We are trying to create a nice blog post on getting the 3D controller by 3dConnextions going (spacepilot, spaceball, etc) in Blender and specifically in Linux.

http://www.vitalbodies.com/blog/2010/03/09/getting-a-3dconnexion-device-running-in-ubuntu/

We got the proprietary driver going and then later got the open source version going but could not get either plugin in to work in Blender?

We have tried and tried and feel I am really close but need a little support.

We read all the forum entries I could find here and on the Ubuntu web site and other forums.

Xcube works.

Please help.

Step by step, what do you do in Blender?
Just load the default cube and move it with the controller?
Do you have to set anything in Blender, or be in camera view or what?

We can ping the controller and it is enabled.
In Blender nothing happens when pushing buttons or moving the so called puck?
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

Ubuntu 9.10 64bit

I compiled the plugin from the source included with the commercial 3dconnexion plugin. Was the only way I could get it to work.

It still doesnt seem to work with the 2.5 alpha yet.

Still poking around to see if its me, or the alpha

RADICAL!
I would love to get mine going!
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0kgLTnSwZzUNTI2ZDA2YTUtOTZjZi00YzJmLTg2OTktMjFmMTFkMTA2Yzlk&hl=en

Hope it works for you as well as it did for me.

RoboticGolem wrote:

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0kgLTnSwZzUNTI2ZDA2YTUtOTZjZi00YzJmLTg2OTktMjFmMTFkMTA2Yzlk&hl=en Hope it works for you as well as it did for me.

So what exactly does one do with this file to make it work?
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

Just throw it into your plugins directory. either ~/.blender/plugins or your blender install folder/plugins.

RoboticGolem wrote:

Just throw it into your plugins directory. either ~/.blender/plugins or your blender install folder/plugins.

Holy guacamole, (a pun) It works!
Where did you get this file?
I have the open source driver and your plug file and I am going in Blender! Thank you so much!

Have you gotten the buttons to work?
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

Quote:

Holy guacamole, (a pun) It works! Where did you get this file? I have the open source driver and your plug file and I am going in Blender! Thank you so much! Have you gotten the buttons to work?

Thats the one I compiled from the source that was included with the 3dconnexion plugin. I have a 64bit system as well and its always been, I get the plugin, or I get python. So I usually went without.

The buttons are a little clumsy, but easy enough. If your using the 3dconnexion driver, there is a control panel. I mapped all of the right side buttons to my most commonly used blender commands.

You can select [custom 1] for 't' then go to the custom functions, click on [custom 1] then hit clear fields, click in the Function command box, and hit the key combination that you want. Finally click Set Function, and that button works.

RoboticGolem wrote:

Quote: Holy guacamole, (a pun) It works! Where did you get this file? I have the open source driver and your plug file and I am going in Blender! Thank you so much! Have you gotten the buttons to work? Thats the one I compiled from the source that was included with the 3dconnexion plugin. I have a 64bit system as well and its always been, I get the plugin, or I get python. So I usually went without. The buttons are a little clumsy, but easy enough. If your using the 3dconnexion driver, there is a control panel. I mapped all of the right side buttons to my most commonly used blender commands. You can select [custom 1] for 't' then go to the custom functions, click on [custom 1] then hit clear fields, click in the Function command box, and hit the key combination that you want. Finally click Set Function, and that button works.

How did you compile the driver/plug-in?
I need to reload the commercial driver again to get the buttons going as I have no idea how to get them going with the open-source version.
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

Quote:

How did you compile the driver/plug-in? I need to reload the commercial driver again to get the buttons going as I have no idea how to get them going with the open-source version.

In the blender plugin zip from 3dconnexion (3DxBlender2_47-Linux-i386.zip) there is a file called 3dcnxplug-lin.c

it says to use the command cc 3dcnxplug-lin.c -Iintern/ghost -Wall -lc -shared -fPIC -fvisibility=hidden -o 3DxNdofBlender.plug to compile it (more or less). It'll fail unless you have the GHOST_Types.h file from the blender source (I just put it in the same directory).

Then viola! Amazing plugin.

RoboticGolem wrote:

Quote: How did you compile the driver/plug-in? I need to reload the commercial driver again to get the buttons going as I have no idea how to get them going with the open-source version. In the blender plugin zip from 3dconnexion (3DxBlender2_47-Linux-i386.zip) there is a file called 3dcnxplug-lin.c it says to use the command cc 3dcnxplug-lin.c -Iintern/ghost -Wall -lc -shared -fPIC -fvisibility=hidden -o 3DxNdofBlender.plug to compile it (more or less). It'll fail unless you have the GHOST_Types.h file from the blender source (I just put it in the same directory). Then viola! Amazing plugin.

Awesome! I think you and I will have to do that each time the kernel is updated.
I added this information to the blog article and credited you by your user name. If you would like to be credited using a different name, your real name or no name let me know.

