magic trackpad

[Stephen Dolbee]

Apple just announced the release of the Magic Trackpad. I have always thought the mouse worked better than a trackpad could, but I have never done CAD work on a laptop. Does anyone think this is a viable alternative? What are the pros and cons now that it is available for the desktop?

[David Maudlin]

gkmethy wrote:
...
but ArchiCAD 14 users be aware that ArchiCAD 14 supports zoom and pan on the Macbook's trackpad:
- 2-finger scroll is zoom
- ALT+2-finger scroll is for pan
...

To get the Pan to work, I had to go into System Preferences > Trackpad > Two Fingers, click on the Screen Zoom Options... button and disable Zoom while holding (otherwise the entire ArchiCAD application zoomed in, pushing the Info Box, Navigator, etc. off screen). I had known about the zoom, but not the pan, very cool. [and that is Option on the Mac, not Alt ]

HTH

David

[Greg Kmethy]

David wrote:
[and that is Option on the Mac, not Alt ]

Mine says alt !

For some strange reason Hungarian Mac keyboards do not even have 'option' written on them, just alt. US keyboards say both alt and option.

[Anonymous]

ok good news about the pan. thanks!

[Erika Epstein]

gkmethy wrote:

David wrote:
[and that is Option on the Mac, not Alt ]

Mine says alt !

For some strange reason Hungarian Mac keyboards do not even have 'option' written on them, just alt. US keyboards say both alt and option.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Hungarian is a difficult language and there may have been a translation issue.

"Option" may mean something ambiguous or unintended when the word "option" is translated from Hungarian to English.

As an example, you are all well aware, I'm sure, the the word "Custom" derives from the Hungarian. Its a word that means "incomplete or unresolved thought"

🙂

[Anonymous]

Hungarian is difficult?

What about English. Custom can mean either: unique OR ordinary.
As in:
Its a custom motorcycle.
It's our custom to do it that way.

Snap = fast, broken, easy, a change in weather, closure, aggressive ...

[Anonymous]

sdb wrote:
eg i have space bar set up for pan, & you use two fingers for scrolling (zoom)

how do you set up Spacebar to Pan? That would be very useful... Can it be done on 13 also?

EDIT: found it - just viewed the shortcuts in alphabetical order


bus some kind of "tripple click + drag" for middle button Pan would be better. perhaps with bettertouch tool or jitouch...

[Stephen Dolbee]

I wonder if the coming of Lion on the mac will make the trackpad more appealing for users with AC15-increased gesture control. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[aahatimo]

how about magic numpad?
http://www.cultofmac.com/cool-sticker-turns-your-magic-trackpad-into-a-magic-numpad/111507
looks like there are ways to program other info into trackpad.

[stefan]

gkmethy wrote:
We are still waiting for our Magic Trackpad to arrive, so I could not test it, but ArchiCAD 14 users be aware that ArchiCAD 14 supports zoom and pan on the Macbook's trackpad:
- 2-finger scroll is zoom
- ALT+2-finger scroll is for pan

Same stands for the Magic Mouse, but with one finger.

You can switch zoom and pan in the Work Environment/Mouse Constraint panel ("Use wheel for an and alt+wheel for zoom", or "Use wheel for zoom and alt+wheel for pan")

The panning (ALT + 2 Fingers) works fine in 2D but does not react in 3D... Is that the intention?

Zooming works reasonably fine in 2D and 3D. In fact, 2-finger zooming is much more fluent than with the Magic Mouse (the one with a tail). Since everytime you click the button on this mouse, it also starts scrolling a tiny bit... I love the idea of the Magic Mouse (two-way scrolling and side-button), but the scrolling button gets dirty and does not react that well in most 3D programs.