Pointing-Devices and Displays

[#1]

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience using this tablet wuth autocad or Revit

Thanks

Grayham 

[#2]

Sorry, no.

[#3]

Thanks for that

[#4]

I've tried Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch and Trust TB-7300 for drawing in AutoCAD LT 2010.

Is there anything you would like to know?

[#5]

I'd like to know if the Wacom worked well with CAD or Inventor? Could you program the buttons for common events, like Line?

What other programs did you test it with? I am keen to know if it really works as well on Mac, so which system did you use it on?

[#6]

I'm using Windows XP.

First, about Wacom Pen&Touch:

I had to install the update for Windows XP because the driver from the CD wasn't so recent. I've tried with AutoCAD and it worked well. I set the two buttons of the pen for zoom-in/zoom-out and it's sufficiently intuitive. The tablet has also Touch functions (like in a laptop mouse pad) including zooming and rotate gestures (like an Iphone) but I found the touch functions far few precise and slow to what is required in CAD drafting. The tablet side buttons can be set to a limited number of functions (you can't do macros with it), as you can check in page 50 of the instructions manual in http://www.wacom.com/downloads/manuals/Bamboo%20Users%20Manual.pdf (besides, I recommend you to take a look at the manual if you intend to buy the tablet). But, with Autohotkey (free in http://www.autohotkey.com/), you can configure nearly any button to do nearly anything; if you get to know a little of Autohotkey (it's fairly easy, just takes a few hours) you can do a lot of customization that you desire and isn't included in the tablet driver (but note that sometimes the tablet buttons as not as "genuine" as original mouse buttons because tablet buttons are software-customizable, making them more artificial in what regards the appearance they take to be interpreted by Autohotkey; but I think there is always a way round with Autohotkey).

It feels very comfortable. There was a problem (that can be fixed to a certain extent, I believe): when you fetch a snap and move the pen down to click, sometimes you lose the snap and click on the side; 1 or 2 milimeters that you have to move the pen down to click were enough to lose the snap (at least for me). How can this be solved? A) Possibly with further practice - I tried it only for 2 weeks ad each day I got better; possibly with some more time the problem would faint; nevertheless, this was the reason that made me change to the Trust TB-7300, because this one has four times the area of this Wacom, so your movements get far more precise. B) Changing the snap settings in AutoCAD so that you can use less precision; I believe that being so you must zoom more times to be able to distinguish close snap points; personally I didn't want this option because in the kind of drafting that I do I prefer to have a broader view when changing details, so I prefer to use more precision when snapping to be able to change details out-zoomed. C) Using Autohotkey to "freeze" your mouse cursor before clicking; you would need to use an extra button (for example, the tablet side buttons that I found easy to use and big enough to not need looking at them) to "freeze" before clicking; I didn't try it, and even with Trust TB-7300 I'll try to implement this "freeze" tool, because the lack of precision makes me check more often the points I clicked, making drafting more boring.

Now, about Trust TB-7300:

Seems not as soft and solid as Wacom, but for me is completely good enough. Has tow scroll-wheels, that can be used to zoom-in/zoom-out in AutoCAD, but forces you to take your hand out of the keyboard - as I use many keyboard commands ( nearly don't use the toolbars) I don't find the scroll-wheels useful when drafting; they're more useful when reading a pdf or scrolling through a text document. About customizable buttons, you have 34 around the tablet, which aren't buttons to press with your finger, they are rectangles to be clicked with the pen. I don't use them, because I prefer doing the commands with the keyboard, but if you like it you can customize them; even though you can configure a specific small pop-up balloon to appear when the cursor is over each of the buttons, you should practice some time to get enough precision to use the buttons, or you should take a galance at the tablet each time until you don't need to do it. Each button can be active or not; maybe a good option is to put an inactive button between each two active buttons, so that you miss less times the target; anyway, you have 34, I suppose you won't need them all. The two buttons of the pen can't be natively set to zoom-in/zoom-out in AutoCAD (like the Wacom did), but I worked it around wit hte following Autohotkey script:

; Buttons of pen must be set to produce right and middle click - this can be made in the tablet settings

#IfWinActive AutoCAD
Mbutton::
Click WheelUp
Sleep, 5
Click WheelUp
Sleep, 100
    while GetKeyState("Mbutton","P")
    {
    Click WheelUp
    Sleep, 5
    }
return

#IfWinActive AutoCAD
Rbutton::
Click WheelDown
Sleep, 5
Click WheelDown
Sleep, 100
    while GetKeyState("Rbutton","P")
    {
    Click WheelDown
    Sleep, 5
    }
return

; What follows lets Ctrl key enable right and middle click

#IfWinActive AutoCAD
+Mbutton:: Click middle

#IfWinActive AutoCAD
+Rbutton:: Click right

; You should adjust AutoCAD settings (like zoomfactor and zoomwheel) and the values of sleep above to match your preferences.

[#7]

I purchased a Wacom Bamboo with plans to use the "Sketchbook" software in the package. I have a brand new iMac desktop version 10.7.1 with an Intel processor.

I have tried several times to install the software for the sketchbook and it won't install. I thought I followed all the directions. The sketchbook was the main reason I bought the Bamboo...

Can you suggest something?

Thanks