Using a Wacom Tablet (Intuos Small) with Vectorworks 2016

[k f]

Hi there- I have been a Vectorworks user for nearly 20 years, and have been drafting/mousing with a Wacom tablet for nearly as long. It's always been a perfect solution for me for maximizing control and for alleviating my tendonitis. When my office upgraded to 2016 last year, I began to have many problems with the interface between the Wacom tablet and the VW software. The two are not "talking" to each other as they used to, and I regularly find myself giving up and simply drafting with my fingers on the trackpad of my laptop (which is very slow). I'm wondering if anyone else out there has experienced this, and/or if you have found any solutions? Many thanks!

 

[zoomer]

I'm highly interested in your Tablet Workflow as I also don't find a satisfying Keyboard/Mouse Workflow in VW.

As it was no problem pre VW with my left hand shortcuts only, right hand mouse and NumBlock input in any App,

I think it is VW's need for Drag/Selection Tool to still keep pressing the mouse and left hand NumBlock for

numeric input and such things that drives me crazy.

I wanted to retry my old Wacom tablets (A3 with Serial Plug and old Volito ?) but unfortunately none of them will

run on macOS Sierra anymore.

 

I have no handicap with mouse hand at all. If I got that correct, Mouse is no option for you in any way..

So I have a few questions.

 

1.

What are your UI problems exactly, has there something changed significantly after VW 2016 ?

 

2.

Did you ever tried Magic Trackpad (if you are OSX) as it is reasonable large ?

(Current Macbooks are equal and OS X touchpads the first that I was ever able to use or even to renounce

of the mouse in most cases because of their quality. For Windows, only the 2 Surface laptops from MS

seem to have similar ergonomics, but irrelevant for VW)

 

3.

Did you use Mouse or Tablet Mode for Cursor Movements with you Pen

 

4.

What Size of Tablet did you prefer ?

(I had to set my A3 to a small A5-like Area to not have too long tedious ways in either mode (!) while

smaller tablets did not work either)

Edited January 16, 2017 by zoomer

[P Retondo]

I've been working with a Wacom tablet for years -  model PTZ630, which is probably no longer available, but I'm sure there is an equivalent.  I configure the lower "click switch" to be left click, the upper to be right click.  I find that mapping a tablet of this size to about 50% of the screen is most effective.  No problem at all with v2016, or v2017 so far.  Faster than a mouse.

[zoomer]

^ This was an A5 sized Tablet (?).

(21,00x14,85 cm)

I think that is a good size for a Tablet.

 

As I see un the underlaying graphics I had on mine, I used an Area of about 18,0x14,8 cm

(at 4/3 Monitor aspect ratio times last millennium)

You used only half of it ?

In Mouse (accelerated) or Tablet (linear) Mode ?

[zoomer]

On 17.1.2017 at 3:10 AM, P Retondo said:

I configure the lower "click switch" to be left click, the upper to be right click.  Faster than a mouse.

 

I now use lower button = RMB and upper button = MMB (= Pan or Flyover)

 

But how do you Zoom ???

[mgries]

I have a general question regarding use of Wacom Intuos (Pro or other) Tablets:

I'm interested in incorporating a tablet into my workflow, but I'm not sure how it's being leveraged with VW. Is it just used as a fancy mouse that provides pen control and touch-pad gestures (as well as handy preset shortcut buttons)? Or does VW also allow integration of the pen tool to create quick hand sketches directly on screen? In other words, are people literally drawing on their screen with this, say for example to add mark-up redlines?

 

Thanks,
Matt

[michaelk]

I have a little Wacom tablet.  It's a fancy mouse.

[zoomer]

There is no special feature for pen input in VW at all.

Some people who have tenosynovitis and aches with mouse usage use it as a workaround.

Some because they find it more intuitive.

I think at least 80% use standard tablet input (like Intous) together with a standard Monitor.

I like Pen input very much, but on a Pen Display like Wacom Cintiq or Surface Studio directly

on screen only.

 

It is like mouse input with some drawbacks in input precision.