Universal Plug-in ReadMe

1 Plug-in Description

This plug-in enables the SpaceControl devices to communicate with some 32 bit and 64 bit applications which are known to use an established interface for 3D controllers. It is not a full solution for these applications because it enables moving of objects only, and there is no further integration of menu items in the SpaceControl Panel as with the other plug-ins. If the keys Front, Right, Top and Fit are not working out of the box you have to record the key sequences which execute these functions in your application, record them with the SpaceControl Panel's function editor and map the functions to the keys. See section 3.3.3.2 in the user manual for details.

If the driver of our competitor 3Dconnexion is installed it will not work any longer since the Universal Plug-in's installer renames two of its files ("C:\Windows\System32\siappdll.dll" and "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\siappdll.dll"). The files are responsible for getting the data from the driver into the application, and the Universal Plug-in provides your system with replacements. To enable 3Dconnexion's driver again uninstall the Universal Plug-in.

The Universal Plug-in is known to be working with these applications:

3D-Tool 10, 11 (3D-Tool GmbH)
AC3D 6.7 (Inivis)
Alibre Design 9.1, 2011 (Alibre)
Allplan 2011, 2016 (Nemetschek)
ANSYS Workbench 2.0 (ANSYS)
Cadmould 3D-F Rapid (Simcon)
Catalyst EX 4.3 (dimension)
CoCreate 15 (PTC)
Creo View Express 2.0 (PTC)
Cubify Design 2014 (3DSYSTEMS)
CimatronE 10.0 (Cimatron)
Design Review 2013 (Autodesk)
DesignSpark Mechanical 2015 (RS Components)
edgecam 2011 (Planit)
eDrawings 2016 (Dassault)
Exceed (OpenText)
FeatureCAM 2011 (Delcam)
FEMAP 10.3 (Siemens PLM Software)
Fusion 360 (Autodesk)
inLab 4 (Sirona)
Inventor Fusion 2013 (Autodesk)
Inovate 2011, 2017 (IronCAD)
IronCAD 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 (IronCAD)
FeatureCAM 2010, 2011 (Delcam)
KeyCreator 2011 (Kubotek)
KeyView V11.6 (Kubotek)
MasterCAM X4, X6, X7, 2017 (CNC Software)
Moldflow Advisor 2013 (Autodesk)
Navisworks Freedom 2013, 2016 (Autodesk)
Navisworks Manage 2013 (Autodesk)
PowerSHAPE-e 2012 (Delcam)
Revit 2018 (Autodesk)
Revit Architecture 2013 (Autodesk)
Rhinoceros v4.0, v5.0, v6.0 (McNeel)
RSTAB 7 (Dlubal)
RSTAB 7 Viewer (Dlubal)
Shark CAD FX (design8)
Showcase 2013 (Autodesk)
Simulation CFD Black Bear 2013 (Autodesk)
solidThinking Evolve 2016 (solidThinking, Inc.)
solidThinking Inspire 2016 (solidThinking, Inc.)
SolidWorks eDrawings 2013, 2016 (Dassault)
SpinFire90 (Actify)
Teamcenter Visualization Professional 8, Mockup 8 (Siemens PLM Software)
TEBIS CAD 3.3 (Tebis)
TENADO CAD 3D V14 (TENADO GmbH)
TransMagic R09, R11 (TransMagic)
TurboCAD Professional 16, 17, 18, 19, 2015 (IMSI/Design )
ViaCAD Pro V7.0 (design8)
VectorWorks 2015 to 2017
VISI 10, 2016 (Vero International Software Ltd)
WorkNC G3 V21 (Sescoi International SAS)
ZW3D Premium 2010, 2012, 2015 (ZWSOFT)
and more ...

If an application is not listed here it does not mean that it is not working; we have just not tested it yet.
Supported operating systems: Windows XP to Windows 10, 32 and 64 Bit.

2 Change Log

8 May 2018, Version 2.9.2:

The plug-in is basically unchanged; this is a new build compiled with the GNU tool-chain version 7.3.0.

27 March 2018, Version 2.9.1:

Better support for Rhino 6:

Front, Right, Top and Fit are working out of the box.
Macro "Activate SpaceController" is available and assigned to function key 5 to make activation easier.

Some new functions added to the DLL due to compatibility reasons.

25 October 2017, Version 2.9.0:

The plug-in is basically unchanged, this is a new build with an updated version of a file needed by the driver.

21 September 2017, Version 2.8.9:

Support for the Front, Right, Back and Fit keys in VectorWorks is added.

19 July 2017, Version 2.8.8:

Support for the Front, Right, Back and Fit keys is enhanced.

15 March 2017, Version 2.8.7:

The plug-in is basically unchanged, this is a new build with an updated version of a file needed by the driver.

8 November 2016, Version 2.8.6:

Mastercam X9 could not open the "Create new WZ" dialog when the plug-in was loaded.
Compilable now with Visual Studio again. A Visual Studio binary is necessary for Geomagic Design. [For unknown reason Geomagic Design does not call SiOpen() when linked with the GNU binary.] If using this application rename "C:\Program Files (x86)\SpaceControl\Universal\win64\siappdll_VS.dll" to "...\siapdll.dll" overwriting the existing file (or rename it first).

