Summa
Gary,
I think Autodesk and the Yost Group need to revisit the Animator Pro
and 3D Studio drivers for the Summasketch digitizers. I am experiencing
problems in fast machines, using your internal drivers. The below is a
specific example with the Summasketch III (MM1201), but enough other
problems have been experienced for me to think something's up.
Animator Pro, for instance, on a Micronics 486/66DX2, locks up frequently
in a reproducible manner, always when the disk is briefly accessed (such as
a menu pick after a Browse). Control is returned in approx. 30 seconds.
No problems if Summa is in mouse emulation. BTW, I am using hardware
interrupt 14 for a SCSI controller.
The Micronics motherboard has serial/parallel on the motherboard, thus may
be driving it faster than if in an add-in slot. I don't have the means to
easily disable the on-board ports & try it with an add-in I/O card. Motion
is smooth.
I can reproduce by doing a Browse, playing a .FLI file, then pulling down
the Poco menu, Load, cancel, exit – locks on exit. I've tried the various
external cache disable, -novm, other serial port, etc. Tablet diags are
fine, Summa II shows same behavior, although response time is somewhat
different, works in Windows, AutoCAD, etc.
Behavior in 3D Studio w/internal driver: cursor "bounces" occasionally
when 4-button puck is at rest – flashes to another position inside the
viewport, sometimes into another viewport, coord display @ top does change
numbers, then returns to resting place. Freehand draw in Shaper is smooth,
no lockups, although the "bounce" when at rest (with button held down) does
add some wild points. Changing -vscan settings from 16000 to 40000 to
80000 do not affect this.
In summary, I feel that there may be some timing issue in fast machines
that is attributable to your driver (possibly to PharLap, although I doubt
it), and that you should attempt a workaround (perhaps as a custom device
for AAPRO – an
IDR?). Please try to investigate it further. Thanks.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates