Tablets generally provide a mode where the tablet acts as a mouse (mouse mode.) In this mode the cursor is locked to the screen, not the drawing. This is usually the default when the Macintosh is first powered up. In this mode the cursor on the screen can be controlled by the tablet transducer (stylus or puck), and a switch on the tablet transducer acts as a mouse switch. MiniCad+ 4 uses this mode to reach menus and palettes. The relationship between the tablet and the screen can usually be established by a control panel setting for the tablet. Most tablet drivers provide information in memory in a format specified by Apple®. When MiniCad+ 4 is in tablet mode it interacts with this data structure to lock the tablet to the drawing. Doing this has two advantages:
1) If you pan or zoom the drawing, it won't disturb the relationship between the tablet and the drawing.
2) The data provided in the data structure is much more precise than the screen coordinates, and does not change with zoom factor. When in tablet mode, MiniCad+ 4 stores objects with this high precision data.
Tablet drivers will assign at least one of the transducer switches to act as a mouse button. MiniCAD+ will sense (through the data structure) which switches are unassigned and assign functions to them.
The first unassigned switch will act as a toggle between tablet and mouse mode. Tablet mode maps the tablet to the drawing, mouse mode maps the tablet to the screen. When in tablet mode most of the on screen cursors will have an X in the lower right to indicate tablet mode.
The second unassigned switch will pan the drawing to the vicinity of the transducer. In this manner when large drawings are zoomed-in and the user is working on various regions of the drawing, they can easily pan to the spot they are working.
The third unassigned switch plays back a tablet macro.
If you are working on a large drawing, zoom way out to put the entire tablet in the drawing window. Turn all constraints off and set the snap radius to zero. Even though what you draw will look like a solid blob on the screen, objects are being drawn with high precision. By zooming out you avoid the possibility of accidentally selecting a different tool, constrain, menu, etc. while drawing.
When attempting to enter data from a drawing larger than the tablet, tile the drawing and use the Align Selected Locus to Next Tablet Click to establish alignment between the drawing on the tablet and the drawing on the screen.
The following are setup suggestions for tablets from various manufacturers. There may be other possible setups, such as using button 2 as a mouse button instead of button 1, but keep in mind the above button explanations. The configuration tested is indicated.
Calcomp
MiniCad+ was tested with a Calcomp Drawing Board digitizer with 16 button cursor, ADB interface, and driver version 2.2. Set the screen/tablet as you prefer for mouse mode.
The buttons act as follows:
Top three rows of buttons are as indicated on the overlay.
Bottom left button toggles between mouse and tablet mode.
Bottom second from left button pans centered about the cursor.
Bottom third from left button plays back a MiniCad+ 4 tablet template macro.
GTCO
MiniCad+ was tested with GTCO Macintizer ADB and Digi-Pad with ADB options and driver version 1.1.0. Suggested setup for use as a tablet is as follows:
Landscape or Portrait mode as you prefer.
Origin/scale as you prefer in mouse mode (it is overridden in tablet mode)
Tip/Button 0 as Mouse
All other buttons as Application.
The buttons act as follows:
Tip Switch/Yellow button/Button 1 acts as a mouse button.
Grey side switch/White button/Button 2 toggles between mouse and tablet mode.
Black side switch/Blue button/Button 3 pans centered about the cursor.
Green button/Button 4 plays back a MiniCAD+ tablet template macro.
Kurta
MiniCad+ has been tested on a Kurta IS/ADB with driver version 4.x and an IS/THREE with serial driver version 6.x. Some difficulty was experienced beyond 32 inches on the IS/THREE, but the data in the drawing was OK (we are working with Kurta on the problem). Difficulty was also experienced with a zoom factor of 4X or more. Suggested setup for use as a tablet is as follows:
For ADB units select Tablet (not mouse).
For serial units select Speed, Size, Resolution, and Port as per your particular setup.
Maintain Aspect Ratio and Out of Bounds Tracking as you prefer in mouse mode (it is overridden in tablet mode)
Pointing Device Macros off.
Switch 2 is Double Click off.
The buttons act as follows:
Yellow button/Button 1 acts as a mouse button.
Red button/Button 2 toggles between mouse and tablet mode.
Blue button/Button 3 pans centered about the cursor.
Green button/Button 4 plays back a MiniCad+ tablet template macro.
Summagraphics
MiniCad+ has been tested on a Summa Sketch II with ADB interface and software version 1.4. It has also been tested on a Bit Pad Plus with ADB interface and software version 1.4. Suggested setup for use as a tablet is as follows:
Tablet (not mouse)
Orientation, Scale, Offset, and Origin as you prefer in mouse mode (it is overridden in tablet mode)
Mouse Button is Button 1
The buttons act as follows:
Yellow button acts as a mouse button.
White button toggles between mouse and tablet mode.
Blue button pans centered about the cursor.
Green button plays back a MiniCAD+ tablet template macro.
Templates
If you are comfortable with programming it is possible for you to define your own tablet templates. It requires knowledge of ResEdit and MiniPascal. Templates are a grid of boxes where each box corresponds to a MiniPascal command and is selected with the fourth cursor button.
Defining your own template is as follows:
1) Open the TBLT resource with ResEdit. The items in this resource are:
A) The distance from the left edge of the tablet (X=0) to the left edge of the first column of template boxes, in .001” increments.
B) The distance from the bottom edge of the tablet (Y=0) to the bottom edge of the first row of template boxes, in .001” increments.
C) The number of columns of boxes.
D) The number of rows of boxes.
E) The width of a box in .001” increments.
F) The height of a box in .001” increments.
Change these items to match your grid size and position.
2) Enter MiniPascal commands, followed by a semi-colon, into string resources starting withSTR# resource 1900. The correspondence is as follows.
A) The first (left) column of blocks are represented with STR# resource 1900
B) The second column is represented with STR# resource 1901
C) and so on
D) The lowest row of blocks is the first string in the resource (tablet
coordinates start with low numbers at the bottom).
E) The next to lowest row is the second string in the resource.
Example: the second block over and the third block up will play back the MiniPascal statement contained in the third string in STR# resource 1901
Templates can be aligned by turning off grid snap and watching the cursor position in the data bar while aligning the template.
