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Rotating and panning parts with Macbook trackpad

I am using a macbook to do Onshape (and everything else).  I am learning to rotate and pan parts in the parts studio.   I wonder how to do this as I do not have a right hand mouse button on my mac.  Normally there would be gestures that I could use.  Pushing control does not seem to convert my click to right click as would sometimes be the case.

Has anyone got suggestions for how to use a Macbook trackpad?

thanks
Hugh

Best Answer

Answers

  • noanoa Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 141
    Noa Flaherty / Customer Success / Onshape Inc.
  • skube_dooskube_doo Member Posts: 1
    Two and three-finger gestures still need to be supported.  :(
  • SkippySkippy Member Posts: 50 ✭✭
    Is there any news on properly supporting MacBook trackpads? Changing the trackpad settings is a work around but still very annoying when you are used to a two finger tap for right clicks.
  • Paul_J_PremakumarPaul_J_Premakumar Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 219
    @Skippy

     Full trackpad multi-touch functionality isn't supported yet. If you haven't, please submit or vote on an product improvement request. This helps us prioritize feature development. Thank you.
  • Jason_SJason_S Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 213
    @Skippy
    I have my MacBook Pro trackpad set up for two finger clicks anywhere on the trackpad.

    Rotate: Two finger click and drag rotates around the part
    Pan: Control + Two finger click and drag pans
    Zoom: Two finger scroll focuses on your mouse

    There are days I prefer the trackpad to my 8200 dpi Razer mouse.

    We don't have three/four finger support, but what actions would you expect to trigger from using those extra fingers?
    Support & QA
  • RootentityRootentity Member Posts: 21 ✭✭
    edited May 2017
    Single finger double tap to select, two finger tap for context menu, two finger drag to rotate, three finger drag to pan and pinch to zoom.  You should check out how Fusion 360 is supporting Mac trackpad, because as it is I will only use the mobile app for editing, as using my MacBook is far too frustrating.  Clicking down the button and dragging is not comfortable, I have tap to click turned on and never actually click the trackpad down.
  • SkippySkippy Member Posts: 50 ✭✭
    Jason_S said:
    @Skippy
    I have my MacBook Pro trackpad set up for two finger clicks anywhere on the trackpad.

    Rotate: Two finger click and drag rotates around the part
    Pan: Control + Two finger click and drag pans
    Zoom: Two finger scroll focuses on your mouse

    There are days I prefer the trackpad to my 8200 dpi Razer mouse.

    We don't have three/four finger support, but what actions would you expect to trigger from using those extra fingers?
    I have an older MacBook and find the two finger click and drag extremely hard to do. Id love for them to support two finger tap and drag to rotate, pinch to zoom and possibly a three finger tap and drag to pan. Of course I realise this may not even be possible with an app running in a browser but if thats the case I think people would rather know.

    If you have a newer MacBook with the solid state trackpad it might be far easier and less of an issue. 
  • peter_cliffordpeter_clifford Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
    I am totally lost with my MacBook Air trying to Pan. I have tried the suggestion by Jason_S that Control + Two finger click and drag will do it but it doesn't work for me.
  • peter_cliffordpeter_clifford Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
    By trial and error I found that - control+right click+finger click and drag - does a pan....... how complicated is that!
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,141 PRO
    @peter_clifford   less complicated if you do a ctrl+ 2 finger click and drag. 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • SkippySkippy Member Posts: 50 ✭✭
    I am totally lost with my MacBook Air trying to Pan. I have tried the suggestion by Jason_S that Control + Two finger click and drag will do it but it doesn't work for me.
    It should work, I used to have a MacBook Air and used that method. When you “click” are you tapping lightly like you would a touchscreen or pressing hard until the trackpad moves like a button? If it’s the latter you may have tap to click turned off in preferences. 
  • onshaperonshaper Member, Mentor Posts: 94 ✭✭✭
    There is no good reason for this to not be supported. Please, someone make a ticket and throw it in a developer's sprint. Save us all the headache.
  • fyorgefyorge Member Posts: 17 PRO
    I'm not sure exactly when it was implemented, but two finger pinch now controls zoom.  If there was a way to switch two finger (no click) swipe to control pan, we'd be there.  Also, I have realized that left/right two finger swipe does not scroll through the tabs at the bottom of the screen.  It is very annoying to need to remember to swipe up and down to scroll through the tabs.  Please fix this!
  • lenore_hornerlenore_horner Member Posts: 1 EDU
    Great.  Now we have two ways to zoom (pinch or two-finger up or down motion) and still no way to pan.  Ctrl + 2 finger drag or tap drag just moves me to another browser tab.  Resetting our track-pad settings for one app from what works in everything else is not a real solution.   Inkscape, Gimp, GeoGebra, Desmos are all cross-platform apps that have intuitive ways to use the track-pad or track-pad + some combo of shift, ctrl, option, command to both shift and zoom intuitively.  Some of these are open-source.  How has this 5-year old major BUG not been fixed?
  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭✭
    2017 entry level MacBook Pro


