hylas@ecsvax.UUCP (Andy R. Bobyarchick) (11/25/86)
I am writing a proposal that will include a request for a Mac+ and a graphics tablet. I would like to know if anyone has used the MacTablet 12x12 manufactured by Summagraphics. It is supposed to attach to the printer or modem port; someone at the company told me that an Apple cable (MO181, 9 to 8 pin?) cable was necessary. Also, the tablet is run from a DA. How well does the software work? What applications have you used with the tablet? I am especially interested in MacDraw and MiniCAD. Thanks. Andy R. Bobyarchick (hylas@ecsvax.USENET) Dept. of Geography and Earth Sciences UNC-Charlotte
carlos@ecsvax.UUCP (C. David Perry) (09/09/87)
We are considering buying a graphics tablet for a Mac SE. Any experiences or advice will be much appreciated. We are new to the Mac world, so any information, however basic, will be helpful. The main application will be tracing maps and other artwork for manipulation with Superpaint or similar software. Since we often have to work with complicated base maps, we think that a scanner would include too much extraneous information. David Perry University of North Carolina Press (919) 966-3561 Box 2288 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 carlos@ecsvax.bitnet
oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (09/15/87)
In article <3840@ecsvax.UUCP> carlos@ecsvax.UUCP (C. David Perry) writes: >The main application will be >tracing maps and other artwork for manipulation with >Superpaint or similar software. You probably don't want to use Superpaint, as it can only handle documents as big as one page. MacDraw (certainly) and MacDraft (possibly) allow you a much larger canvas. Good tricks: 1.) To increase the resolution in MacDraw is: Use the "Reduce" menu item when you first start up, and do all your initial data entry in reduced mode. When you go to print, print at 50% reduction. 2.) Remember, if you are printing on a tractor feed printer, you can print in "No Breaks Between Pages" and get long strips that you can paste together like wall-paper to make murals. I adjust my printer so it prints just to the right selvege. I then strip off just the right selveges, and overlap the each strip over the left selvege of the strip next to it. Experiment with portrait mode vs landscape mode printing, and with selecting your entire picture and rotating it 90% to get it to print with the fewest number of seams. >Since we often have to work with complicated base maps, >we think that a scanner would include too much extraneous >information. 3.) I am familiar with 2 companies producing high resolution digitizing tablets for Macintoshs. They are: Summagraphics, and Kurta. I wrote a good deal of the Kurta software, so I am going to talk about their product line: They make a large number of different sizes of tablets, and within many of the sizes of physical tablets you can buy different models with differemt resolutions: 200ppi to 1000ppi. They send data to one of the Mac's serial ports. You can also choose between models that use a cordless, battery powered pen, and models that have a pen attached by a wire to the main tablet. The cordless models require no other power, the models with cord plug directly into the wall with a standard power cable. (By comparison, some Summagraphics tablets have a big power converter that plugs into the wall, that covers most of the other outlets at that wall box.) A digitizing puck is definately available for the models with cord, I don't know if it is available the cordless models. The Macintosh software has many parts. The main one is in the form of an 'INIT' file: you drag it into your system folder and it starts itself. This module transforms packets coming in over the serial port into motions of the mouse cursor. This means you can move the mouse cursor on the screen either by moving the physical mouse, or by moving the tablet pen near the tablet. There is also a desk accessory for controlling the behavior of the tablet. You use the desk accessory to tell the software: 1.) which serial port to use. 2.) to temporarily not use any port so that you can use both ports for, say a modem session, without rebooting. 