the thumb was to be used as another modifier then the 14 could effectively be 28 keys while being a lot more comfortable as well as precise.

I think I'll look into these things a lot more. Spreading the modifier keys over two thumbs is vastly more efficient, having two keys on each thumb is the same as eight keys on one thumb! Not to mention the other benefits. I do have an old Logitech Gamepad but that was horrid, I never used it and threw me of the idea until now.

Cheers.

Fenza