Sketchup - What's the best mouse for SU?

[krw]

That movement comes from the arm, though. The wrist should be pretty inflexible. Wild movements of the wrist are just asking for pain.

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 7 May 2010 08:40:46 -0500, "Leon" wrote the following:

Nevahoiduvit. (Time to googlit)

Ditto that, in spades.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 07 May 2010 10:20:39 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote the following:

SU v7 happily accepts my Trackman Portable. I just ordered a finger trackball from Hong Kong. It's USB.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[Swingman]

I've had an eye on the Space Navigator for awhile, just never got a chance to check it out personally since retailers are so sparse in this neck of the woods.

I keep hearing good things about it and it makes sense to do panning, zooming and orbiting with one hand while drawing with the other. May have to give it a try.

Thanks ...

[Lobby Dosser]

Watch your wrist and arm as you use your mouse. See muscles move clear up the arm? And its all going through the wrist. Mice and keyboards are probably now the most frequent cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 7 May 2010 13:18:42 -0500, "basilisk" wrote the following:

6x9" here.

I have their older Art Z II tablet but don't use it much any more since I'm not doing much Photoshop work lately. I'll have to try it with SU on the new computer sometime soon.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 07 May 2010 16:11:30 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote the following:

That Wacom Cintuq 21UX has a FESTERING price, doesn't it?

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 07 May 2010 19:38:20 -0500, " [e-mail]" wrote the following:

Minute movements of the wrist cause pain. It's the mere lifting of the fingers and/or the wrist which engages the overstimulated carpal sheaf nerves.

And the lifting of the entire arm to move the forearm with a mouse can cause the shoulder and/or back muscles to spasm in some folks.

BTDT to a very mild extent with both. Moved to a trackball and haven't looked back. No surgery needed and no pain now, -except- when I use a mouse for a couple hours. I decided to bypass the pain by moving away from a mouse as soon as I had determined that it was the culprit.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[krw]

CTS isn't a problem with the tendons directly (only the tendons of the thumb and first to fingers go through the Carpal Tunnel), rather the strange position of the wrist causing the tendons and nerves to pinch in the CT. Minimizing motion of the wrist also helps. The function of a CTS brace is to immobilize the wrist in the correct position to keep the Carpal Tunnel straight. That shouldn't be required since the wrist should be kept straight without it. Been there.

[krw]

Once the sheath is inflamed, yes. The cause was funky wrist (and finger) movement. Keep the wrists straight and the fingers can move freely.

Why would you *lift* the mouse? Just slide the arm. How do you move the mouse (large distances) "vertically" without moving the arm? Just do the same for lateral movements. Keep the wrist straight.

I'm exactly the opposite. No trackballs for me! Oh, the pain...

[Leon]

Almost with out fail something gets in the way. I guess it is more the left and right motion rather than my picking the mouse up that is my problem. It just takes me a lot longer to move the mouse than it does to move my thumb. Rolling my thumb top to bottom on the ball gets me 70% across the screen, rolling forward and backward gets me top to bottom.

In general I hate track balls that are not "thumb only" operated. There are only a few out there that are available in the thumb configuration.

[Leon]

Working a control with the left and right hand sounds tricky,,, a lot like playing domino's and winning.

[krw]

That's just a matter of tuning the mouse sensitivity and acceleration.

I find that the ball is in a horrible position for my hands. Like I said earlier, I had a keyboard with a built-in ball in the upper right corner that was OK for places where there wasn't room for a mouse (our lab). I could wrap my fingers around the right side of the keyboard and operate the ball with my thumb. That certainly worked better than a pad (I hate them) or trackstick (acceptable on the lap).

[Swingman]

As long as there's no estrogen involved, no problem.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 08 May 2010 10:38:08 -0500, " [e-mail]" wrote the following:

With your arm on the desk, your hand has to elevate to get onto the mouse, bending your wrist. Once your wrist is bent, moving your fingers irritates the nerves.

To move your forearm, you lift your ARM, duuuuuuude. I didn't say anything about lifting the mouse.

The mouse lifts your hand off the table, angling your wrist, unless you either use A) an arm lift, B) a mouse depression in the desk, or C) lift your entire arm each time. Which is it?

I didn't say to use a regular trackball, which doesn't help at all and may increase the stresses. I specified those with thumb-activated balls and gave a list. Try one of those.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 08 May 2010 10:09:57 -0500, " [e-mail]" wrote the following:

If anyone is experiencing CTS now, pick up a copy of Adelle Davis' _Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit_. She mentions that a lack of lecithin, which almost entirely makes up the myelin sheath, can cause those problems.

-- Live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

[krw]

I'm not much into "magic remedies", when the problem can easily be remedied by removing the mechanical abuse.

[krw]

There's your mistake; your arm should not be on the desk. Your desk/chair heights are all wrong and you're sitting too close to the desk.

No, if sitting properly there is no need to lift the arm to move it. No wonder you have RSI issues.

D) none of the above. My arm is not on the desk. It's in free space (or on the arm rest of the chair), where it belongs.

I didn't see your list.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 09 May 2010 09:06:54 -0500, " [e-mail]" wrote the following:

Unfortunately, I didn't save a copy.

Let's rebuild it, this time saving it:

The Logitechs include the Trackman Portable (which Toshiba and IBM both licensed and built), Trackman Optical, and Cordless Trackman Wheel.

Microsoft put out the Trackball Optical and Ballpoint mouse.

Another possible type is the IOGEAR Phaser 3-in-1 Presentation/Mouse and the Logitech Trackman Live! I don't think I'd like the small balls, though. It might limit fullscreen pointer travel, which is a problem with the Trackman Portable in XP unless you turn off pointer precision, which isn't as bad a problem.

I ordered one of these from Hong Kong the other day and expect it sometime this month.

-- The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease. -- Thomas A. Edison

[Ivan Vegvary]

My way of thinking says that SketchUp would be easier to handle when using a tablet. I say that because I have always used trackballs and tablets. I do not like mice, and I abhor trackpads. I can use all of the above but my absolute favourite is a Wacom tablet with their mouse. Why their mouse? Well, I am glad you asked. If one moves an ordinary mouse to create, say, a vertical (on screen visual of vertical) motion, an ordinary mouse must be pointed perfectly into that direction. The Wacom mouse can be held sideways, pointing towards or away from you, it will still give you a vertical movement if you move it vertically. I use a Intuos Medium

every day and have a Wacom Graphite installed on another computer. The Bamboo ones I'm told, are quite capable and fun.

Rotaboy, while I've been doing CAD work (AutoCad, SolidWorks, Invetor, Revit, Civil3D etc.) for over 35 years, I don't know what you mean about your mouse having to be pointed vertical. Right now I'm using a generic, inexpensive optical mouse with a wheel. To draw a vertical line in any of the programs above I simply slide the mouse vertically. The angle at which I hold the mouse does not seem to matter one iota!!

Please elaborate on what you mean. I haven't run SketchUp for about a year and I have not tried that one.

Ivan Vegvary