CompuServe Thread

#Input other than mice!

26 messages in this thread
#67359From: Nov 19, 1993 11:01 PM
Hello out there! I'm doing some research on alternative input devices for 3D Studio. If anyone is using a tablet (even if only in mouse emulation mode) or any other creative devices, please let me know what it is! Greg Pyros
#67361From: Paul LindNov 19, 1993 11:40 PM
Are you kidding? Just Bored? Of course we use everything except mice. Cant stand the little rodents. We primarily run Summa Tablets But we have a couple of Kurtas and one really great 4'x 6' GTCO SuperL series Digipad. I have one guy who won't use anything but his trackball but he's a little odd.
#67392From: Nov 20, 1993 11:29 AM
Paul: Thanks for the input! Greg Pyros
#67404From: Don LandisNov 20, 1993 12:47 PM
Paul: I know an odd fellow that only uses a trackball too. He also works very slow! <G>
#67410From: Paul LindNov 20, 1993 1:22 PM
Don, Actually our man with the track ball is abnormally fast with it. He can input data into 3DS faster than any of us. It's one of those Microspeed Trackballs with a ballistic gain on it. I never could get the hang of it, but I figure whatever makes the staff productive is a good expenditure. Paul P.S. – I hope everything's going well. I've been really tied up on a couple of large contracts and my presence on CIS has dropped off dramatically. I still scan the message base every 4 hours, but unless something is directed at me, I've tried to stay out of threads.
#67453From: Don LandisNov 20, 1993 9:00 PM
Thanks for your consideration. Actually, I was only a few miles from you two weeks ago and considered giving you a call. It was 11-6 around noon but it was pouring down raining and I figured you would'nt be too cool to just drop in. We just drove on back to J-ville and got here at 10 pm same day.
#67466From: Paul LindNov 20, 1993 10:04 PM
Don, Sorry I missed you! What were you doing up in this neck of the woods? You know I don't need anymore competition 🙂 We're actually in the process of moving into a larger building, so for the last month we've been all over the place. We sold the vast majority of our network to accomodate a new series of Pentiums, but now it looks like we're going to be integrating an Onyx RE2 and a couple of Indigo2's into the mix. Time to start bugging Greg about the intricacies of PC-NFS. Paul P.S. – Sounds like you're really kicking butt in the animation/video market. It's great to see such possitive growth!
#67485From: Nov 21, 1993 1:14 AM
Paul: >> Time to start bugging Greg about the intricacies of PC-NFS. Oh, oh! Sounds like some very high end consulting you need here! :^) Might cost you a few of those fancy beveled font sets you're so famous for! <g> Do you have some UNIX techies there, or will we have to start from scratch? Greg Pyros
#67577From: Don LandisNov 22, 1993 2:19 AM
Actually, I was in Pennsylvania for a few days to throw a surprise party for my parents' 50th wedding aniversary. It has been busy here in J-ville in the animation business primarily due to the new salesman I got and his aggressive attitude. It's only enough to keep just me busy though. Maybe in a few years it might grow into something I can support a payroll on. Paul, I retired from the chemical business in August and went full time in this so I had to get more aggressive myself. The "MAN" wants his payments on that "Rolls" I've got on layaway.<g>
#68362From: yann bertaudNov 26, 1993 1:52 AM
You might have opened a can of worms here. You should see the thread on the ACAD forum about mice vs digitizers. They just nominated me to be one of the three mouseketeers <large pun intended here>. It's late, what can I say? Yann
#67369From: John TissavaryNov 20, 1993 3:15 AM
I have a Kurta XGT that I run with pressure sensetive pen and puck simultaneously. Since they're both cordless I can use them interchangeably. I have never had a problem with it, other than a broken pen which Kurta immediately replaced in a cross-shipment last week. Mice are cute, but I don't want them scurrying around my computer leaving those nasty little droppings < g>. Happy exterminating… John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
#67393From: Nov 20, 1993 11:29 AM
Thanks John!
#67374From: Gus GrubbaNov 20, 1993 3:20 AM
Yo, I have both the Summagraphics II and the Kurta XGT. I "ate" all my mice one night after going a little nuts with the way those stinking balls get stuck. I still have a hole in my wall where one of them went through. Tablets are light years ahead. Works great everywhere _BUT_ with 3DS where it simply doesn't work. It's always locking up, going totally bezerk when you move a point beyond the frame (jumping from, say, 10,10,10 to 1000000,1000000,10), etc.
#67394From: Nov 20, 1993 11:29 AM
Thanks you, Gus!
#67398From: Don LandisNov 20, 1993 12:07 PM
I use a Summa Sketch plus for tracing drawings and sketches into the shaper. I work with a 4 button puck and wish someone would program the other two buttons for me. It would be nice to have the tab key on one and have the remaining one user definable. How about it Greg? Just a suggestion for another product for your company.
#68168From: Steven M. McGuinnessNov 24, 1993 3:58 PM
I would be interested in updating our ADI 4.1 Protected mode driver to accomodate your button mapping requests. Please provide me with more detail. SM
#68282From: Don LandisNov 25, 1993 9:59 AM
>>I would be interested in updating our ADI 4.1 Protected mode driver to accomodate your button mapping requests. Please provide me with more detail. What???? I don't know what you're talking about. Is it refering to my wish list for a way to program my other two buttons on my Summa Sketch Plus?
#67464From: PATRICK MALONENov 20, 1993 9:53 PM
Greg…. I'm using a Summasketch III w/16 button cursor. I had one problem…. don't know if it had anything to do with the digitizer…..it's detailed in a message titled "explain this…." Patrick Malone ..other than that it seems to work fine….
#68169From: Steven M. McGuinnessNov 24, 1993 4:00 PM
Please read the file SUMMA1.RES in the 3DS File library (#3). It recommends using their ADI 4.1 protected mode driver. Good Luck! SM
#67649From: David TaffetNov 22, 1993 11:33 AM
Greg – I have a Summa 12×12 but, even in R3, the stylus freaks very regularly. I don't use it. The puck works in mouse emulation, but I'd rather use an actual mouse, than a puck, so I do. The tablet, including stylus. works fine under Windows and I have no other DOS apps that I've bothered to try it in. FWIW I've tried switching to tablet mode as described/explained by real Autodesk personnel and my PC freezes every time, even with vanilla A*.BAT and C*.SYS files. So I draw with it in other programs and use my mouse. David T
#67699From: Nov 22, 1993 3:56 PM
David: >> as described/explained by real Autodesk personnel As opposed to the _other_ Autodesk personnel? <g> Greg Pyros
#67944From: David TaffetNov 23, 1993 6:21 PM
_other_ Autodesk personnel … Like Martin Foster… like your own self… like etc. and like so on and their brothers ad infinitum and ad nauseum…
#67968From: Nov 23, 1993 8:46 PM
That's all Autodesk would need: Martin Foster and myself working for them!
#68061From: David TaffetNov 24, 1993 9:48 AM
I'll talk to Carol next time I bump into her and get her to give youse guys a swell telephone support type of job. Just *think* of the opertoonitease! <G>
#68170From: Steven M. McGuinnessNov 24, 1993 4:01 PM
Please read the file SUMMA1.RES in the 3DS file library (#3). I hope this cures things for now. SM
#67818From: Accu-WeatherNov 23, 1993 8:26 AM
Kurta IS/ONE tablet w/ mouse and pen (cordless). I only use the mouse in Ani Pro when I want to move something a specific # of pixels; in that situation, the mouse is mightier than the pen.