Electronics > Altium Designer
What mouse do you use in Altium?
trevwhite:
Been using a Logitech trackball for years. I find them brilliant and cant see my going back to a mouse any time soon.
Trev
PJ Bain:
--- Quote from: ajb on May 21, 2021, 08:06:05 pm ---A space mouse is a great help in Altium's 3D mode (especially because some of the 3D Body commands disable the regular mouse-based 3D view control for some stupid reason). It's also very useful in other 3D applications of course.
I'm surprised you want to *decrease* your use of the keyboard in Altium, the mnemonic/hierarchical keyboard shortcuts are one of the UI things they got really right IMO (well, except where there are inconsistencies between sch and pcb that I keep tripping over :P). They're super fast when you get the hang of them.
Personally I use a Logitech M510 on all my computers, mainly because the forward/back buttons are essential, but for CAD productivity I switched to a keyboard without a number pad and put a separate number pad on the left side, so I can use it with my left hand while the right stays on the mouse. Being able to hit the numpad +/- keys for layer changes, or Tab then type in a number without taking my hand off the mouse is a significant ergonomic improvement. Using a keyboard without a number pad means that I can have space mouse, numpad, keyboard, and mouse all within a comfortable width.
This is the number pad I use: https://www.amazon.com/KcBlue-Mechanical-Numeric-switches-Computer/dp/B08QZQ6L88/
The backspace and tab keys are especially useful, and the mechanical keys are similar to the ones on my main keyboard which is nice. I have a little 3D printed thing that connects it to the main keyboard and props it up to a similar angle so it's almost like one device.
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I should clarify sorry. I want a quicker method with less hand/arm movement to access all the common shortcuts. With a multi-button mouse I was hoping these macros could be assigned to a particular button to make the process faster and with less physical movement. Shortcuts on the keyboard whilst quicker than accessing the toolbar with the mouse pointer are still a bit clunky as quite often it is a series of at least two keys that need to be pressed.
PJ Bain:
--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on May 21, 2021, 09:43:32 pm ---The Altium keyboard shortcuts are a good timesaver if you can remember them. I'm experimenting with a StreamDeck which has the benefit of not only being an extra keypad but shows pretty icons on the button to remind you what they do. It will remap the buttons depending on the active app but, sadly, it can't tell if you're doing schematics or PCB so switching between those two modes is a manual button stab. Although I got it primarily to deal with the HUGE number of Altium shortcuts, it's very useful elsewhere - starting common apps, for instance, is quicker than navigating the start menu or browsing the desktop shortcuts, and then once you're in that app the app-specific keymap can be used. Expensive, though.
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The StreamDeck looks pretty cool. Similar idea to the Razer Tartarus Pro keypad I am looking at. And yes the Altium keyboard shortcuts are great... if you can remember them!
PlainName:
--- Quote ---Razer Tartarus Pro
--- End quote ---
Gosh, that's rather expensive for what it is. The big advantage of the Streamdeck, and the only reason I got mine, is the mini display in every keytop so you can program some image or even treat it as an actual display (an example supplied shows real-time CPU usage). So far as I can see, the Razor lets you change the colour, but you still have to remember what that means.
Oh, hang on, it's an entire game pad and not just the keypad. OK, perhaps not that expensive, then :)
PJ Bain:
--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on May 27, 2021, 12:01:52 am ---
--- Quote ---Razer Tartarus Pro
--- End quote ---
Gosh, that's rather expensive for what it is. The big advantage of the Streamdeck, and the only reason I got mine, is the mini display in every keytop so you can program some image or even treat it as an actual display (an example supplied shows real-time CPU usage). So far as I can see, the Razor lets you change the colour, but you still have to remember what that means.
Oh, hang on, it's an entire game pad and not just the keypad. OK, perhaps not that expensive, then :)
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Yeah I really like the idea of being able to program the image to the key of the StreamDeck, that would make life much easier! It doesn't look that ergonomic though...
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