AutoCAD Plug-in ReadMe

1 Plug-in Description

2 Setting the Rotation Center

2.1 Rotating around the Scene's Origin or the Screen's Midpoint

3 Special functions

• Scroll Trees and Lists:
  If the function is activated you can scroll in various lists with the controller's cap if the mouse pointer is over them. If deactivated only the scene can be moved with the cap.
  
• Use Selection as Rotation Center:
  Select an object in your scene. If Use Selection as Rotation Center is executed once the rotation center is changed to the center of the object, overriding the setting in the Advanced Configuration dialog described in section 2 above. Executing the function a second time switches back to the rotation center defined in the Advanced Configuration dialog.
  
• Use Selected Line as Rotation Axis:
  Select a line in scene. If Use Selected Line as Rotation Axis is executed once the rotation is restricted, and you can rotate around this line only. Executing the function a second time switches back to the normal rotation behaviour.
  
• Move Selected Object:
  Select an object in your scene. If Move Selected Object is executed once moving the cap will move the object. Executing the function a second time switches back to the normal movement behaviour defined in the Advanced Configuration dialog.

4 Using AutoCAD's built-in 3D Controller Interface

AutoCAD has a built-in 3D controller interface. It fetches the controller's data and moves the scene by itself (method A). In opposite to this our plug-in needs to reach into AutoCAD from the outside by means of AutoCAD's programming interface (method B). Method B has slightly less performance than method A as you can imagine. In cases where highest performance is necessary (e. g. when handling very large scenes) you can activate method A. Disadvantage: Setting the rotation center as described in section 2 is not longer possible and the special functions as described in section 3 are not available; all of these settings will be ignored.

To activate method A you have to change a parameter in our configuration file "autocad_addin.ini" and another in our file "siapp_dll.ini":

1. Close AutoCAD.
2. Make sure our "Universal Plug-in" is installed.
3. Open file "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\Applications\autocad_addin.ini" with Notepad and change parameter "useInt3dIntrfce" to "on".
4. Open file "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\siapp_dll.ini" with Notepad and comment out the line starting with "AutoCAD" in section [SUPP_APPLS] by setting the character "#" in the very first column. If the file is not there you have to start AutoCAD once while the Universal Plug-in is installed.
5. To get rid of our SpaceControl menu embedded in AutoCAD (the menu will not work with method 1) open folder "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\Applications" and delete the files "SpaceControl.cuix", "spacecontrol.mnr" and "spacecontrol_light.mnr". Don't worry, they will be recreated automatically if you switch back to the normal method B.
6. Start AutoCAD.
   

5 Change Log

• Support for AutoCAD 2019 added.

• Performance is enhanced a little.

• Support for AutoCAD 2018 added.

• The plug-in is aware of the new device functions "Back", "Left" and "Bottom". By default you can trigger them by double pressing the device keys FRONT, RIGHT and TOP.
• You can use AutoCAD with its built-in 3D controller interface if highest performance is needed.
  
• The plug-in crashed if AutoCAD has been in block mode and the block has been moved with the SpaceController and concurrently zoomed with the normal mouse.
• The plug-in crashed when started before the driver started the first time because of some missing folders (created by the driver).
• The plug-in could crash when moving the scene with the SpaceController and concurrently with the normal mouse by moving AutoCAD's navigating cube.
  
• When rotating around a selected line the line could not be modified any longer because it remained locked in the database.

• Support for AutoCAD 2017 added.

• The plug-in is unchanged but support for AutoCAD 2016 is added to the installer.

• GNU compiler changed from version 4.7.1 to 4.9.2 and switched back to the GNU DLL in the AutoCAD 2015 plug-in.

• Under Windows 8.1 (64) AutoCAD 2015 (64) could not load our SC DLL when compiled with the GNU compiler. We provide a second version of our DLL now compiled with Visual Studio.
  

• The uninstaller did not remove its entry in the dialog "Programs and Features" of the Windows Control Panel.

• The plug-in is rewritten.
• All move modes in the Advanced Configuration dialog are supported.
  
• Instead of AutoCAD's script language commands all its menu items are read out and shown in the Function Assignment dialog. Your old configurations are not usable any longer.
  Please delete the files "autocad.mnu" and "autocad_plugin.ini" in folder "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\Applications\" before starting AutoCAD the first time with the new plug-in. They will be recreated.
  
• There is a menu "SpaceControl" integrated into the AutoCAD menus.
• The plug-in combines all binaries for all supported AutoCAD versions (from AutoCAD 2010 to 2015) in a single setup file.
  

• This is a new build based on updated versions of the SpaceControl DLLs.
• Our installer added a new element to the Path environment variable. If the variable became longer than 1024 characters the variable was erased.

• The plug-in is unchanged, this is a new build with updated versions of the SpaceController's DLLs and configuration files.

• The plug-in is unchanged, this is a new build with updated versions of the SpaceController's DLLs and configuration files.

• The plug-in is unchanged, this is a new build with updated versions of the SpaceController's DLLs and configuration files.

• The plug-in is unchanged, this is a new build with updated versions of the SpaceController's DLLs and configuration files.

• The plug-in is unchanged, this is a new build with an updated version of the SpaceController's DLLs.

• Changing from 3D mode into 2D mode while moving the cap resulted in losing connection between device and plug-in.
  
• The stored rotation mode (Object or Screen) was not updated when loading a new configuration.
  
• The plug-in is incorporated into the driver's new, single installation file now.

• The rotation center will be set to the selected object.
  
• You may switch between the rotation modes "Object" and "Screen" using the Advanced Settings dialog in the SpaceController Panel.
  
• Panning in AutoCAD's 3D mode caused an unwanted rotation of the virtual camera.
• Zooming in AutoCAD's perspective mode only changes the virtual camera's focal length and did not move the camera; this results in a heavy distortion of the scene.
• The plug-in's DLLs are not longer copied into the system32 directory, the PATH evironment variable is modified instead by the installer.
  

• First published release for AutoCAD 2010.