Summa
11 messages in this thread
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
When we were working on 3DSr2, we realized that we needed to be a lot more
flexible in dealing with digitizers, and we put quite a bit of work into r2
to make it compatible with DGPADI (digitizing/pointing device) drivers.
That was _supposed_ to make it easy for tablet manufacturers to write
DGPADI drivers that worked correctly in 3DSr2. Unfortunately, I don't
think any of the tablet manufacturers have put any specific energy into
supporting 3DS as of yet. Oh well…
Animator Pro is another story. The IDR (input device driver) interface in
that program was developed by Jim Kent to make it possible to write drivers
externally for pointing devices, but the IDR format wasn't made widely
available enough to do any good. I've passed on all the information I've
gotten about problems with AAP and pointing devices to Jim, and I hope
he'll have some success in dealing with it.
– G
Gary,
I'd really appreciate it if this Summa question finally got the
attention it deserves. AutoCAD 12 broke enough drivers. Unless you can
pull in manufacturer support specifically for 3D Studio and Animator Pro,
Autodesk (or the Yost Group) needs to keep up with the latest and greatest.
In this instance, I think machine speeds may have overtaken a portion of
your code. Either way, I'd like you to touch base now and again regarding
the problem. Thanks.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
I would like to put it to bed just as much as you would (more, even). We
actually think we _have_ done that with 3DS, because the DGPADI interface
actually does work. If you can find any problems with that, please let me
know and we'll deal with them in r3. Animator Pro is a different story…
Jim Kent has his own way of doing things, and I just haven't been able to
influence him strongly enough to make certain changes in the code. I'm
sorry, but I'm trying my best.
– G
Gary,
Since 3DStudio apparently uses standard ADI drivers, why couldn't the Summa
drivers for ACAD work? I know that AniPro has its own driver class but it
seems that a driver could be compiled from the standard code with the ADI
kit and then accessed as an external driver as the Wacom SD42 is. I've been
using a couple of SummaSketch II's without any problem, but I'd be glad to
try to compile new external drivers and test them. Or am I over simplifying
all of this?
Paul
Paul,
Summa tech support, when asked, stated that their drivers are for
AutoCAD only, not for use with 3D Studio.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin,
Far be it from me to dispute Summa tech support, but I took the time to use
the ADI driver development toolkit last night and I compiled the standard
SummaSketch ADI (DGPSUMI.EXP). The driver has worked fine for the last 7
hours. It is extremely responsive in Studio, haven't yet compiled for
AniPro. In addition the extreme sensitivity of the keyframer found with the
internal Summa driver doesn't exist with the ADI implementation. Upon
initial setup, it goes through its normal questions for an ADI device and
tada it works like a dream. Since it is simply polling the tablet, there
shouldn't be any real differences in the drivers anyway.
Paul
Paul, it's great to hear that the DGPADI driver works exactly the way it's
supposed to. Thanks for confirming that for me.
– G
Paul,
Does the DGPSUMI.EXP use polling rather than interrupts? I had
other trouble before with the DGPADI driver, but I've resolved these other
issues now. Maybe it'll now work for 3D Studio – are you using a similar
speed machine? Animator Pro with the Summa still sucks, though (sorry,
Gary).
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin,
I'm running a series of 50 & 66 MHZ EISA systems AMI/MICRONICS/MYLEX/
EVEREX/ & HAUPAUGE. The machines are networked via Netware 3.11 250
node. The DGPSUMI.EXP can use polling or interrupts. I tend to use
the
polling option. The fact that the serial ports are built into the
motherboard should not have any effect on the Summa. I have several
boards that do have the ports made into the boards and although it
can
help on high speed serial communications, it shouldn't play a role
with a standard digitizer. I also have a Kurta 18×12 and a GTCO 36×48
running through the ADI interface without any problems. The AniPro
problem should be able to be solved the same way. It requires a
slightly different compilation, but should get a similar result.
Always keep in mind that Micronics motherboards are infamous for
having problems. I have at least 5 in a box that all have problems.
As for Studio, the ADI driver from ACAD 12 is the same driver that I
compiled from scratch. I have since brought in the driver from ACAD
12
and it seems to work well too.
Paul