What to do with your left hand... A Very Strange Device

[Anonymous]

This I got to share!

I have been using a Wacom pen for 4 years now, instead of a mouse (the pen is, after all, mightier than the mouse...)

This I teach at architecture classes at the university. Students groan at the beginning, but once they get used to the pen (about 1 or two sessions) they never look back.

Now I had this long time problem: What to do with my left hand!
As I tend to work very fast, and 75% of my time at the computer is spend with AC, I had to use keyboard shortcuts.
I hate thos ctrlsomething shortcut. You get a dislocated wrist sooner or later. AC9 lets you use single key shortcuts (I used Fkeys on earlier versions) but still they are not easy to find. Most of the time you have to look at the keyboard, with obvious loss of time.

So I have been searching from some time for a keyboard substitute. What I found in the net (forget computer shops) was not adequate.

This xmas I was looking for some Ps2 games for my kid, and stumbled on something quite unique. This comes into the category of A Very Strange Device.

Microsoft produced a SideWinder companion in the late 90s, called Sidewinder Strategic Commander. This was obviously designed for games, of the complex sort, those that have a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

But wait! If it works for the fast paced games enviroment, could it also work for ArchiCAD?

I bought it straight away (some 40€, a bargain), rushed to my office, and began right away fiddling with it.

After unpacking, this Very Strange Device presented itself as a heavy object, perfectly fit for your (not so ) idle left hand.

There are a number of buttons - 2 for each fingers and 3 for your thumb - wich work in coordination, allowing you to program some 29 separate shortcuts.

If you ever owned a Microsoft hardware piece, you know that they are really good at this (OS and software is another story...)

The working is smooth, bugfree, easily programable... a dream come true!

There are no drives for WXP, only 98, but they work fine. My guess is this Very Strange Device got discontinued early, for lack of public interest.

They are probably hard to find (saw some at ebay), but boy are they useful.

Well, I had to share this with you folks. As soon as I managed to program the right keys for ctrl, alt, del, shift, move, rotate, mirror, split, intersect, adjust, undo, redo, upstory, down story and some zooms, and played around with it for one or two hours, I started to wonder how I could possibly have managed without it.

It almost made me cry of joy.

With this two Very Strange devices (pen and SSC) I look like someone out a Klingon ship. But I don't care. Mouse and keyboard never again for me!

Have fun

[Thomas Holm]

The strange device would work on the Mac if it has a USB interface. If it has, you could use a third-party driver like UsbOverdrive (www.usboverdrive.com) to program it. This program works with almost any USB pointing device.

[Anonymous]

Usb 1

[Thomas Holm]

!

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:
The strange device would work on the Mac if it has a USB interface. If it has, you could use a third-party driver like UsbOverdrive (www.usboverdrive.com) to program it. This program works with almost any USB pointing device.

Does UsbOverdrive work with USB1? I could not find the developer of UsbOverdrivesemail.
Thanks,
JOseph

[Thomas Holm]

Web site: http://www.usboverdrive.com/

Support: http://www.usboverdrive.com/contact.htm

Distributor: http://www.senlick.com/

Developer: http://www.montalcini.com/

Do pay the shareware fee before you expect any extended support. The program works with any variant of USB, and handles several USB input devices simultaneously and individually, if required. I'm not sure it will do everything you want with this device, but chances are it's OK.

Before you contact the developer, do a Google search and check also out the Versiontracker and Macupdate pages on this software. There is much info available.

[Anonymous]

Although ppl seem interested in this device, the most common setback is that it is no longer in the market.
So, after a quick search, I found Nostromo SpeedPad n52
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2071&pcount=&Product_Id=1...

The same principle. A left handed programmable keyboard developed for gaming, but very adequate for us CAD users.

check this review:
http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=453&Page=1

apparently it is Mac compatible

[Anonymous]

Krippahl wrote:
Although ppl seem interested in this device, the most common setback is that it is no longer in the market.
So, after a quick search, I found Nostromo SpeedPad n52
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2071&pcount=&Product_Id=1...
The same principle. A left handed programmable keyboard developed for gaming, but very adequate for us CAD users.
check this review:
http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=453&Page=1
apparently it is Mac compatible

I just can back from MacWorld in San Francisco, saw another wonderful hand inputing device which actually uses the USBOverdrive software, it is for MAC & WINDOS platform, and it is capable of doing many number of grouping for all available keys and more....
Check it out at http://www.contourdesign.com/shuttlepro/
Thanks for the wonderful ideas.
Joseph

[aahatimo]

has anyone tried a 'frog pad'? http://www.frogpad.com/
they now have a bluetooth model.

[aahatimo]

has anyone tried a 'frog pad'? http://www.frogpad.com/
they now have a bluetooth model.

[Stephen Dolbee]

I bought the Nostromo Speedpad n52 after reading comments from Krippahl a few weeks ago. I love it. It is a time saver and keeps me from looking down at the keyboard too much. Very comfortable palm-rest, too. After programming the keys for AC and going to save the configuration, it even asked what "game" I would use this config. for-"Archicad.exe?" I highly recommend it and according to the installation CD, works on the Mac, too.

Steve

P.S. The best price I found was at Buy.com for $24.95 and free shipping.