Tablet

[chrisdarmanin]

do any of you use a tablet? i never used one but other people said they used it and its great (on acad R14 and 2000) i was thinking of purchising the nisis g3 tablet

 

what are your comments? what are the advantages and disadvantages?

 

thanks

 

(btw i use acad lt 2006)

[ReMark]

I am a long time tablet user. I currently use a CalComp DrawingBoard III at home and at work. The tablet is approximately 15" square. That could be considered a disadvantage if you are short on desktop space. I also have a 16-button puck. I can program the buttons to suit my tastes. The tablet allows me to not only have the standard AutoCAD commands arrayed around my screen pointing area but it gives me 9 rows with 25 columns in which to place my custom piping symbols. If I want a symbol I just pick it off the board. No fuss...no muss. Very quick. The small screen pointing area, 4x3.5, means I manipulate the puck in a rather narrow range yet I cover the full-screen. I don't have to pick the puck up, move it, set it down again to move the pointer or cross-hairs again as I might have to do with a mouse. I can also "digitize" drawings into AutoCAD, something a mouse can not do. By calibrating my tablet I have the means to electronically "trace" the outline of an object. I can do this with something smaller than the tablet size or even something larger than the tablet size by using a series of co-ordinates. One last thing, because my tablet can be positioned on a slant, I don't suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. I do, by the way, have a mouse hooked up to my computer and I can use either device in any program, including Microsoft Office, as a means of input. Until such time as AutoCAD no longer supports the use of a digitizer, I will continue to use one.

[nick bessey]

I agree wholeheartedly with Mark's comments. I have been using the DBIII for about 17 years now, also with a mouse, and in addition to the above I would also add that a) the puck stays where you want it rather than getting dragged around by a cable when you let go to type, which is really handy when entering ortho distances b) commands via the tablet icons are one click rather than using the pulldown menus or if you use the toolbars... with all those icons on your tablet you can minimise the clutter on screen and therefore get more drawing space visible.