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Guest Brett Baker

Drawing tablet for VM Ltr

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Guest Brett Baker

I was in the sign business many years ago using Gerber and a 4B plotter. 

For the last 5 or 6 years I've had a pcut and Vinylmaster ltr either at work or at home to do various projects. I'm working on some things that require freehand drawing and was wondering if anyone is using an inexpensive drawing tablet with VM. I'd love to be able to draw or trace and have it be a vector drawing right from the drawing. Is this possible or would I still have to vectorize what I've drawn? And help would be awesome. 

Thanks

Brett Baker

 

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I would think if you’re designing directly inVM, then it’s vector by default. As far as a tablet goes, your computer should just think it’s another type of mouse/pointer device, so as long as it’s compatible with whatever version of Windows you’re running, it should work. 

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Hint Brett, if you sign up as a member you will not have to wait for a moderator to approve your post - no cost or obligation - just one of the way we control spammers as that had gotten out of hand a while back

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35 minutes ago, Guest Brett Baker said:

I was in the sign business many years ago using Gerber and a 4B plotter. 

For the last 5 or 6 years I've had a pcut and Vinylmaster ltr either at work or at home to do various projects. I'm working on some things that require freehand drawing and was wondering if anyone is using an inexpensive drawing tablet with VM. I'd love to be able to draw or trace and have it be a vector drawing right from the drawing. Is this possible or would I still have to vectorize what I've drawn? And help would be awesome. 

Thanks

Brett Baker

 

I attempted to use a Wilcom tablet with Adobe Illustrator one year. It wasn't exactly cheap but it would work. I found, strangely, that I have no natural drawing ability :lol: so the whole thing was not going to work for me. Luckily I wrapped it back up and took it back and got my money back. One problem I had was it was not a drawing tablet that showed the design on the tablet so you had to watch the computer and draw over here with your hand. Not handy for me. It also made me try and learn a while bunch of new methods to draw in Illustrator which is already a two handed affair so it didn't work in that end. 

My niece has a little tiny 5" pad that she uses with her mac. It is probably too small to utilize but it was at least inexpensive.

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25 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

Hint Brett, if you sign up as a member you will not have to wait for a moderator to approve your post - no cost or obligation - just one of the way we control spammers as that had gotten out of hand a while back

Lol, I figured that out and reposted as a member 

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1 hour ago, Wildgoose said:

I attempted to use a Wilcom tablet with Adobe Illustrator one year. It wasn't exactly cheap but it would work. I found, strangely, that I have no natural drawing ability :lol: so the whole thing was not going to work for me. Luckily I wrapped it back up and took it back and got my money back. One problem I had was it was not a drawing tablet that showed the design on the tablet so you had to watch the computer and draw over here with your hand. Not handy for me. It also made me try and learn a while bunch of new methods to draw in Illustrator which is already a two handed affair so it didn't work in that end. 

My niece has a little tiny 5" pad that she uses with her mac. It is probably too small to utilize but it was at least inexpensive.

Ditto, wasn’t my cup of tea either

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Yes, you can Freehand Draw, directly in Vector with a Pen & Tablet and VinylMaster.

I've been working with the same Wacom 6x9 Intous for over 10 years now and, whether using it for Raster or Vector Projects (like any Tool) has become increasingly useful with my proficiency with it.

Admittedly, with Node manipulation in Vector Programs, there is little difference in my Speed between a Pen and a Mouse. But, with Freehand Line or Brush work, in either Raster OR Vector images, a mouse is a poor substitute for the 'Pen-in-Hand' Feel, Freedom and Speed the Tablet offers. It also opens HUGE doors for Raster Brush work in Photoshop - Like Programs.

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

Ditto, wasn’t my cup of tea either

I have a friend, who is a creative and graphic genius, and is trying to sell me on the idea of using a tablet. When i asked her what tablet she uses, she said she tried a bamboo tablet and it made her crazy, so she switched back to a mouse, but opted for a gaming mouse for the higher level of precision. I'm not sure what kind of sales pitch that was, so I told her to stick to doing graphics over marketing :lol:

The one and only tablet I have every used was back when AutoCAD (v3) was still growing, and that was the only way to navigate the environment.

I stick to my trackball and absolutely love it. As an added bonus, I find that it really deters many people from wanting to use my puters. :P

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I'd say the chief difference between any mouse and any pen can be summed up by signing your name on the computer with each of them and comparing those 2 samples to your signature written on a piece of paper. I've had a mouse in my hand for 30 years and cannot duplicate some of what I can do with a Pen and Tablet.

