Mouse Recommendations

MSCAD / MapScenes

Mouse Recommendations

We are often asked for recommendations when somebody is about to buy a new mouse, or for‚ tips when somebody has bought a new mouse but is having problems with it in the CAD environment of MSCAD or MapScenes.‚  Here are a few things to consider:

Mouse Wheel:‚ ‚ Clicking Roll‚ vs Smooth Roll

A "feature" of some new mice is that there is no ratcheting "click" when you roll the mouse wheel.‚  While this is nice‚ for some applications, it can cause problems in a CAD environment when you need to rely heavily on using the mouse wheel for basic view control in the drawing.‚  The most common‚ problem this will cause‚ is that you can‚ roll the mouse wheel to Zoom‚ In or Out as expected, but you may have problems double-clicking the mouse wheel to Zoom Extents, or you may have problems holding the mouse wheel down‚ while dragging the mouse to Pan in the drawing.‚  (What is happening, is that the smooth roll is detecting even the slightest roll of the wheel and thinks that you are trying to Zoom In/Out, and therefore the Zoom command kicks in and aborts the Zoom Extents or Realtime Pan command that you are expecting.)

The best option when looking for a new mouse to buy, is to make sure‚ it has a distinct "click" when you roll the mouse wheel.‚  This makes it much harder to accidently roll the mouse wheel.

If your mouse has a smooth roll action, you may want to consider using your Mouse Options in the Control Panel to re-program one of the other mouse buttons (ie, the Forward or Back button) to be used as a "Middle Click" by IntelliCAD.‚  Then you can still zoom in/out by rolling the mouse wheel, but you can‚ use this other button when you want to Pan or Zoom Extents.

Middle Mouse Running‚ Alternate Commands

The drivers for many new mice can allow you to re-program what the mouse buttons will do, overriding what you would expect IntelliCAD‚ to‚ make‚ it do.‚  If you are finding that clicking the mouse wheel or middle mouse button is giving you unexpected behaviours, you can go into the Mouse Options in the Control Panel to ensure that it hasn't been re-programmed.‚  Mouse mouse drivers should have it set to "Middle Click" (or similar) to ensure that the IntelliCAD environment of MSCAD or MapScenes will properly interpret your middle mouse button.

Note,‚ please do not confuse this with the MBUTTONPAN command in‚ MSCAD and MapScenes, which affects‚ whether the middle‚ button is used for panning/zomming, or for a popup entity snaps menu.‚  Please refer to the MSCAD or MapScenes help file for additional information on this command.