PRODUCT FOCUS
Navisworks Manage 2013
Making a Game of Model Navigation
BACKGROUND
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or people unfamiliar with Autodesk® Navisworks®, model navigation can be burdensome because it requires unintuitive combinations of keyboard and mouse clicks.
While visiting C.W. Driver, a southern California contractor, we noticed that one of the items they were researching was how to navigate BIM models more effectively for non-BIM users. They had started this research, but became busy with day-to-day tasks and so we asked, and received permission, to continue the research they started. The idea was to replace the keyboard and mouse-click combinations with a (Microsoft) Xbox controller. Using an Xbox con48
by: Kevin Miller and James Christensen
www.augi.com
troller allows people not familiar with Navisworks to intuitively navigate without any instruction. In our limited sample of participants, we have yet to find a person unfamiliar with Navisworks who has had difficulty navigating the model with the Xbox controller. This article provides our solution for setting up an Xbox controller for Navisworks.
WHAT IS XPADDER? Xpadder is a program that assigns keystrokes and macros to an Xbox 360 controller. With the push of a button or by moving a control stick, the Xbox controller sends a command or series of commands to the computer, mimicking the keyboard and mouseclick combinations. Xpadder has created easier navigation in Navisworks, which can require several keystrokes and macros to change navigation controls and movement. May 2013