1 June 2016, Version 2.8.5:

GNU compiler changed from version 4.9.2 to 5.3.0.
The window the plug-in is sending the data to is changed in case the plug-in cannot detect a correct window: The data will then be sent to the window that was detected the last time instead of the first window stored in an internal list.
Support for Tenado 3D added.
From version 2.8.3 on TurboCAD crashed when loading the plug-in. The problem is fixed.

14 March 2016, Version 2.8.4:

The plug-in is basically unchanged, this is a new build with an updated version of a file needed by the driver.

9 March 2016, Version 2.8.3:

The plug-in is able to get data from a remote driver.
Some applications needed our legacy device simulator to run; this is not necessary any longer.

13 March 2015, Version 2.8.0 :

64 bit applications compiled with Visual Studio 2012 could not load the Universal Plug-in when run on Windows 8.1.
GNU compiler changed from version 4.7.1 to 4.9.2.

31 October 2014, Version 2.7.0:

The plug-in sent the device's data only to the first tab in SpaceClaim 2014 due to some changes in SpaceClaim's window hierarchy.
Some internal changes due to the updated version of the SpaceControl DLL are made.

11 June 2014, Version 2.6.2:

Support for the CAD/CAM application Tebis is disabled because it is built into Tebis itself now. If you want to enable it again delete line "tebis = tebis tebis" in files "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\siapp_dll.ini" and "C:\Users\<Username>\SpaceController\daemon.ini".
The SpaceController could not move the scene in MasterCAM X7's simulation window.

6 December 2013, Version 2.6.1:

The bugfix for Mastercam X7 results in malfunction with Autodesk Revit.

29 October 2013, Version 2.6.0:

This is a new build based on updated versions of the SpaceControl DLLs.
Our installer adds a new element to the Path environment variable. If the variable became longer than 1024 characters the variable was erased.
The plug-in compares the current foreground window and its childs with a window list provided by the application. The foreground window itself is now included in this comparison instead of its childs only. (Necessary to solve an issue with Mastercam X7).

22 February 2013, Version 2.5.0:

A bug caused Tebis and SpaceClaim (and may be other applications) to crash if some longer enduring functions are executed in the application while the cap has been elongated. The Universal Plug-in skips new messages now until the application confirms to have got the last one. To avoid deadlock situations this is overridden by a timeout that can be configured with parameter "skipTimeout" in file "C:\User\<username>\SpaceController\siappdll.ini". Its default value is "100": The Universal Plug-in will start sending data again after 100 ms even if the application has not responded yet.

20 December 2012, Version 2.4.1:

An application using the Universal Plug-in provides the plug-in with the window to which the data should be sent. Additionally the plug-in searches for this window's topmost child window. This costs performance and is not necessary for some applications. To avoid the extra search the parameter "searchTopWindow" in file "C:\User\<username>\SpaceController\siappdll.ini" can be set to "off".

26 October 2012, Version 2.4.0:

Support for Alibre Design (and some other applications using the same technique) added.
Support for CimatronE (and some other applications using the same technique) added.

16 March 2012, Version 2.3.0:

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

21 October, Version 2.2.0:

Some supported applications (i. e. there is a special SpaceController plug-in) are loading the Universal Plug-in additionally if it is installed. This could cause unwanted interference with the regular plug-in. To avoid this all applications listed in the section [SUPP_APPLS] in file "C:\User\<username>\SpaceController\siappdll.ini" will not receive any data from the Universal Plug-in anymore.
If you want to use the Universal Plug-in instead of the regular one you can remove the application from the list. (This is possible with newer versions of Autodesk Inventor e. g.)

16 June 2011, Version 2.1.0:

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

14 March 2011, Version 2.0.1 beta:

The cap's data can be sent to a window handle now even if there is no window associated with the handle. This makes the plug-in operable with some more applications.

15 February 2011, Version 2.0.0:

The plug-in is incorporated into the driver's new, single installation file now.

21 October 2010, Version 1.5.0 beta 2:

Internal changes due to a new compiler version.

19 August 2010, Version 1.4.1:

In some applications the data generated by the SpaceController's cap has been sent to the window only that was opened lastly and not to the other window(s) any more. This is fixed.
It is not needed any longer to copy the DLLs into each application's installation folder by hand. Some changes in the PATH environment variable are made instead, and a reboot is necessary therefore.

27 April 2010, Version 1.4.0:

This version is an update due to compatibility with the SpaceController driver version 1.4.0. It has no new functionality.
Attention:
This version needs a driver version 1.4.0 beta or later and will not work with prior driver releases.

25 November 2009, Version 1.2.0:

This version supports both Windows 32 Bit and Windows 64 Bit.

5 April 2009, Version 1.1.0:

Minor Bugfixes

18 March 2009, Version 1.01:

First published release.

SpaceControl GmbH & Co. KG, Am Technologiepark 10, 82229 Seefeld, Germany