The Astroid 7000 from Spatial Freedom sees the return of the ‘spaceball’ controller – a 3D mouse that originally debuted in the 1980s.
The original inventor, John Hilton, is behind the relaunch. Hilton cites the countless designers for which the 3D mouse has become indispensable, yet highlights that shifting spatial navigation to the non-dominant hand dramatically reduces cognitive switching and can lead to wrist fatigue from over reliance on the regular mouse.
The design for the Astroid 7000 includes integrated physical hot keys and programmable buttons to further streamline workflows, placing high-frequency commands directly under the fingertips.
Set to launch on Indigogo, the Astroid 7000 will feature support for major CAD software, including Dassault Systèmes Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, Rhino and Siemens Solid Edge and NX. Hilton adds that support will be added for Blender and Autodesk Fusion.
While the design will create a deep sense of nostalgia for some early 3D CAD users – over a million were sold – some users find the design indispensable, others dismiss it, some never warmed to it and many have simply never heard of it.
Hilton’s tenth creation, the astroid 7000 offers 8-degrees of constraint, providing exceptional sensor feel – allowing the user to simultaneously pan, zoom and spin with fingertip driven freedom. Ergonomically designed, Astroid is available either cabled or wireless.
Launching via Indigogo in the near future, you can find out more about the spacebar controller history, as well as the new version here.
