Magic mouse and Autodesk Maya 2010.

He/she is asking because Maya needs a 3-button mouse to fully take advantage of the software's interface, like the extremely useful HotBox that reacts differently depending on the mouse button you click and drag/gesture. So, magic mouse wouldn't be an ideal mouse setup for Maya. You do have the option to change your mouse setup in Maya/Preferences/Interface, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the options to setup your mouse if it has 1, 2 or 3 buttons, or if you wanna enable a scroll wheel. Of course, if you use a 3-button mouse+scroll wheel, you'll be able to work with practically no graphical interface windows and buttons, except for the workspace panel (this means using only mouse gestures and keyboard shorcuts for operations, freeing up screen real estate.)
What would happen with Magic Mouse: you'll need to turn on the 2-mouse button functionality in Maya, losing your camera panning ability -something extremely annoying, since you'll need to use a graphical interface button for this, or use the View menu from the panel you are working on... again, annoying for a fast-paced workflow.
Recommendation: If you want an Apple mouse, Mighty Mouse works great with Maya. If you already have it, stick with it for Maya work. Buy Magic Mouse and use it for other apps until a utility comes up that might enable the third button functionality for it.

Apple gives you the answer:
http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/
Check out the images and description. There is no third button graphic, neither the preference pane shown for Magic Mouse shows a menu or check box for enabling a third button. Magic Mouse is a 2-button+scroll wheel mouse. They should've added a 3-button option by clicking with two fingers.
The rest, if you know Maya, answers itself.
I'm not dissing Magic Mouse, it's gorgeous. It's just not optimal for Maya at this time.

My understanding is that the Magic Mouse is not shipping yet. I know I placed an order the day it was announced and I'm still waiting for confirmation that the device has even shipped from Apple. In addition, two different Apple Stores informed me that they're not available yet.

With that being said, I don't know if you'll get a good answer regarding the application and the Magic Mouse at this time.

I'm impressed with the potential of the Magic Mouse too, and I've never purchased a previous Apple mouse. I am a Maya user too, so I've never wanted to sacrifice the functionality Maya offers with a 3 button mouse. I am amazed that with all the new features of the Magic Mouse, that a 3rd button wasn't included.

However, with a little ingenuity, and some crafty Mel scripting, you can always remap functions to adapt to the 2 buttons of the Magic Mouse, if you want it bad enough.

I am using the Magic Mouse currently, I mainly use a Wacom Intuos for work in Maya and other middle mouse apps. However, the flick scrolling is GREAT in Maya, since it is part of the mouse hardware, Maya is not phased by it at all, or Photoshop, or anything, the software just responds to it like you expect it too, which is very useful when you need to zoom a massive amount in Maya, and it just makes the gesture more natural.

I would love it even more if they would add customizable gestures, and per app gestures would be great, similar to Wacom's highly customizable preference pane. Features requests people, FEEDBACK!!!!

I think middle click on the Magic Mouse would work best with a fairly deliberate centered click on the surface. Require the use to just have one finger right in the center, with no other fingers on the surface, and click, just like you had to do on the Mighty Mouse, which is a great mouse for maya, because it has an easy to trigger middle click, no stupid click wheel that is hard to press.

For people used to middle click on apps they use all the time, the adjustment can definitely take awhile. But it is possible, bringing middle click would just avoid that entirely and add functionality in other ways to other workflows, even basic web browsing.

It is quite easy though to switch Maya's navigation to 2-button navigation, or even 1-button if you are feeling frisky. Just requires the use of more shorcut buttons.

Opt+Click to orbit, right click to zoom, Opt CmdClick to pan, not too hard to adjust too, but I would still like to be able to middle click!

I love middle clicking to open a link in a new tab. Send feedback to apple on this everyone! I would imagine it is possible for them or someone to enable a middle click via software on the Magic Mouse as a disabled by default option in the future.

www.apple.com/feedback

not sure where to include it, i suppose within the iMac section.

Make it happen, spend 5 minutes of your time!

Message was edited by: andrew hake

Message was edited by: andrew hake

don't think that would be possible, I don't think the the mouse can determine a simultaneous right and left click, if right and left click fingers are on the mouse it will register as a left click, you need to lift the left click finger to right click.

Really just some sort of shortcut would work perfectly well. I have been looking into how to customize the default navigation keys in Maya with little luck so far. I have some better resources though.

I would love to just use Cmd to orbit, Cmd+Shift to Pan, and Cmd+Right Click to zoom.

check out "better touch tool" google it as all one word its still in dev but allows for 2 and 3 finger click on the magic mouse ...i think. Either way you can set it to have a middle click.... im currently asking him to do 3 finger click for unibody trackpads as i actually love using it with maya .... if only maya 2010 didn't glitch out and stop 2 finger scrolling when 2 button mice are selected.... :sigh: i digress go check it out!

I just ordered an i7 and I work in visual effects, so I use software like Maya and Nuke where the middle button us really important. I hope this terrible mistake from Apple can be solved with a future software update... otherwise, I'll have to connect my old, awful and cheap but really functional actual mouse.

Hi there! im studying animation and therefor i use Maya a lot, so i spent a great deal of time investigating the middle button on the mouse and finally came across an application called BetterTouchTool wich allows you to implement the middle button aside for many many other gestures which are really cool and makes the mouse really magic. Anyhow i´ve tried it on Maya and works perfect.

Here´s the link to the app: ( http://blog.boastr.net/ )

PD it´s free!!

What is all the buzz about using the Magic mouse in Maya? I was going through the Maya hierarchy tutorial on lynda.com where you open the "outliner" window, that's where you can group or "connect" items to each other so that they all move together. With a normal 3- button mouse you hold the middle mouse button and drag the items into the parent item. With the Magic mouse all you have to do is click and hold the left mouse button while you're holding down the COMMAND key and drag the items where you want them. It also works with the panning option in all the view panes ..... hold OPTION and the left mouse button to free rotate, hold OPTION and the right mouse button to zoom in and out. Hold the left mouse button and OPTION/COMMAND to pan ............... WA-LA!

After years of using Macs, I am used to the middle button similar to firewire. The simple ability to do something by using only one hand. I normally used the middle button for Spaces. So, I can just imagine the fuss about using the Magic Mouse with Maya. The salesperson's selling point was that there is no ball to get dirty or stop scrolling. Come Apple, isn't it just a software update?

Hi,

I have this fixed for me. I downloaded MagicPrefs. In the settings I have 'One Finger Middle Axis Click' enabled set to -> MMB(middle click).

Maya's mouse set to a 3 button setup and it works great.

CMD + Left Click lets you rotate
CMD + MMB lets you Pan
CMD + Swiping up and down lets you zoom in/out
CMD + Right Click and hold lets you zoom in out as well.

Message was edited by: Canucko

i dont use maya, but why would a mouse function differently in an application than any other regular mouse?

i just order my magic mouse as well and im definitively anxious for it to get here 😀

I think it's horrible that the Mouse doesn't have a middle click. How can you remap the keys to pan? I couldn't change the Pan tool in the hotkey editor.