Using Wacom with Inventor 2015

[mcruz]

Hi, I have searched but don't seem to find any recent solid information about using Wacom with Inventor. I am looking to replace my mouse, my wirst and arm are costantly in pain. 

Any information and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Marty

[blair]

Start with your desk, chair height and monitor height. Proper ergonomics are crutial and these are the foundation. I've been using an ergonomic mouse such as the CadMouse from 3dConnexion along with their SpacePilot Pro.

Splitting up the functions to both hands has helped a lot. Look at a memory foam wrist rest as well.

Never seem anyone using a Watcom tablet for Inventor. I used to use a Kurta tablet long ago when I used ACAD. My buddy uses a tablet for his Architectural Desktop software. Not even sure if drivers and overlay are available to map the Inventor commands.

[-niels-]

I've been using a small (A6) wacom tablet with inventor almost as long as i've been using the program. (and i've been using inventor since R2)

I'm very accustomed to it, but since you do lack a middle mouse button and scroll wheel i would recommend using it with a 3D controller (the 3dConnexion devices Blair mentioned).

The real benefit for me is actually more because of the graphic work i do (photoshop, illustrator), but it works well enough in Inventor to not even connect a mouse.
(and besides, the larger Wacom tablets come with their own mouse so you could always use it side by side with the pen)

The only other drawback i can think of is that it's sometimes hard to hold the pen still enough for the "select other" option to appear, but you can get around that by right-clicking or the recently added "CTRL-A". (or setting the appearance time shorter...)

[Anonymous]

Hi, did you end up using a tablet? I'm curious because my wrist and shoulders also hurt. I think we're thinking of the same thing... a pen+tablet combo is more like writing and the wrist should move more so there should be less stress on the wrist - right?

[Anonymous]

I have just trialed a Wacom Intuos Pro for a few days and while I loved it as a replacement for the mouse, it ended up being more of a nuisance trying to use it with Inventor because I couldn't pan or rotate, only zoom in and out. I know I could have bought a Spacemouse as well to be able to do all that but I didn't want to have to buy two separate expensive gadgets just to replace the mouse. Maybe if I start to get serious pain from using the mouse I will look into it, but it would be better if they could upgrade the software to be able to pan and rotate in Inventor.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Ok I have an update. After my post from a full year ago, I bought a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium, PTH651). I bought it around April 2016 and have been using it on an off since then. As bfreemanBNCYM mentioned, I too love it as a mouse replacement. The results were almost immediate. I no longer had wrist or shoulder pain from just one day of use. I don't use it all the time now since the "Medium" size I got is quite big and takes up desk space but I certainly use it when using Inventor and whenever I need a break from my mouse.

That being said, I do agree that it does take some getting used to when using it for Inventor. It's not so much getting used to using the Pen+tablet but rather getting the right settings. I set it up so that left and right click are controlled by the toggle switch, the tip doesn't activate a mouse click, reduced the hover so that I'm basically just dragging the pen on the tablet (I don't like hovering), map the tablet to work across the 2 monitors I use, and made the sensitivity of movement such that as I run diagonally on the tablet it, more or less, covers the diagonal distance on my main monitor as well. These settings make it so that my arm and wrist are moving as if I was actually drafting or moving the objects around.

As for pan, zoom, etc....

I use the touch wheel for zooming - this one's easy. For rotation, I mapped F4 to one of the hotkeys on the Wacom (it's similar to how I used a mouse). As for panning, I mapped the middle mouse button to another hotkey on the Wacom. I mapped a few others that I use a lot like ESC too.

In the end I think it was a great investment. If you have any questions, let me know. I hope I can answer.

[rob]

I just started trialling a wacom one pen/pad with IV.  Would like to know how you drag parts in assembly for prepositioning, like click/drag with a mouse?  Thanks for any help.

I'm finding the learn curve steep but sense that it will be worth it so have unplugged the mouse and set it to the side...

[Frederick_Law]

Some wacom pen has button on pen for click.

Maybe work like touch screen.

Tap to select then tap and drag.