The Freehand nature and Pressure Sensitivity of the Pen & Tablet are where it really excels. Truly, this comes into play more often in Raster Digital Graphics than Vector.

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11 hours ago, haumana said:

I stick to my trackball and absolutely love it. As an added bonus, I find that it really deters many people from wanting to use my puters. :P

Ha! I have been training a new guy, well really and old guy that we pulled into the office, to do computer take-offs for estimating road work. The program we use is sort of similar to vector and you input the elevations at appropriate points as you go and end up with a 3D surface model of the terrain to compare against the original grades that are input in another section. He uses a trackball and by golly you are correct I absolutely detest trying to use his computer when trying to show him something. Nevertheless I have tried to leave his be and use it just for the experience. But I am always glad when I go back to my own workstation and to my basic mouse again. Funny how you get accustomed to something. 

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5 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

Ha! I have been training a new guy, well really and old guy that we pulled into the office, to do computer take-offs for estimating road work. The program we use is sort of similar to vector and you input the elevations at appropriate points as you go and end up with a 3D surface model of the terrain to compare against the original grades that are input in another section. He uses a trackball and by golly you are correct I absolutely detest trying to use his computer when trying to show him something. Nevertheless I have tried to leave his be and use it just for the experience. But I am always glad when I go back to my own workstation and to my basic mouse again. Funny how you get accustomed to something. 

you ever happen to use ARCGIS software by ESRI - there are some memories 

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3 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

you ever happen to use ARCGIS software by ESRI - there are some memories 

I have not but have seen some of that type data a time or two. 

Our software is Agtek 4D (used to be 3D but like everything there is always an upgrade). It's pretty expensive at around 14K per license, we run 2. And there is tech support for about $1200-1500 per year annually. Definitely not for small outfits that aren't in the big game but it gives us unparalleled take-off accuracy and we build all our own 3D surface models in house for the GPS machine control and handheld rover units out on the jobs. I get a kick out of it because it's so much like digital work. Perhaps I should say I get a kick out of Vector design since it's so much like surface modeling. I just wish the Agtek program had all the bells and whistles that Illustrator has. There are several other big name takeoff programs out there as well. Agtek seems to be the contractors choice at least out here in the west. Some are more CAD based and harder to use IMO. Agtek is simple enough even a caveman can do it. 

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A little over 12 years ago our arch is was around 12k per seat and if I remember correctly 2500 per year on each of our 6 seats.  I was pretty cocky going into that and that software back then would humble you quickly.  I can only hope they made it much more user friendly by now and not so many scrips.   Your terrain modeling sounds like a lot more fun 

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I couldn't figure out how to freehand drawing in VM, not sure it has that feature. I have been doing that stuff in Inkscape and transferring to VM. 
I use a XP-Pen : https://www.xp-pen.com  ( Deco 03 ) drawing tablet  and the pencil tool for drawing  in Inkscape . For some projects, if you use detailed sketches for instance, it is probably better to use the bezier tool, but you can sketch with the calligraphy tool quite nicely too.

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On 10/22/2020 at 9:05 AM, jiangye said:

I couldn't figure out how to freehand drawing in VM, not sure it has that feature. I have been doing that stuff in Inkscape and transferring to VM. 
I use a XP-Pen :  https://discordserverlists.com/synapse-x-discord/  ( Deco 03 ) drawing tablet  and the pencil tool for drawing  in Inkscape . For some projects, if you use detailed sketches for instance, it is probably better to use the bezier tool, but you can sketch with the calligraphy tool quite nicely too.

If you figured it out, let me know so I can do it too.

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Almost any pressure sensitive drawing tablet will be a massive improvement on trying to use vector drawing software like adobe illustrator, corel draw, and Inkscape with a mouse. 
Wacom is great and recommend giving it a go.

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This is an old thread but still relevant. Illustrator is now fully functional on the iPad Pro and I hear works good with the Apple Pencil. I sadly still have little to no freehand ability so I stick to what works for me. (old school Illustrator with standard drawing tools through a Magic Mouse) I don't freehand but I run a mean trace over an inserted picture. I do have the iPad version on my tablet but it's got enough new tools or more accurately new methods of using the Illustrator tool sets, that I feel clumsy and use the pad mostly when out of town and need to make an edit for someone rather than as my go-to workstation. 

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