Keypad thread

They can be macro'd for loads of productivity shit and it's not always necessary to have a secondary keyboard for macro's. Or for numbers, to get into a comfortable position if you're only/mainly reading and punching tons of numbers (working for the tax man) it is easier to get a stand-alone keypad into a comfortable position.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LubbyChudder
ducktales4gameboy said:
If you spend a lot of time in Blender or other CAD apps they're basically required because moving the camera any other way while editing vertices is blasphemy.
Click to expand...
Why is it so bad to do it with a keyboard? a keypad is basically just a tiny keybord desu so I dont see the difference.
 
gangweedfan said:
Why is it so bad to do it with a keyboard? a keypad is basically just a tiny keybord desu so I dont see the difference.
Click to expand...
A lot of times the gaming ones have things like little thumbsticks and such (look at the middle one in the topic post) so maybe they are talking about those. so you could divide up things like pan or rotate or zoom onto the stick vs the mouse
(the lexip tried to do that, but just wsn't very good at it -- then again it was french!)

there's also the 3dconnexion thingy for that kind of thing but I've never used one -- they make a hopped up version with extra keys too -- so I think they are thinking like that

717amIVFEjL._AC_SX466_.jpg


or maybe it's setting up the macros - so instead of having keys like "d" or "x" or "~" you can have a key do CNTL+Shift+A or even multi-keystrokes or whatever so for menu commands and stuff it's just one key
 
Last edited:
gangweedfan said:
Why is it so bad to do it with a keyboard? a keypad is basically just a tiny keybord desu so I dont see the difference.
Click to expand...

you've got a couple different types in the pic
the leftmost one is an accounting style keypad. notice the 00 key, that's usually for accounting..the "cents" key
it's set up like a desktop calculator so it's for speed in number crunching.
some keyboards don't have the extra "10 key" built in, you can position it exactly where you want (good if you are entering receipts and stuff) and you can get different key-switches from your main board if you like a different feel when 10keying

like the other posters have talked about, the gaming style keypads aren't just a keyboard sawed in half. They are pretty heavy on programmability, usually at that level with the stuff being stored onboard the pad which is really nice if you are going to a workstation that isn't one you customized. you bring your pointer and keypad

I come from the old summagraphics digitizer tablets where the puck had about 16 buttons so there are a lot of button functions you want under your hand, not on the main keyboard (and you don't want to be mode switching your main alpha-numeric board so much) . now that ppl don't use the digitizers so much, but use a mouse, having those extra buttons somewhere is awefully nice (I've used gaming mice for that, and drafting specific mice will still have a 3rd button not on a scroll wheel)

I think the main take-away is that they aren't just the left half of a keyboard slapped in case


-----

FWIW I've heard the 3dc spacemouse -s/mice? are touchy
not unreliable or touchy in a bad way, just that they expect a light touch so there's a learning curve esp since linear push and tilt are really similar motions
but that's just scuttlebutt I haven't used one
It might be one of those...suffer for a week and you're good type deals
 
Last edited:
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: ⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛
I actually have one of those spacemice although it’s an old ass one with a rubber ball rather than the knob, and they are indeed touchy except not in the way you’d expect - you can tune how much analog actually goes through to the program, but pushing it enough to get more than 30% of the range is enough force to move the entire device. There’s a wrist rest included but keeping weight on it while trying to make precise movements is awful.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Sonichu-choo trainwreck and ⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back