Pain in the… I need to buy something... new Blender mouse?

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Blendering for years now I spent the most of the time with modeling. Therefore I had to press and hold (!) the middle mouse button, which is in fact a mouse wheel, intensely for pan/rot the view. This permanent burden hurted my index finger more and more every day. I hope no nerv is damaged or something. This is neither a joke nor funny! Believe me, using Blender is not fun any more if touching the mouse wheel causes you pain.

Yes, I know the “Emulate 3 Button Mouse” feature. But if you need more than a workaround this not precise enough. And using the middle finger for MMB is something I never liked at all.
In time of need you also try unorthodox solutions, like reconfiguring your mouse, exchanging functions of MMB and RMB. But that confused me when using one of the other bureau computers. And former pals who don’t know real pain ask things like: “You know how to reach context menu?” F*** y**! And a week later I gave it up.

So I went to the mall looking for a substitution to replace my fully functional Logitech mouse. I hate such futile things. Being there hords of kindergarden kids were also “testing” the exhibited mice. “Yes, I really want to buy one of these!” But that was not as easy as I thought, always in mind, how it would be to press this or that mouse wheel a thousand, million, billion times. My index finger showed a psychosomatic reaction. Why do all mice have so unergonomic mouse wheels? Why can’t manufacturers broaden wheeles a bit? I bet, the guys at Logitech never heared of Blender. Then I searched for a 4-button mouse, one for the thumb which could be configured as MMB. They do have everything, mice for gamers, with lasers, with buttons where no healthful person would expect them. But of course what they had not, you guessed it, was one with an ergonomically placed, robust thumb button for a rational price. So I went home without a new Blender mouse to mull over who should be blamed and sued for this whole mess.

To calm down I played a bit with the Silo demo - what a relief to configure your own mouse settings, not to mention your own hot keys. But this is a feature which I would estimate at the earliest for Blender 3.0. Sure, Blender is developed rapidly and new features are added every month, but attention should be paid on some more basic scopes. I truely remember how long it took to integrate the undo feature. Deja vu here.

So I ask you now: What should I do? Invest in a dedicated Blender mouse (with money that should be better donated to Blender foundation)? Or buy a customisable modeling tool for a bit more? I’m still undecided now.

Do you have similar experiences?

I do love Blender (but love sometimes sucks).

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So I guess that any middle finger allusion…

You could have used alt+LMB sometimes as an alternative : of course you know that all your woes come from repetition of the same gesture.
And, seriously, I press the MW with my middle finger.

I also found that mouseing with a Wacom pen is a relief. This might help.

Jean

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You can pry my mid-90s Logitech MouseMan from my cold dead fingers! It looks pretty ugly but it feels perfect. I will never give it up.

Same with my IBM keyboard with a trackpoint in the middle for the quick clicks while otherwise typing. I have gone to the trouble of opening it up and repairing it everytime something broke inside. They don’t make them like that anymore.

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I use a Logitech mouse that, believe it or not, was glued (!) in a bag onto the side of my printer when I bought it, sort of a gift product. I use my index button, and the wheel hasn’t bothered me at all, though I use it a lot, its the same as left-clicking, but your finger is a bit to the right. The other PC at home is an A4tech 5 button mouse, its left side button is easily reachale with the thumb, and of course you can reconfigure it to act as MMB.
I’d suggest you get a new mouse, they don’t cost much, as long as you’re not looking for anything too fancy, like radio, etc. And that little money is worth the health of your hand in the long run!
Oh, and yes, a Wacom can be good for a change, its more comfortable to hold.

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I’ve solved the mouse pain (whatever pain it might be) issue by simply
teaching my Left Hand to do whatever my right hand is capable of.

Switching regularly between the two hands (say - 1 hour work each)
makes for a very comfortable workday with little or no pain at all.

That said… beware of a couple of caveats:

  • When you teach your leftie to replace your right hand you will have to
    go EASY on your hand, no hard workloads, no hourlong strains and
    practice as your leftie most likely is untrained and weak compared to
    your year-long trained right hand, so you need to do this in small steps
    and it could take a whole year!

  • Switch regularly between these hands otherwise you’ll strain yourself.

