3d connexion spacenavigator signal import to grasshopper?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Martin J on April 8, 2015 at 9:32am

Hi Roderick,

Did you find a solution to this?

I also have a 3Dconnexion device I would like to use for object maniupulation.

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on April 8, 2015 at 1:06pm

This should be quite easily done making a small programm in vvvv (another standalone node based programming environment). I seem to remember playing with the node for the 3d connexion device.

Then you can easily send the signals via OSC, which I have done with midi controllers that way. 

I will knock something together when I have time in the next few days. Should be fun ;)

Permalink Reply by Martin Siegrist on April 9, 2015 at 12:52am

You could use the getCamera component in the horster plugin...

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on April 9, 2015 at 1:58am

Interesting idea. But I guess the 3d mouse would then not move the camera anymore, but just be used for other input or maybe while holding a key so moving the viewport is still possible. Moving the viewport and using the input from the 3d mouse for other things wouldn't be very useful though.

But I can see this being useful in other cases. Always nice to come across new grasshopper plugins :)

Permalink Reply by Riccardo Majewski on September 16, 2015 at 6:14am

ANY news about this / related ?

Someone have some documentation to share?

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on September 16, 2015 at 6:38am

I have very little time unfortunately. But I just remembered this really cool tool called OSCulator and checking their website.. indeed, it supports 3DConnexion devices!

http://www.osculator.net

So then just use gHowl to get the OSC data and all should be good. It might be worth reading up on OSC a little, but its amazingly universal and one of the best and often only ways for software to talk to each other, so well worth knowing about it. I have used it in the past to link 3 different computers and 5 different pieces of software including Grasshopper right at the end of the chain.

Permalink Reply by Riccardo Majewski on September 16, 2015 at 6:42am

Only for mac. Sad.

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on September 16, 2015 at 6:49am

That is very sad indeed. I am not aware of a similar tool for Windows, at least not one that also does things like 3DConnexion and WiiRemotes. The only tool I know that can do those things is vvvv, which can do a lot more, but is a visual coding environment in its own right and especially doing OSC stuff I would call advanced level on that.

They have a very good and active community in the forum that will be more than happy to help out, but have similar guidelines to here in regards to asking for finished things without putting some work in yourself.

I might have some time soon, when I will be working in Grasshopper a lot more again soon and will be on Windows, so I could have a quick look and sort something out. But installation and running of vvvv is not quite as simple as opening an app like OSCulator.

If you have a Mac and a PC handy and on the same network, that will be the easier route. Latency is really good and wont be noticeable even over the network, as the amount of data being sent is really little.

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on September 16, 2015 at 6:42am

Hm, I just noticed that of course OSCulator is Mac only. Well OSC works over the network, so you would need a Mac running on the same network, which has the 3DConnexion connected to it. Thats why there were 3 computers involved.. :/

+1 for full Grasshopper and Rhino on Mac