Using a Digitizer with AutoCAD 2015

[edmcclave]

I have been using a digitizing tablet as both a pointing device via the tablet's screen pointing area and to execute commands via the tablet menus for many years.   As far as I know, AutoCAD LT does not support the use of a digitizer, only full-blown AutoCAD, but I may be wrong about that.

Digitizers were originally conceived to enter x-y coordinates from hard-copy drawings as points into CAD programs, to facilitate digitizing hard-copy information.  There are now better ways to do this.  But very early on, some clever people discovered that you could use the digitizer as a pointing device and to enter commands via a single click of the cursor rather than pulling down menus (which typically takes many clicks per command), or entering the command via a keyboard.  That is now the primary use of small tablets.  In addtion to entering commands by clicking on a particular spot on the menu that is attached to the tablet surface, up to fourteen commands can be executed by clicking buttons on the cursor.

Once you get used to using a tablet, you hardly ever use the keyboard, so you can push it aside and put the tablet in front of you to prevent having to look to the side every time you click a command. 

I am currently using AutoCAD 2015 x64 under Win 7 Pro x64 on a desktop and AutoCAD 2014 x64 under Win7 Pro x64 on a laptop.  My tablets are a Calcomp Drawing Board VI 12x12 and a Calcomp Cadpro 6x9 (this one is no longer made, but it fits in a laptop case).  As far as I know, these tablets will only work with AutoCAD when connected to a serial port.  My tablets are connected to a SIIG serial port board in the desktop and to a USB/Serial adapter on the laptop.   Both tablets have 16-button cordless cursors.

The driver is the Win 7 x64 version of the Virtual Tablet driver from Digitizer Technology (vtablet.com).  You start by downloading the trial version of the driver from their site.  In order to install the driver, you have to disable Windows User Account Management, and leave it disabled forever. 

With the driver installed, you need to select "Wintab Compatible Digitizer" as the Current Pointing Device in the System Tab of AutoCAD Options, and also select "Accept Input from : Digitizer and Mouse". 

The registration app in the Tablet Manager software did not work for me.  After installing the trial version and confirming that it works on your machine, you may have to email Allison Schumer als@vtablet.com with your machine code and payment information ($75).  Usually in a week or two you will get your activation code back by email. 

On my machines, the VTablet driver prevents Adobe Photoshop from running.  I need AutoCAD a lot more than I need Photoshop, so I live with that limitation.

Previous tablet menus and button assignments do not migrate automatically when you install a new Release of AutoCAD.  You have to transfer them manually via "Legacy" section of the User Interface Customization command, within AutoCAD.  Find the .cuix file for the previous version and load it into the second pane of the CUI screen.  Delete the default button assignments and tablet menus in the currrent version, then drag the ones from the previous version over. 

Once you've done all this, then you can configure the digitizer using the "_TABLET" command with the "_CFG option".

Good Luck

[Anonymous]

I've used a Summa Sketch 2 starting in 1990 and a Calcomp 3 digitizer starting in 2009. I've purchased the code from vtablet. After a crash and a reinstall the driver stopped working. I find that D.T.C., Alfred Schumer is no longer in business and drivers are no longer available. I had to go to a mouse last year.  

[edmcclave]

The digitizer driver issue may finally be solved in the near future.  The details are located in the "Pointing Devices and Displays" section of this forum.

A few years ago, Alfred Schumer changed his gender and became Allison Schumer.  Then (s)he passed away about a year later.  GTCO eventually purchased the rights to the Virtual Tablet Driver from his/her heirs, and they have been updating it for more than a year now.  As of early December '16 the update is supposedly finished and the driver is now available for download on the GTCO/Calcomp site. 

However, GTCO will be charging a subscription fee of $95 per machine for two years' use of that part of the driver, (Wintab 1.1), that is required to use a tablet as a command-entry and pointing device with AutoCAD.  After paying the fee, users will be issued a license key to activate the Wintab 1.1 function of the driver.  As of my latest communication with them, they apparently have not yet figured out a mechanism by which to accept payment for this subscription fee, and, if their past level of efficiency is any guide, it may be a while before we can actually purchase the license and activate the driver.  Once that mechanism is in place, we should be able to find out if the new driver actually works with AutoCAD.  

They tell me that Calcomp tablets will work with USB connections with this new driver, theoretically making the serial connection we have had to use for many years unnecessary.  We'll see if that is actually the case.  This should help considerably when using a tablet with a laptop where you can't install an internal serial card.

In the meantime, there is a post in the "Pointing Devices and Displays" forum that describes how to keep extending the 30-day trial period of the Virtual Tablet Driver by changing some entries in the Windows System Registry every time the trial expires.  But I don't believe that the Virtual Tablet Driver will work at all with Win 10.

[mxmdesignplan]

Man - do I so ever wish the digitizer was still alive.......back in my PowerCad days I, and my whole staff, were outfitted with GTCO, Kurta, Calcomp digitizers along with 12 button programmable miles.......man, did we FLY!

No one powerDrafted like my team.....

Today I abhor all the dumb and buried/nested icons.....I teach AutoCAD - have done for 30 years......I force my students to learn and ti sue the keyboard shortcuts......

Would sure love to hook up a digitizer again

[pendean]

They still exist, just not pre-made for AutoCAD anymore: have you researched it in more detail lately? Wacom still makes them, so does GTCO?Calcomp with new HDI drivers that can be a little touchy to name a few.

Most informative post on the topic in these forums is over here https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/virtual-tablet-software-recommended/td-p/2278395/page/3

Enjoy your nostalgic trip back, hope your students and their future employers feel the same way.

[mxmdesignplan]

Yikes and DoubleYikes!

What a mess! I suppose, in some ways, since I didn't fight/resist the
switchover from digitizer to mouse,
it's been less painful for me......but, alas - I do wish for the
feelingOfFlying when I skimmed across the digitizer
easily flowing ACAD commands to my calling....

All these years later, I still sue AutoCAD - my first version was
AutoCAD 1.4........probably has everyone else beat.
It was on 5.25 in floppy disks......and I taught myself how to draw
using only the keyboard - 'cause mosues were not as yet on the
market.....talk about a relic!

Today, among other things, I write/publish a
designBlog.....www.DesignReview.International.Blogspot.ca.

I would so love to interview any one of you guys out there and do a
retro feature in the blog.....if anybody's interested,
as the British say, knock me up!

Hope to hear from someone....

Michael Moore
michael@DesignReview.International

[meyers.amie]

I have a Kurta 12x12 digitizer if you are still interested, I used to use it with Anvil but not anymore. Name is Stefan