Mouse review for designers – CadMouse Pro Wireless

Last time, in the discussion of the Logitech G502x Plus review, a comment appeared about finding a mouse for CAD and I mentioned one company with such a specific peripheral. I’m talking about 3Dconnexion, which has been under the wing of Logitech for a long time and has released many unique manipulators. I’ve wanted to review these products before, so this time I turned to a partner who kindly found the CadMouse Pro Wireless for review. This manipulator can be found in five versions, which take into account almost all wishes.

How exactly should a mouse for designers differ from others? I’m not going to talk about unrivaled positioning accuracy and incredible other things, no. It’s just an ordinary mouse, but what a mouse it is:

– can be big or small; – can be with three connection options or only wired; – for the right or left hand; – made of quality materials; – works in Windows, Linux, macOS; – has its own community among designers; – supports scripts and specific commands.

If you visually compare CadMouse Pro Wireless with other mice, this copy is similar to the old Logitech versions. The mouse is a bit taller, monolithic, and heavier (140 grams). The third key also increases the size and requires some getting used to at first.

There are seven keys in total, but the middle key is the main visual difference. By default, it works exactly as a middle button (the role of which is now performed by clicking on the wheel). But with a separate middle key, the wheel remains free for simultaneous use, which can be useful. The additional large button in the middle is annoying at first, so you can quickly change the settings in the driver and get a standard mouse, but with a small appendix on the right side.

Дві клавіші на лівому боці та одна маленька кнопка зверху легко налаштовуються та не заважають, якщо їх ігнорувати. Натискання на коліщатко також спрацьовує і на нього можна повернути функцію middle button.

У використанні мишка досить комфортна — кнопки тихі, коліщатко також не тріщить та працює точно і злагоджено. Накладки по боках з твердої гуми добре підігнані. Металева вставка додає стилю монохромності. У комплекті є USB кабель, жорсткий чохол та радіомодуль. До речі, радіомодуль не можна зберігати у миші.

Three connection modes may be necessary when using with multiple computers at the same time. Connection is fast, and you can always see the active mode. Switching between devices looks clear, with indicators and protocol selection buttons on the bottom side.

The mouse recharges in about 1 month, but it depends on the load and the type of connection. In the mouse settings, you can see the exact percentage of charge by hovering over the battery indicator. I had a discharge of about 2-4% per day. There is an indicator near the wheel that will signal a low battery level.

3DxWare

After installing the universal driver, a launcher with a variety of programs starts. The only interesting ones I’d mention are the 3D viewer and mouse settings, and everything else (demos, manuals, training) is not worth keeping in sight all the time.

In my opinion, the bundled Viewer will be useful. Although it doesn’t say what formats it supports, it’s generally universal. It allows you to view the model, rotate it, disassemble it, cut it into planes, and apply textures from a small collection. There are additional rendering modes in the settings, and you can even find a stereoscopic mode. The app is also fast and suitable for cases when you need to quickly browse through files to find what you need.

Mouse settings can be found in the notification area of the taskbar. The driver sees two devices, the radio module and the mouse itself. Surprisingly, they can work independently of each other. The mouse can be connected by cable or via Bluetooth, and the radio module can simultaneously process up to five other 3Dconnexion devices.

The settings of the mouse’s main parameters are accepted globally, but the settings of its buttons are automatically tied to the active window. You need to remember this and keep track of whether the desired application is active when you configure it. The buttons can be assigned either ready-made actions (some unique to CAD) or your own combinations, scripts, commands. The list of actions is very extensive, but I want to highlight the Radial Menus and the button with the same name. The idea is to call a circle with 4 or 8 sectors, which can be filled with macros, keyboard shortcuts, application shortcuts, or other actions.

I also liked the original On-Screen Display feature. This is when a small display with the current functions of the middle button and two buttons on the left side hangs in the place you need, which helps not to get confused because their functions may depend on the active window.

Integration of CadMouse Pro Wireless with operating systems

Windows

It is supported from Windows 7×32 to Windows 11 x64. We tested 3DxWare 10.8.20 software on Windows 10 x64 22H2. You have already seen how the driver works.

macOS

It is supported from OSx 10.10 to macOS 14. The latest version of 3DxWare 10.8.4 software was tested on Mac Mini M1 and macOS 14.4.1.

When working through the radio module, the mouse transmitted only cursor movements. I got full-fledged operation when connected via Bluetooth, but the issues remained. I was also upset that the key settings are global, that is, they do not depend on the active window. And the Viewer is very primitive, with no settings at all. The software looks outdated compared to the Windows version.

Linux

Software updates stopped back in 2014. Installing 3DxWare v10.8.0 on Linux Mint 21.3 did nothing but launch the daemon.

However, the open source community supports 3DConnexion peripherals with an alternative driver called Spacenav. This is different from the full-fledged program, but the basic settings should be available.

Useful links:

https://spacenav.sourceforge.net/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/3D_Mouse
https://forum.3dconnexion.com/

Integration of CadMouse Pro Wireless with editors

The official website has a good list and description of the features. From it you can learn, for example, that Blender supports Radial Menus and Macros, while FreeCAD does not.

I’ve checked and can say that the support is only at the level of recognizing the active program and switching to some standard profiles for it. Although the profiles themselves have unique commands, such as [extrude] or [wireframe], the selection of profiles for compatible editors is more like a demonstration of the possibilities. In my opinion, automatically configured profiles will be necessary for a more specific manipulator, such as the SpaceMouse. But for a mouse, it’s better to customize everything yourself.

Is it worth using

Is the manipulator worthy of developers’ attention? Just take a look at the variety of specialized settings and macros. You can switch the wheel speed in various ways, quickly change the mouse acceleration, and operate specific commands such as [top view] or [edges view]. There are almost no competitors, although we can mention the SpaceMouse from the same company, which has closer integration with CAD, but it is only a complement to the keyboard and mouse.

Is the mouse worthy of attention only for developers? The mouse integrates seamlessly with browsers, office applications, and Windows Explorer. The Radial Menus contains preconfigured commands for many well-known programs. That is, the software does not focus on CAD, but helps to customize the overall work with the computer.

Regarding the support of operating systems. It turned out that Linux is already supported only unofficially and is more related to SpaceMouse than CadMouse. The MacOS version does not look as complete as the Windows version. The difference in development is quite transparent in the difference in versions.

I hope this material has helped you to decide on such a specific product as CadMouse by 3Dconnexion.