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Ergonomic mouse advice?

I use VW every working day, usually in excess of 6 hours (with a few short pee/tea breaks), and my "workstation" is the glass-topped kitchen/dining table, so not exactly the most ergonomic choice!

Recently I've started to get a chronic "dull ache" in my right arm - varying from the shoulder to biceps, elbow and wrist - which has also made some sleeping positions uncomfortable (I tend to lie on my right side a lot, with my arm beneath me).

At first I thought it was my sleeping position, then I started wondering if it's some form of mouse-induced RSI and started reading about RSI and alternative designs of "ergonomic" mouse. All the comments seem very positive, but they're mostly from "generalist" computer users, rather than those working with CAD applications.

Does anyone have experience of using an ergonomic mouse with Vectorworks? In particular, I rely on the scroll wheel for zoom & pan, and the drag-drop function holding down the left mouse button. I also wonder how responsive, controllable and accurate the alternatives are.

At present I'm considering:

Evoluent Vertical Mouse 3

Kensington Expert Mouse

Logitech Wireless Trackball M570

These are all priced around £50-£70on Amazon UK, so are not cheap, and I'd really appreciate any advice.

P.S. The Kensington device is listed on Amazon (UK) as "not VISTA compatible", but the Kensington website shows icons for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 - anyone know what that's about?

Tags: ergonomic, mouse, rsi, trackball

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Permalink Reply by Sergio on April 27, 2011 at 11:02am

I'm from Spain ;-)

You are welcome. It's nice to hear that it helped. If you finally get a tablet, let us know your opinion about it (I really hope you don't feel disappointed with it), but wait a few days before giving an opinion. As I said earlier, in the beginning it may seems a bit weird to use.

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Permalink Reply by Charles Link on April 27, 2011 at 8:54pm

Wanda,

I also use a tablet for VW and almost all of my applications as well. There is a little rocker switch on the side of the stylus which can be programmed for two functions, one of which I use for double-click. A single click is just a quick tap of the tablet with the stylus. There are also buttons on the sides of the tablet that are programmable as well, and also a strip that is quite handy for zooming in and out. I agree with what Sergio wrote, there is no comparison. See my earlier post as well.

Charles

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Permalink Reply by deb jensen on April 28, 2011 at 7:48am

Thanks for all these threads, when I am on an intense job, in a bad studio set up, I have had wrist, elbow and shoulder pain. All the advice is really helpful. I have a tablet that I am going to break out and try...have not tried it for fear of losing speed. Will let you know what I think.

Many thanks,

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Permalink Reply by Steve Rice on June 30, 2011 at 1:21pm

Hi everyone! As it's now 3 months since I started this discussion, I thought it time to say thanks for all your advice & let you know how I've done.

Firstly, I bought the Logitech M570. Plus points: It worked straight out of box, took no time to "get used to it" for almost all mouse-replacement operations, is much more comfortable in my hand than a basic mouse. Downsides: Trying to invoke the VW "pan" function by pressing the wheel ("middle click") whilst simultaneously thumbing the trackball to move the drawing around the window was (still is) tricky. My first finger tends to slip off the wheel, so ending the middle-click-pan. It's not a severe problem, just a niggle. It's very acccurate except when my hand's tired - then my thumb develops a slight twitch which can make selecting smart-cue points, etc. a bit tricky. Since the only thing that moves is my thumb, I do tend to keep my hand & arm still for extended periods - which doesn't help with the stiffness / ache problem. However, the device can be moved around to change position, including using it on my lap sometimes, so that partly offsets the negative.

Based on your feedback, I also investigated the graphic tablets. The Intuos was way too expensive for me, but the cheaper Wacom Bamboo device seemed to have a very small active area - especially the "small" version. I found an alternative "Aiptek Slimtablet 600U Premium II" on Amazon for £60. The device is very slim - it's overall dimensions are about A4 size (305mm by 255mm) with an active area about 2/3 A4 (250mm by 160mm), slightly bigger than the larger "Bamboo". This too worked straight from the box. I changed the pen button to have "middle click" for the top, instead of "double left click", keeping "right click" for the bottom. This lets me pan by holding the top button and moving the pen around. The one thing I can't do with it is zoom as there's no equivalent of the mouse wheel - so I just keep the trackball handy to do this with my left hand! They both co-exist quite happily and I can use whichever is appropriate - for example

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Permalink Reply by Steve Rice on June 30, 2011 at 1:56pm

(not sure where the rest of this went - maybe I hit a size limit?) ... for example I find it easier to scroll up/down a document using the trackball wheel than using "flick" gestures with the pen (which moves whole screens, just as with the keyboard arrows).

All in all, the other tablet users are right - it completely replaces a mouse, it takes no time at all to get used to it, it's very "natural" and very accurate. As an aside, I also downloaded "Artrage" (digital painting software), which is great to use with the tablet. I'm experimenting with importing VW drawings and "enhancing them" (e.g. hand-rendering, sketching over survey drawings, adding handwritten notes, etc). There's a free "starter" set, but for a very modest sum the full version (I bought the "Studio" flavour) gives layers, amongst other things.

Steve R. Tablet convert!