Product idea - numeric on screen keypad

[irobinson]

We're using Creo and 3D Connexion space mice here and as a result are very focussed on the screen when modelling. The only time we seem to divert back to the keyboard is to enter numeric values to change dims and so on.

What's the chance of PTC incorporating an on screen numeric keypad, that you can toggle on and off, with +,-,/,* and return keys to allow the user to maintain focus on the screen? There are a number of apps in the wild that try to do this, but none seem to work very well.

All input in terms of expanding the idea, or somebody being able to point me at a reliable solution that already exists, very much appreciated!

And have a great Christmas guys!

[Dale_Rosema]

Welcome to the forum. The best way to present this would be to "Create a product idea" - the subject with the light but on the side. There's a tab on the top for product ideas. Then on the left is the option to create a product idea. Then after you have created it. Vote on it yourself. Then it is up for voting on by others. Nice suggestion for those who used 3D space mice.

Thanks, Dale

[ryankelley]

You can vote on all the PTC Creo Product Ideas other PTC Community members have posted and add your own here.

[dschenken]

Before trying to suggest an answer -

1) What's wrong with the ones you've already tried?

2) Which ones have you tried?

or 3) How do you envision the one you'd like functioning?

[neomechanikos]

I'm using a 3D Connexion Space Pilot and it has a button for an onscreen numeric keypad that works great. It's part of the 3D connexion software, and I don't have any complaints about it. Have you tried their keypad?

To keep my hands on each mouse and eyes on the screen I use 20 button mouse and have a multitude of mapkeys. So between my mouse and the space pilot I almost never use the keyboard.

[dgschaefer]

I had to look up a 20 button mouse. I assume you mean this Logitech G600 gamer mouse. That's crazy.

[neomechanikos]

Yep, that's the mouse. 12 buttons on the side. It also has a fourth button on the top for the ring finger that shifts the 12 buttons to something else while holding it down...that gives you 24 mapkeys or keystrokes (CTRL, SHIFT, etc.). Finally there are two more buttons at the top of the mouse that allow you to roll to one of three different profiles; so that's a total of 72 mapkeys and keystrokes. I only have 24 programmed right now until my muscle memory improves . But I have it run external programs through Creo mapkeys, etc. it's handy but not for everyone; It takes some getting used to a four finger button mouse.

I also played a little while with the Logitech G13 but since I already have a 3D mouse, it just got in the way. But, to stay on topic, 3D connexion has built in software for it using their mouse. If you don't have the right mouse that comes with the virtual keypad, you could always install another and use something like the G600 or the G13 to launch a 3rd party software program with a button press using mapkeys that call external programs. I do it all the time for my calculator (HP 48g emulator), my convert program, windows 7 snipping tool, etc. If anyone needs help calling external programs through a mapkey, it's really easy to set up, I can show an example.

Edit: one last thing, my mouse has a side scrolling capability (tilt) I've programmed that to move to a different UI tab (i.e. move from model to analysis and so on). Makes good use of side scrolling capable mice.

[gkrishna]

Hypermesh has this feature double clicking on input area opens up a calculator besides that input field.

For maypkeys i find rows and column keyboard a better option.

[dhippe]

You may have already tried this, but I have a mapkey that opens the windows calculator with a button assigned on my 3D mouse for that mapkey. I can then copy/paste right from the calculator into Creo. Not quite as slick as an internal keypad embedded in the feature tools, but it gets the job done.