How well do drawing tablets work in ACAD

Drawing tablets like the WACOM Intuos tablets work great in applications
like Photoshop.
Has anybody found them to be equally useful in ACAD?

 

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Not just useful ... virtually *mandatory.*
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Why?

 

Many reasons, but probably the most important one in our shop is the instant
availability of one-click standard and custom commands, without having the
screen full of toolbars, popups, pulldowns, flyouts and other clutter.
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Understood. I used tablets when using Versacad, and Autocad R14, but not
since. What I DO have that you apparently don't is two 21" monitors.

Jerry

 

Paul - doesn't this require the use of at least a 12x12 tablet & AutoCAD's
tablet menu & template?

I haven't used a tablet since R12 DOS & figured Windows & the mouse (and
custom tool buttons, of course) made a tablet pretty well unnecessary. What
can you do with a tablet that you can't do with a mouse & custom toolbars?

 

with a tablet that you can't do with a mouse & custom toolbars?>>

You can trace free-hand drawings and maps, and build your own
special-purpose maps around the tracings. I use a Summagraphics
"SummaSketch II Plus" 12-inch-square tablet with a 4-button puck,
that I bought long ago, with new Calcomp software to use the tablet
with Microsoft Windows XP. Other apparently good tablets and
software are available.

To make a special-purpose map, I start with U.S. Geological Survey
maps, which are in the public domain (not copyrighted), digitize
points into AutoCAD, and then use AutoCAD spline functions to connect
the points to form roads etc. On the puck, I programmed one button
with the AutoCAD commands "multiple" and "point"; that sets me up for
digitizing a series of points. The top button is "left-click"; I
press that once to digitize each point.

I use "National Geographic Seamless USGS Topographic Maps on
CD-ROM". It can scale the USGS maps to any desired magnification for
printing and digitizing.

If you need to digitize from a sheet that is larger than the
active area of your tablet, then you can use various AutoCAD
functions to align the parts of the large sheet into one drawing. If
you want details, let me know. My method seems to be quite easy, but
somebody may be able to suggest a better method.

One caution: For mapping, be sure that the tablet is configured
to preserve shape. The default configuration may, for example, map a
square into a non-square rectangle. I configured my tablet to map
its whole active area into the largest possible area of the same
shape, on my monitor screen when I have my AutoCAD screen configured
the way I like it (only the layers toolbar, and just a few lines in
the command area near the bottom of the screen). The tablet
configuration is easy to change. Microsoft Windows service pack 2
interfered with the Calcomp software, and Calcomp generated an
update; you may need that.

Dick Alvarez
alvarez at alumni dot caltech dot edu

 

I got tired of looking up and down from screen to tablet.
Made use of a good Pop0 menu and discarded the table.

 

Got away from tablets years ago - same thing: looking from tablet to
screen when using pulldown with eyes on screen much better. Tablet - NO,
Screen - YES.

 

I do have dual monitors (although not 21-inchers), and I *still* don't want
them cluttered with all the aforementioned junk.
___

 

Yes ... so?

We don't use "AutoCAD's" tablet menu, however. We use our own which we have
developed (and are still developing) in stages dating back to R9.
___

 

Just like a good piano player . When I got my laptop, guess what was the
first thing I bought for it....You got it. JoeB

 

I see. Judging from other replies, it sounds like tablets aren't used so
much any more.

I tossed mine when I started using R12 for Windows. Didn't miss it then, and
post-2000, with toolbars and palettes, I see even less use for it.

I might actually have hung on to it a while longer, but Summagraphics,
Calcomp et al were pretty slow off the mark getting Windows drivers out.

 

On rare ocassons I still see them being used to digitize maps or hand
drawings... typically ones that aren't clean enough to scan and use a
raster/vector application to clean up or convert.

Like you I haven't used one since Windows/Toolbars came on the scene, and do
not miss it.

 

The thing that might tempt me back to a tablet is a stylus - a much more natrual hand position than a mouse - but I think I'd miss my five mouse buttons. Do most of you with tablets use pucks? and how do you cope swithching between different software applications all day?

 

I miss it. It took me a good year to get used to using the mouse. With
the tablet, I always knew where my cursor was. With the mouse, I'm
always guessing and sliding the dang mouse around on the table and
trying to figure out where I'm at on screen. I still miss the positive
placement the tablet gave me. Even though that "missing it" is just a
long gone memory now, I know the tablet has some very good pints to
recommend it.

As far as looking down at the tablet all the time, that was never a
problem. It's like people who type without looking at the keyboard.
Once you use it enough, you just know where things are.

All that said, I still miss poofie bags too... the slap of a straight
edge on Borco... the clack of the triangle on the straight edge...
dang... now ya'll got me all sentimental... :O)


Have fun,
Dave

 

No "coping" is required. The tablet and the mouse co-exist. I use what is
best for the application. And even if they couldn't co-exist, the tablet has
a "mouse mode" that works just fine in all Windows apps.
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message how do you cope swithching between different software applications all day?

 

Thanks. Does that mean they're both plugged in at the same time? What happens if you knock one whilst using the other?

 

Yes. You just have to move the one not in use out of the way. (If you do
bump one while using the other, the cursor moves, as one would expect, but
it's no problem to move it back to where you want it, and place the other
device out of the way.)

Or, as Dean suggests, just give up on the mouse and use the tablet in mouse
mode.
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message Thanks. Does that mean they're both plugged in at the same time? What
happens if you knock one whilst using the other?