Pressing the Alt key on the keyboard brings up 'x2 x3' which does seem to have some effect on the ribbon state but I can't get it to work with any consistency.

thanks willsud:wine:, but that is more like using the keyboard to navigate the windows and menus, which i find slower than a mouse click. pressing a single key and having the menu disappear/reappear is what i'm after, but i don't think it's possible in revit.

i've just got myself one of these and i'm busy assigning key modifiers

oh, now i have your attention willsud, i saw your photo in another thread with your ipad screen setup, but noticed a 3dconnexion mouse on your desk. how do you find it for use in revit? i'm considering one, but they are expensive so i'd like know if they're worth the investment? i'll probably get shot down for asking :hide: but do they actually improve productivity?

That's a pretty cool keyboard on the link - I have an X-keys Pro with 58? macro keys but it's a little bulky.

The spaceexplorer is well made and works well with Revit 2012 - there is a bit of slowdown in model rotation if, like me, you use lots of walls with surface patterns but the workaround for that I've found is to use the ghost surfaces.

I actually find the programmable keys on the spaceexplorer very useful as they lie just under my left hand.
Most of the time I find that I want a zoom region and perhaps zoom last.

I still think the original Revit interface was better for real work and there is an annoying hesitation a lot of the time in executing commands in Revit 2012 for some reason - but I guess we just have to put up with it.

wow, just looked up x-keys, looks like they could be very useful bits of hardware. there's one there with 84 keys! also looks like the keys have snap-on covers for putting labels under? that would be nice, all the little tool icons on the keys instead of numbers/letters
what i like about the roccat board is although there's (only) 41 extra buttons, i can have 5 profiles with 4 layers (each accessible through 1 extra keystroke) which equals a hell of a lot of keys. probably more than i'm ever going to need or remember! but really what made me choose the roccat is the keys are very conveniently located.

i agree about revit's interface, ever since the ribbon came in v.2010 there's quite often glitchy looking delays when changing between commands - i however i only have a geforce card.

So how does the left-handed spacexplorer compare to right handed shift->right click for rotation? Do you still need to push any buttons to rotate the model or do you just move the controller, or even depress the controller? The reason i ask this question is because i have tried trackballs in the past and none worked very well in (for me) in this specific situation. "SHIFT" and "RIGHT CLICK" can't usually be mapped to a P.O.V. axis.

The spaceexplorer allows movement in all directions at once which can be useful - and can also make it easy to 'lose' yourself, although you can set up the controlling software any way you like to limit movement.

Being a kit drummer all my life I'm fairly ambidextrous so I don't know how easily the two handed use would be for 'normal' users - it does take a little getting used to.

Here's a picture of my X-keys buttons - being rather sad, I have copied some of the Revit icons on to the keycaps (they give you a photoshop template).
There is a lock on the side of the unit which when opened brings up the Macro configuration software on the PC screen - I think there are a couple of layers, plus downstrokes, upstrokes etc - and lots of stuff I never get in to.
They do smaller units as well.

i'd love to say "that's grouse!" but you'd probably think i was talking about a bird but seriously, thanks for posting up that pic, if i can get anywhere near the coolness of that keypad i'll be in revit heaven :wine: (for when you get home tonight)

i'm planning on making some stickers for my keys over the easter break, if it works out i'll post a pic when i'm done.