In a past career, I was a mechanical design engineer; I've probably spent 10,000 hours of my life in SolidWorks. Not once did I feel like a 3d mouse would speed me up or otherwise solve my problems. I trialed a spacepilot for several months and just couldn't be arsed after awhile. What do others get out of them?

[–] B0rax@feddit.org 3 points 3 hours ago

For some people it simply does not help with the workflow. For me it is a significant upgrade as it allows me to never use the normal mouse to move around in 3D, and allows me to quickly move the view to where I want it to be. Without it, moving in 3D just feels clunky to me.

But as I said, it is a preference.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

I don't have as many hours in SolidWorks but for me, trying to navigate without a 3d mouse feels like riding a bike with square tires. I could manage to do it but why. At the end of the day though it's a preference. Likewise I have to murder the x and y axis on it for things to click in my head, which is another preference. I suppose growing up as a gamer may have something to do with that. I don't want to move/rotate the object, I want to move/rotate the camera..