astroid 6000 – The Review, Part I

So I received a package from Australia yesterday and, in it, was an astroid 6000 from spacial freedom. What is an astroid? To quote from spatial freedom’s website:

The has a ball that you lightly push, pull and twist with your fingertips in any 3D direction to move a 3D computer graphic object around with complete spatial freedom on the screen.

As my loyal readers will know, I’ve been using a SpacePilot for about a year. I won’t lie, I love it. However, I have every intention of giving the astroid a fair shake. I wouldn’t be much of a reviewer if I had a biased opinion, now would I?

My toys, side-by-side:

Presently, the astroid can be used with Solid Edge� and SolidWorks�. Drivers for UGS NX 3, NX 4 and PTC Pro/Engineer� Wildfire 3 are due in Q1 2007. A timeline for Autodesk Inventor� drivers hasn’t been determined. Not that any of you care as you are all committed SolidWorks users, right?

The astroid is an affordable US$149 (plus $15 S&H). That’s quite a bit cheaper than the US$499 for the SpacePilot. If the astroid performs as well as the SpacePilot, it will definitely give it a run for its money.

I’ll be setting up the astroid today, so keep checking back to see how things are progressing.

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November 9, 2006 · Posted in Hardware Review

Comments

Jeff Mirisola

Yes, Brian, John Hilton is the inventor of the SpaceBall.
Brian

Thought I read somewhere that the Spatial Freedom guy was the one who originally invented the Space Ball. Is that correct?

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About Jeff's Tool Shed

While most of what I write will be about SolidWorks, or partner products, from time to time I've been known to go off on random rants about whatever crosses my mind.

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