Tip for Magic Mouse Users

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 7:02 pm

I thought I'd share this tip for others using LXBeams.

I'm new to the OS-X platform for lighting software having come from 10+ years of WYSIWG (don't get me started ranting on those b**tards).

Being a PC user, and mostly designing scenery with Sketchup (I also teach it at university), I am so comfortable using my Logitech MX Revolution mouse that the zooming, panning and orbiting is almost second nature.

Moving to the Mac (I love my new MacBook Pro 13 btw), I bought I Magic Mouse. I love the gestures on it. There is a fab little free app called MagicPrefs. It allows you to remap gestures and clicks to new commands or keystrokes.

I mapped the middle area click on the mouse to be "orbit" in Sketchup. It makes drawing so much easier. So I thought about LXBeams. The one thing that makes me crazy is having to use keystrokes to zoom in and out. The magic mouse will swipe left, right, up and down, but I have to hit CMD + or - to zoom. So I mapped a three finger click to CMD + and a four finger click to CMD - and now all my page navigations is mouse based.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:12 am

I've programmed the MagicPrefs utility for the Macbook's Magic Trackpad to recognize the swipe gesture pinch in at CMD - and the pinch out as CMD + and now the trackpad will zoom in and out with ease.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:34 pm

OK I've just discovered that LXBeams will do the zoom feature with a mouse scroll by turning it on in preferences. By default you can zoom in and out with the scroll wheel by using the option key.

I guess now I can reprogram my mouse for other commands instead.

Post by **admin** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:54 pm

If you use a trackpad, you can use a pinch gesture for the zoom.

Also, you can selectively enable zoom by combining a scroll with the option key. That way regular scroll can operate the scroll bars and option + scroll can zoom.

Perhaps some day the magic mouse will support pinch and other iOS-like gestures. Apple reversed a huge interface element when they reversed scrolling to match iOS in Lion. Today's trackpads work very much like other iOS devices. It seems like a no-brainer to support all the gestures with a magic mouse.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:49 pm

admin wrote:If you use a trackpad, you can use a pinch gesture for the zoom.

Also, you can selectively enable zoom by combining a scroll with the option key. That way regular scroll can operate the scroll bars and option + scroll can zoom.

Perhaps some day the magic mouse will support pinch and other iOS-like gestures. Apple reversed a huge interface element when they reversed scrolling to match iOS in Lion. Today's trackpads work very much like other iOS devices. It seems like a no-brainer to support all the gestures with a magic mouse.

I love the magic mouse but it is weird to constantly start a scroll in the opposite direction than you expect.