Digitizers w/ 3DS or ANI
15 messages in this thread
Are any of you using digitizers with 3D Studio and/or AniPro, or do most
people stick with mice? I'm reviewing a bunch of digitizers, and several of
their mouse and Summa emulations seems less than completely compatible with
these two programs ("sticky" cursors, etc.).
Any experiences good or bad with particular digitizers?
Thanks,
– Mark M.
Mark,
I'm using the Kurta for both 3DS and AA Pro but using the mouse mode, I
really like the cordless option, but I currently have to run in mouse
emulation mode till a 4.1 tablet standard is adopted, at least for 3DS. I
think theres a standard for AA Pro but will require Kurta writing a driver.
James
James:
Interesting, I've had "sticky cursor" problems with the Kurta using mouse
emulation in 3DS. Also, in AA Pro and several other programs, I have
trouble getting the cursor to all corners of the screen – it's like there's
a "wall" keeping me from moving the cursor past a certain horizontal or
vertical line.
I'll have to play with the configuration options a bit more.
By "4.1 tablet standard", I assume you mean an ADI driver interface for AA
Pro and 3DS? You're right, AA Pro has the capability to talk to other
devices via input device drivers (.IDR files), but I don't know that any
digitizer makers have written any of these yet. I wonder what the
advantages of an .IDR driver would be, and why Autodesk didn't stick with
the already well-known ADI?
– Mark M.
Mark,
I've had those problems when using K_MOUSE, I've found that the microsoft
7.0 mouse driver works perfectly.
James
James:
Hmmm. I played around with the Kurta drivers a bit more today, and found
that removing a bunch of TSRs from my AUTOEXEC and CONFIG files made the
"stickiness" go away. As far as I can tell, the Lantastic network drivers
were the culprit.
The "cursor wall" was torn down when I used K_CONFIG to change the mouse
mouse from Absolute to Relative. Seems to me that Relative really should be
the default.
– Mark M.
Mark,
I had problems due to some non-linear scaling from the kurta driver, use
kurta driver problems, use MS driver works, so… I haven't ever even tried
to fool with it anymore since it works so well….
James
Mark,
We didn't use ADI in ANIPRO due to it's unique set of needs. There's a vast
difference between that product and our other technologies and we needed a
new input and display interface for it.
John
John & Gary:
I see. Are there any .IDR digitizer drivers besides the sample Wacom SD42
yet? Is there anything special about how that driver/digitizer works?
– Mark M.
FYI, Jim Kent created the .IDR format to be optimized for real-time
painting in a bitmap-oriented application. He felt that the existing ADI
didn't offer the performance he wanted for the .IDR interface.
– G
Mark – can't say about 3DS, but I used the Summasketch driver in AA and am
now using the one in Anipro, and they both work just fine. Hardware is a
Summasketch Plus (1201).
Dave
Dave:
Yes, the Summa seems to work fairly well with 3DS's and AniPro's Summa
drivers <surprise!>. I did notice a slight bit of cursor stickiness, as
well as the "float" I told you about via Email. I'm beginning to wonder
whether there isn't a TSR conflict or compatibility problem in my system.
Have to strip everything down and try these things again….
– Mark M.
Dave (via myself):
After some more testing today, I think the cursor "stickiness" in 3DS and
AniPro is just the standard Phar Lap VSCAN stutter. Running CFIG386 would
probably minimize it.
The "float" didn't go away, even after I stripped AUTOEXEC & CONFIG down to
a minimum. It's especially pronounced in AutoBASE, DL Pro, and DOs 5's
DOSSHELL (in graphics mode). Must be related to the TABLET driver.
I finally understand why people are bothering with Summa's ADI driver. At
least with the model I'm testing (SummaSketch II Plus), the ADI driver and
TABLET mouse driver seem to coexist pretty peacefully. I can shell out of
AutoCAD, run NE or some other mouse-aware program, and then return to
AutoCAD without running MMRST. OTOH, I couldn't get the ADI driver to work
in AutoShade 2 – the cursor stayed frozen on the screen.
– Mark M.
Mark- I'm using a Wacom SD-422L cordless, which seems to work pretty well
w/ both 3DS & Acad (WADI driver for Acad, Microsoft mouse emulator for
3DS). I like to use mouse speed #1 in 3DS to minimize wrist action.
One thing about this device, tho, is that it interacts with the puck by
using a low-frequency RF field from its surface (appr. 50KHz, I think). I'm
ever so slightly concerned about this, in reference to all the brouhaha on
"radiation in the workplace".. I heard a rumor once that someone working
w/ one of these pads saw that their digital watch was getting screwy
whenever they were using it.. hmmm.
John Gummere =SP=
John:
I haven't ever used a Wacom tablet. Other than its cordless-ness, is there
anything special about it? What does it cost, roughly?
– Mark M.
John,
I wouldn't worry too much about the tablet radiation, it's all the moniters
I'm worried about. I've got three of them watching me.
James