What input devices do you use and why?

What specialist/useful input devices (type and specific model) do you like use day to day out of choice for 3D work and why?

I’m not interested if it’s something your employer supplies you (unless it’s really cool), or if it’s a basic mouse and keyboard.

I wanna know about your gaming mouse, touch pad, spacepilot, tablet and pen, really cool keyboards, mobile tablet as an input device, etc.

My Logitech MX revolution mouse has just come to the end of its life and I’m missing it. I really liked the programmable extra button, free-spin scroll wheel, and additional wheel near the thumb. It was really handy for CAD applications.

I’m considering a razer wireless mouse, but the Logitech G700 wireless mouse is charged via a USB cable so you can use it wired too (which is a really nice touch) instead of having to dock it for a while or change batteries.

Also of consideration is a spacepilot pro, and logitech wireless solar keyboard.

I’ve been using a combo of the Logitech MX518 (now the G400 I think?) and Microsoft Natural 4000 KB for years now on pretty much all my machines.

Considering a switch to a mechanical keyboard for pure gaming purposes, but I can’t type on a regular keyboard to save my life after using the natural keyboards for the past 15 years.

I use a Logitech M570 trackball right now. It’s harder to be precise than a normal mouse, but being in school and always moving around, it helps to not need a surface for it, I can put it on my knee if I need to.

My wife bought me a Razer Mamba when my mouse died. I thought it was a bit silly at first but I find it extremely useful now.
It has really high DPI, I thought that was just mainly for marketing, but it works really well for CAD and Photoshoping.
It moves really precisely and works on every surface I’ve tried it on. My old logitech wouldn’t register certain mouse movements. The Mamba picks up every slight movement I make. It’s really helpful when your constantly picking and pulling lines in CAD all day.

I’m still looking for a good keyboard myself.
I bought a Logitech gaming keypad because the hotkeys in Alias drove me nuts when I was first learning it. I set up nifty little one-key shortcuts for Alias, but when I went to a different computer, I could barely use the program. For that reason I try to stick with default hot keys on all the programs I’m using now.

Razer Taipan mouse, 8200 dpi dual sensor. Like Rob says, super precise, no lag, each next generation of Razer higher dpi brings more smoothness.
SpacePilot spaceball controller for CAD and sometimes Photoshop.
Waiting for the delivery of the LeapMotion controller…

Cool, thanks. I think I’m definately gonna go with a razer mouse.

Just looked up the leap motion controller. I’m not sure how I feel about it, whether it’s another gimmick or could be useful for working in 3D space. Let us know how you get on with it.

Keeping my eye on ebay for a cheap spacepilot…

Cintiq 22HD for everything. No mouse. I haven’t really tried a 3D controller but I have a hard time believing it would be more intuitive than doing CAD with a Cintiq. Especially for surface modelers (though I use Solidworks).

Hi,
Often we are using the input devices such as keyboard, mouse, joystick and many more. These are the main sources of giving input to the computer. If the mouse is not working properly it is possible to work with the keyboard.

Cameron, I have a Cintiq 24HD and have tried using it for CAD in Rhino, I have not found it to be useful for my workflow. I tend to be selecting points on lines and manipulating views in my workflow. The energy and the amount of linear distance that my hand has to cover is an order of magnitude higher than the mouse.

For pin point selection I find the small glass thickness parallax gap between the mouse pointer and the pen tip to be irksome, and well as my hand covering the screen.

Right hand on a super precise, optical mouse pad surface, acceleration sensitive mouse moves in about two square centimeters of space, that seems really hard to beat.

Left hand typing shortcuts on keyboard and moving to Spacepilot type devices for view manipulation.

Distance between my two hands is normal, slightly wider than shoulder width, equal elbow angles, in the same plane, horizontal table surface.

I am curious (seriously, not sarcastically) as to the workflow that I might be missing. (and thereby make my investment return better on the Cintiq!) Possibly a video of working on CAD on a Cintiq that you can recommend?