3.) which model and resolution of tablet you have 4.) (and this is the important one) to control the mapping between the tablet's coordinate system and the coordinate system of the Macintosh. There are a number of ways to do this: (a) you can point. you select a rectangle on the tablet, then a rectangle on the screen, and a rectangle on the screen, and motions within your tablet rectangle will map to corrsponding screen motions, just as you would expect. (b) you can edit numbers. You get a standard dialog that gives the coordinates of the top, left, bottom, and right of both a screen and a tablet rectangle and you can just edit these until they are correct. (c) you can auto-correct. Often, you want a square on the tablet to correspond to a square, not a rectangle on the mac. There is a button to push on the dialog that corrects the numbers in the dialog to describe tablet and screen rectangles that have the same aspect ratio. (d) you can save any mapping in a file, and load a mapping from a library of files that you build up. (The Kurta software uses text files to save mappings, so they can be edited with any text editor.) (e) you can pick a mapping to inject into the 'INIT' file so that it will be the one that gets used when you start up. (f) you can choose between 'tablet mode' and 'mouse mode'. In tablet mode, the upper left corner of your selected tablet rectangle corresponds to the upper left corner of you selected screen rectangle. Touch the pen to the tablet there, and the mouse cursor jumps to that spot. It is often more convenient for a Macinotosh user to have the stylus behave like a mouse: so a series of left strokes will move the mouse cursor a long distance left, instead of (in tablet mode) just covering the same screen area over and over again. (5) you can record libraries of sequences of mouse motions and key-strokes, and assign them to special areas of the tablet, called "tablet buttons." Since these recordings are saved in text files also, they can be used to get integers out of a digitizing session. In addition, there is a programmer's interface available so that special programs can directly read the un-transformed tablet data. The firm 4SITE, Santa Cruz, CA. (800) WEAVER2 (408) 475 3454 sells Kurta tablets and supports the software. >David Perry >carlos@ecsvax.bitnet This is not a sufficient address for me to reply to you by mail. Nor does the software I am using (rn) transform it into a valid reply address for me. I apologize to anyone who thinks this posting is inappropriate for comp.sys.mac, but it is my only way of E-mailing to David Perry. If you are digitizing maps, you'll want the increased accuracy of the puck. I recieve no money from the sale of Kurta tablets. --- David Phillip Oster --% logout Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --LOGOUT QUOTA EXCEEDED, LOGOUT DENIED. Uucp: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu
fenwick@garth.UUCP (Stephen Fenwick) (03/23/88)
Does anyone in Net-land have experience with Kurta graphics tablets? I am most interested in the Kurta IS/Penmouse, which is a 6" x 9" tablet with a cordless pen. Kurta seems to be sold by (at least) Icon Review, but no one else (mail order), and I haven't seen them in any reviews or stores (e.g., ComputerWare). So, what's the scoop? Are these good tablets, or just more vaporware? Thanks, Steve Fenwick -- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////////// My company is not responsible for what I say. I might be... E-Mail route: ...!pyramid!garth!fenwick USPS: Intergraph APD, 2400 Geng Road, Palo Alto, California AT&Tnet: (415) 852-2325 //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
esf00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) (03/24/88)
In article <571@garth.UUCP> fenwick@garth.UUCP (Stephen Fenwick) writes: >Does anyone in Net-land have experience with Kurta graphics >tablets? We bought one of their tablets (I think 9" by 12") at MacWorld Expo. My wife is a graphic artist and was unwilling to learn how to draw all over again using the mouse. The tablet solves the problem -- she draws (or traces) using the tablet and uses the mouse strictly for menus. She was able to go from opening the shrink wrap to producing stuff with Illustrator in two (yes, 2) days. Make sure that you get the proper version for your Mac -- they have one that works with original mouse connection, and an ADB version. Back in January, the ADB version was packaged and documented for ][GS users: our tablet included a floppy's worth of software for the ][GS and instructions on how to attach it to that machine. I very carefully unpacked everything, put everything except the registration card in a SAFE PLACE, plugged it into the ADB daisychain, and haven't found the rest of the documentation since. -- Elliott Frank ...!{hplabs,ames,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!{bnrmtv,drivax,hoptoad}!amdahl!esf00 [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.] [the above signature may or may not be repeated, depending upon some inscrutable property of the mailer-of-the-week.]
prince@maui.cs.ucla.edu (02/09/89)
I'm thinking of getting a graphics tablet...I'd like any info on
the Summagraphics +, the Kurta Board, and/or any others available.
(Cost/performance/features comparisons, etc.)
Please E-mail responses...I will summarize and post results, if
interest warrants.
UCLA Computer Science Department
-- Larry 3413 Boelter Hall Los Angeles 90024 (213) 825-2145
Prince UUCP: {ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!prince
ARPAnet: prince@CS.UCLA.EDU