TenLinks.com recognises SpacePilot as a vital element of the 3D design desktop

3Dconnexion has announced that its SpacePilot navigation input device was honoured with the only Best of Show award following the PTC/User World Event 2006. TenLinks.com, a leading web portal for CAD and Engineering information, gives only one award per show. The award decision was based on the productivity benefits and value that the SpacePilot affords.

'The ease with which the SpacePilot allows the MCAD User to move around a solid model is most impressive,' comments Roopinder Tara, editor of TenLinks.com.

'We saw it being used with Pro/Engineer, but the SpacePilot is equally at home in other MCAD applications'.

'The device so effortlessly combines zoom, pan and rotate commands that viewing is elevated to another level'.

'This would be especially useful in inspecting complicated assemblies.' The adaptive SpacePilot is designed to improve the ways in which professionals work with CAD, content creation and other 3D applications.

Product developers who use a SpacePilot device in conjunction with their mouse and keyboard can enhance workflows and make interaction with software faster, easier and more comfortable.

They can simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate a model with one hand, while creating and editing with the mouse in the other hand.

As the User transitions from mode to mode within an application, or switches from one application to another, the SpacePilot automatically detects the change and updates its pre-programmed function buttons, displaying the associated program commands on its bright LCD screen.

The SpacePilot is customisable, allowing Users to map their own preferred software functions to its buttons.

'We're delighted to receive this honour from TenLinks.com'.

'The recognition is testament to the great boost in productivity offered by our 3D navigation devices,' said Rory Dooley, president of 3Dconnexion.

'Many of our customers spend 90 percent of their day using CAD software and they tell us our 3D navigation devices not only help them become more productive, but also make their jobs more fun'.

'That's the reward that really motivates us to keep pioneering these great tools.' Also at the PTC/User World event, 3Dconnexion announced the SpacePilot's enhanced integration with Pro/Engineer software (Wildfire version 2.0 and higher), PTC's flagship product, which provides product lifecycle management solutions to more than 40,000 companies.

In addition to its support of Pro/Engineer, the SpacePilot works with popular MCAD programs such as SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, Dassault Catia and UGS NX and Solid Edge.