A fingertip grip mouse

A fingertip grip mouse is one of the most wanted computer mice when it comes to gaming, as well as the claw grip type of mouse.

A palm mouse is the less wanted one.

What type of mouse grip is the CADmouse.

What make the CADmouse different

Here are the features that make that CADmouse different from other mice

Thumb buttons

The CAD mouse has two thumb buttons for fast zoom in and out. When you do not feel like infinitely rolling the wheel, this is the best way to go.

Middle dedicated button

Panning is important while designing in CAD. This is usually done by clicking on the scroll wheel and holding which is sometimes hard to do depending on the computer mouse you are using. But with the CAD mouse, you have a button dedicated for panning. And this button is located behind the wheel. A good way to go.

Why I like the Logitech M705 as compared to the CADmouse

I lately had the occasion to work with both the CADmouse and the Logitech M705 to design using AutoCAD.

I liked the M705 which I now work with more than the CADmouse for the simple reason that the M705 is wireless and the CADmouse is not and they both almost had the same features and number of buttons at the only difference that the CADmouse has the dedicated middle button and the M705 does not.

The M705 is my best drafting mouse.

A mouse with many buttons

How can a mouse with multiple buttons be useful to you when working on AutoCAD?

A mouse with multiple buttons can actually be useful when working in CAD. The extra buttons can help you access command easily in the sense that you can customize them to activate the most used of you commands.

For example, a click on a mouse can be set to activate the LINE command for example, giving me the possibility to activate the later with my mouse.

On the 3D connexion CADmouse there are 3 extra buttons, one behind the wheel and 2 on the right side of the mouse.

There are mice with more than 20 buttons, but the more buttons there are the more confusing it becomes.

Primary requirement of a CAD mouse

The least a computer mouse for CAD can have is

• scroll wheel
• left click
• right click

If you are a newbie wanting to get serious with Computer Aided Design, one of the first thing you should know is, you will not be able to use any CAD software without a computer mouse. 

I say that because, a couple of months ago, I have a friend who was trying to learn the basics in AutoCAD and he showed up at my door with a laptop thinking the track-pad was enough to start designing in AutoCAD.

My Logitech M750

I have been using the Logitech M750 for about 3 months now. I previously was using a simple 3 button Microsoft mouse.

Little did I know upgrading to the Logitech M750 as a computer mouse for CAD work was going to make my life a lot more enjoyable.

Shell in Creo

This is just a simple demo of what the SHELL command does in Creo.

I have previously designed a box, Fillet(ed) and chamfer(ed) it to look like the following.

Now, let's randomly use the SHELL command to see what we can make the final design to look like.

And here we go!

We could have ended with something else.

Related article: CAD mouse explained

A mouse dedicated to CAD work

If you are a first time CAD drafter looking for a mouse for CAD, the one single thing you would want to know is that you need at least a 3-button-mouse.

The scroll wheel is an important part of the mouse while using a CAD software.

Here is a video presenting the supplement option to CAD mice that are 3D mice.

There are other options, like the CADmouse or the 3D spacenavigator.