Jürgen emailed me last September* in response to a post about Inventor LT. It got my attention because I wasn't aware of many Inventor blogs/sites, even now I still follow more SolidWorks blogs!
I run an Autodesk User Group in Belgium, mainly for Inventor and somewhat AutoCAD
Inventor Wizard Belgium - www.inventorwizard.be (you can find English & French translations buttons on the side-bar)
Anyway, I maybe have something that may be of interest for you as well:I just published an article/interview of a meeting I had last month, with the Sales Director Northern Europe of 3Dconnexion;
http://www.inventorwizard.be/interviews/andy_parnell-hopkinson.html
A recent splurge of blogging, too much for some, about the new SpacePilot PRO reminded me that this was lurking in the drafts. It was also because yesterday, as part of an IT requested My Documents archive and machine clean-up, I un-installed the Inventor LT Preview due to it's impending death. They are migrating my profile to a new environment this weekend and apparently 30GB of My Documents meant this could take some time. I managed to get it down to a mere 20GB!
Getting back to controllers, I haven't used anything other than a mouse for cad since the demise of the "Tablet & Puck". I can't remember when that was, for me before Windows AutoCAD, but probably because I never really embraced the whole Puck/Template thing.
Although I have seen, played with, even considered buying the SpaceNavigator PE at Autodesk University I ultimately decided my computer habits and use don't really justify it. Although all our work is 3D the nature of it means most design time is just spent editing plan views. The 3D'ness only really helps those who can't read the plans or looking at spatial relationships for new concepts. Many of our suppler fittings arrive as 3D models, our time being spent dumbing them down to manageable sizes.
The other concern is I like the same set-up for home, mobile & work. Do I get two controllers or add one to the collection of junk I lug to & from work every day? Then there is the compatibility with many non-CAD applications (including 3D design ones) that we use, or are considering. At the end of the day I decided it wasn't worth the bother.
Anyway, although no longer new, Jürgen's interview has some interesting background info on 3Dconnexion and their place in the CAD UI world. If you're thinking about a new controller it's worth reading.
* My response to emails like this is often "I'll take a look and post about it if I think of interest, this may take some time". "Some time" maybe months, here is proof!