    PAN

    CONTROL
    +
    TWO FINGER PRESS & HOLD DOWN
    +
    SLIDE




    ROTATE

    OPTION
    +
    TWO FINGER PRESS & HOLD DOWN
    +
    SLIDE




    ZOOM

    TWO FINGERS LIGHTLY BRUSHING UP & DOWN










  • david_keilsdavid_keils Member Posts: 2
    rotate does not work for me at all - macbook pro 2021 M1. nothing special at all. i need to be able to rotate with shift + 2 fingers panning (aka right click). as a reference, look at fusion360 as it is the perfect mechanism. is that please possible with onshape or will i have to stick with fusion 360? 
    thx
  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭✭

    @david_keils

    What happens when you try rotating WITHOUT using the Option key ?

    In other words, just doing a -----  Two finger press and hold down and slide on the trackpad


  • onshaperonshaper Member, Mentor Posts: 94 ✭✭✭
    There is a generally accepted way for trackpads to work in these types of applications. Onshape doesn't follow it. If customers are asked to configure their machines specifically for a product, the product is not working as expected, especially a web app. Adding gesture support is not a large ask. It will provide a better experience to some of Onshapes core customers... people who need CAD but are using a multi-gesture laptop in the field.
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,696
    I use the trackpad a lot. Zoom = two fingers up/down (or pinch, but less control), rotate = 2 fingers click & drag, pan = Option + 2 fingers click & drag. It's smooth and easy. Just make sure you turn off "swipe between pages" or set it to "swipe with 3 fingers"
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • joachim_lousjoachim_lous Member Posts: 4
    I already have a trackpad setup that I am used to for years and years (tap-to-click and two-finger tap to secondary click) and which roughly matches my pen tablet when use that. I'm not going to change it for one stubbornly eccentric app. There are others.

    • Ctrl or optipn + Two-finger click+drag in chrome just brings up the context menu and does nothing else.
    • One finger click and drag selects fine. No modifier keys have any effect on it - except control, which makes it launch the context menu.
    • Zooming works fine (two-finger drag). No modifier keys have any effect on it.
    What a waste.

    So I have no way to pan, and no way to rotate with the track pad.
    Rotation I can at least do with on-screen controls for, but for panning there aren't even any scroll bars - I have to resort to zooming out and then into my area of interest.
    This is beyond silly.


  • nick_papageorge073nick_papageorge073 Member, csevp Posts: 839 PRO
    I already have a trackpad setup that I am used to for years and years (tap-to-click and two-finger tap to secondary click) and which roughly matches my pen tablet when use that. I'm not going to change it for one stubbornly eccentric app. There are others.

    • Ctrl or optipn + Two-finger click+drag in chrome just brings up the context menu and does nothing else.
    • One finger click and drag selects fine. No modifier keys have any effect on it - except control, which makes it launch the context menu.
    • Zooming works fine (two-finger drag). No modifier keys have any effect on it.
    What a waste.

    So I have no way to pan, and no way to rotate with the track pad.
    Rotation I can at least do with on-screen controls for, but for panning there aren't even any scroll bars - I have to resort to zooming out and then into my area of interest.
    This is beyond silly.


    I take it you're on a Mac since you said "option" key? I'm on a mac and have my trackpad setup the same way (tap to click, and 2 finger tap for secondary).

    One thing to double check, make sure your OS preferences are set to default mouse controls. I had mine set to Creo, and I could not get the trackpad to work fully.

    To rotate, with 2 fingers press and hold down until you get the "force click" on the mac, then move them around.

    To pan, do the above for rotate, and then press and hold the control key. I find if you press the control key first, it sometimes does not work.

    This works with Chrome, firefox, and safari, on my Macs.
  • julian_kingmanjulian_kingman Member Posts: 2
    I figured onShape just didn't have pan and rotate commands, obviously was expecting it to work as other apps do, and it's definitely not working as expected. Pan = drag + modifier key, rotate = drag + other modifier key. It's gotta be like 10 lines of code to add this... Great product, it will be much better now that I realize I need a mouse  :D
  • han_hannikhan_hannik Member Posts: 2

    I just cant believe how difficult and impossible this program is. NONE of the navigation works for me. I can only ZOOM and NOTHING else. Have tried every possible combination of crtl, option etc, two finger press-slide, one finger press slide. Absolutely NOTHING works. Waste of time

  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,696

    @han_hannik you need to adjust the default trackpad settings. I use the trackpad a lot. Zoom = two fingers up/down (or pinch, but less control), rotate = 2 fingers click & drag, pan = Control + 2 fingers click & drag. It's smooth and easy. Just make sure you turn off "swipe between pages" or set it to "swipe with 3 fingers"

    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
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