Thanks again.

I dare say, that using this command and knowing what and where the GHOST_Types.h is to be found or that it even needs to found, is not exactly obvious, well at least for me it was not. Where did you find GHOST_Types.h and how the ".h" did you figure this out?
It does show that name as an INCLUDE. As far as I can tell that file in not on my system. The file is not found with Synaptic.
Did you get that here and is this the correct version for Ubuntu 64-bit 9.10?
http://blender.sourcearchive.com/documentation/2.49aplus-pdfsg-0ubuntu3/GHOST__Types_8h-source.html
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

VitalBodies wrote:

Awesome! I think you and I will have to do that each time the kernel is updated. I added this information to the blog article and credited you by your user name. If you would like to be credited using a different name, your real name or no name let me know. Thanks again. I dare say, that using this command and knowing what and where the GHOST_Types.h is to be found or that it even needs to found, is not exactly obvious, well at least for me it was not. Where did you find GHOST_Types.h and how the ".h" did you figure this out? It does show that name as an INCLUDE. As far as I can tell that file in not on my system. The file is not found with Synaptic. Did you get that here and is this the correct version for Ubuntu 64-bit 9.10? http://blender.sourcearchive.com/documentation/2.49aplus-pdfsg-0ubuntu3/GHOST__Types_8h-source.html

The INCLUDE is how I found out I needed it. I had no idea what, or where to get it, I had downloaded the blender 2.50a1 source, and found it in that under intern/ghost. However, I went to the source site that you posted and found it here: http://blender.sourcearchive.com/documentation/2.50~alpha~0~svn24834-2/GHOST__Types_8h-source.html (Which is odd, cause the compiled plugin works with 2.49)

I dont know if you'll have to recompile every time a kernel is updated, but I'll find out as soon as an update comes out.

Now that I know how to do it. It wont be an issue if I need to.

At this point I've just assumed the reason it doesnt work with 2.50 is the fact that its still alpha software. I hope I'm right because I've not found anything about ndof working (or not working) in 2.50.

Hi,

Should this same plugin work under 64b windows? and if not, does anyone know where I can find a copy that will?

Really missing the spaceball!

ericsk wrote:

Hi, Should this same plugin work under 64b windows? and if not, does anyone know where I can find a copy that will? Really missing the spaceball!

Wow, just not sure about Windows. I left that world some years back although many of the links on my blog article should help. I get the impression that the 64-bit part was the challenge with Linux but was not paying attention if that was so with Windows. If you do figure this out and want to help others I would love to post your findings on my blog.
_________________
Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit
Thinkstation: 8-way Xeon 5430 processors - 18GB ram - Nvidia NVS 290 - Samsung 245BW
MakeHuman 1.0Alpha4 - Blender - Inkscape - Gimp - AQSIS 1.6 - Etc

Since it took me a while and it's not exactly trivial, here is the thing:

get sources for
spacenavd-0.5
spnavcfg-0.2.1
libspnav-0.2.2

cd libspnav-0.2.2
./configure
./make
./make install

cd spacenavd-0.5
./configure
./make
./make install

gedit setup_init

change:
rlvl=`cat /etc/inittab | grep initdefault | sed 's/^id://; s/:init.*$//'`
to:
rlvl=`cat /etc/inittab | grep :initdefault: | sed 's/^id://; s/:init.*$//'`

./setup_init

cd spnavcfg-0.2.1

gedit Makefile

change:
CFLAGS = -pedantic $(warn) $(dbg) $(opt) `pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0`
LDFLAGS = `pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0`

to:
CFLAGS = -pedantic $(warn) $(dbg) $(opt) `pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0` -lX11
LDFLAGS = `pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0` -lX11

./configure
./make
./make install

start spacenavd with:

/etc/init.d/spacenavd start

copy
3DxNdofBlender.plug
to
.blender/plugins/

start blender, should give:

[wordprocess@coyote ~]$ blender
Compiled with Python version 2.7.
Checking for installed Python... got it!
X Display: :0.0
Magellan App Window: 0x7400002
Command Event Atom=614
Motion Event Atom=611
Btn Press Event Atom=612
Btn Release Event Atom=613
Magellan Root Window: 0x15a
Magellan Driver Window: 0x7000001
Magellan Driver Window Name: Magellan Window
3Dconnexion blender plug-in: loaded.

to make your own 64Bit 3DxNdofBlender.plug

download:
3DxBlender2_47-Linux-i386.zip
and
blender-2.50a1 source
extract:
/blender-2.50a1/intern/ghost/GHOST_Type.h

and compile with
cc 3dcnxplug-lin.c -Iintern/ghost -Wall -lc -shared -fvisibility=hidden -o 3DxNdofBlender.plug -fPIC

this should produce a:
3DxNdofBlender.plug: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, not stripped

That's all folks!

George
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It's always sunny in Athens!