  • beware of resting positions. Make sure your hands are subjected to
    more movements rather than one-way-repeated movements while everything
    else is still, this will super-strain parts like your scroll-fingers etc if you dont
    heed this warning!

  • Switch scroll fingers, yeah…you do have 5 fingers you know (well most
    people do) so use them!

Make finger & stretching practices every day - ask your DOCTOR for
advice upon this - most doctors are perfectly aware of this very common
problem and will gladly give/show you their leaflets containing smart
finger/hand training-sequences.

Take breaks! I’ve been caught in a 10-hours-blendering-straight myself
more than once, not very good for my health - but If we put breaks in
between each hour (5 minutes are okay!) it’ll all work out. However…that
said - it’s not healthy doing 3d for 10 hours anyway you put it :o)

*Disclaimer to the advice given above. I’m not a qualified trained physician
or have any medical knowledge whatsoever so if you consider taking my
advice - keep in mind that the advice is for ME and works for ME and might
work differently for you - so talk to your doctor / physician first! I take
no responsibility whatsoever for injuries you might experience due to the
suggestions / advice above!

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If you have access to it, some physiotherapy can be very helpful–and you can also learn exercises to do on your own to strengthen your hand.

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amazon link

Other MS products aside, we used to have one of their wireless intellipoint optical mice, and I was very happy with it. 5 buttons so you can program one of the thumb buttons for MMB function. Our mouse lasted about 4 years, the only thing was you had to replace batteries once in a while.

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I do CAD so I’m using 3 buttons all day long.

I used to use a 3 button mouse with no scroll wheel. You can still find them, but they don’t make optical ones. I got tired of taking it apart and cleaning it all the time.

What I use now is the IBM Optical Navigator Mouse which has a nice soft wheel button and a thumb button. I like the thumb button for it’s default function which is the back button on explorer, firefox, etc. but I suppose you could program it as MMB. I only paid $10.00 CAN for it.

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Hey redsharky,

I had wrist problems in the past, so i understant how you feel. The MMB sometimes cause me slight pain.

Back when i started using around 8 years ago i only had a 2 button mouse. I learned to use Alt+CTRL+LMB to replace MMB roll and ALT+LMB to replace the MMB click and ALT+SHIFT to move side ways. (IamInnocent already partly covered this! Salut Jean!)

To this day i use these trick a lot more than the MMB. It a habit that will not die. I practicly do not use the MMB. It let me rest my hand in a more comftable manner on the mouse. First finger on the LMB and second on the RMB

Try these trick and hopefuly it will help you too keep using the best software out there! :slight_smile:

K.

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Thanks for all your replies!

Having a bit experience with Blender, I already knew about the Alt+LMB and Shift+Alt+LMB combinations, though I forgot to mention it. Thanks anyways. But especially I never got familiar with the Pan-View-Shift+Alt+LMB which is not convenient for me, beeing accustomed to have the left hand fingers rest over the asdf keys…

So I invested my last cents in a new Logitech MX 518, testing “Blender-compatibility” right now. I chose this one because it has many buttons and a tiny, smooth runnig mouse wheel. The latter will hopefully ensure my finger to win against matter, always.
Yet, I configured all the additional mouse buttons to be MMBs, still not sure what will work best for me. But I’m quite confident to find a good solution.

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It’d be nice if you let us know of the outcome RedSharky :slight_smile:

Best of luck.

Jean

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Otherwise a track ball (if you can find any) is a nice option too as it forces another hand position. Or buy a mouse without any scroll wheel… that way you won’t feel the need to use it…

hmmmz…I wonder if there would be a market for mice designed to be used with your feet… and if calling them “smelly mice” would be bad for marketting.

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I ordered one of these some time ago, hasn’t arrived yet, though. Expensive, but helpfull. Actually the one I ordered doesn’t have the mouse pad (pic).

http://www.ergorest.fi/images/350_033b.jpg

And… having read your problem thoroughly only after posting my reply, I see I did not really help you with your problem.

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Hmmz, I remembered my ergonomics class, having your elbow joint at the same level as the table, or just above it so you can rest your arm while using your mouse… setting your chair to the right hight might already do the trick… or you can lower the table with a saw…