Tablet Overlay for Solidworks?

You can certainly set up SolidWorks to work very similar to AutoCAD with a command line and keyboard shortcuts. SolidWorks has something called the 2D Emulator to achieve this. I don't know of any digitizing tablet overlays that work in conjunction with SolidWorks.

If you want advice from a former AutoCAD user.....forget the way you work in AutoCAD. SolidWorks & AutoCAD are two different animals and should really be approached differently when using them as design tools. It took me a while to break my AutoCAD habits when I first started using SolidWorks but once the monkey is off your back you'll love the SolidWorks interface and ease of use. Every so often I have to use AutoCAD for something and I can't help but wonder how in the hell I ever used the software. Seems so primitive now.

Good Luck

Actually, you might want to trade in your 2D tablet for a 3D Spaceball. The tablet becomes less usefull with things like customizable toolbars and the command manager. On the other hand since you will be working in

3D, being able to quickly move your viewpoint around a part will become far more important.

Bruce,

SW doesn't have a command line, nor does any other modern system.

When we moved our ACAD people over to SW, they continued to use their tablets until we moved to Win2000, no drivers. Even so, they were only able to use them as a mouse, no overlay.

SW isn't really designed for a tablet. Frankly, I could never see the advantage of constantly looking back and forth, although ACAD's GUI was a logistical mess so it probably helped. It took them awhile, but the finally got used to the SW way of doing things. The trick to this is using what SW provided, RMB, and hot keys. The "Command Manager" is also very usefull for some people.

AS far as screen area, you don't really need as much with 3D modeling as you do with 2D drafting. Even so, SW keeps adding stuff that makes the graphics window smaller. It almost seems like our monitors are shrinking.

That being said, maybe an overlay driven tablet would be a good idea for some folks. All of SW's commands are available through the API, so someone "could" do it. I guess it's probably just a matter of demand. Graphic tablet manufacturers have been on the skids (saleswise) for years, so it'd take a very compelling reason for them to do it.

Regards

Mark

"Rob Rodriguez" wrote in news:hVRgd.1473$ snipped-for-privacy@fe39.usenetserver.com:

I fooled with the command line emulator when I first came over from MDT. It wasn't worth the time. I definitely agree that the best course of action is to forget you ever used Acad. The work flow is all different.

You might think about keeping the tablet, if it can emulate a middle mouse button. You'll need that for view manipulation if you don't spring fora Spaceball. The nice thing about the tablet is that it's so precise. I do miss that.

SW does have a 2D command line in the sketcher. I don't know of anyone that has ever used it in production. Look in your addins for 2D.

P,

In ACAD 2D, or boolean solids, tha command line was actually used to do real work.

As it is implemented in the emulator, it's nearly usless for doing anything meaningfull in Solidworks.

Mark

When I was using AutoCAD I never could get used to the darn tablet. It seemed extremely cumbersom and never moved as smothly as a mouse. Besides what do you do without a middle mouse button how do you scroll pan rotate. Your neck must get all screwed up too whipping back and forth. Anyway I never found much use for it. Maybe this is because I didn't start using AutoCad until R14. A generational thing anyway. Toolbars are the way to go. The nice thing about SW toolbars is that it trys to remember the tools that you have up when you are modeling and the tools you had up when you were assembling and the tools you had up when you are drawing. And it automatically brings back the tools when you switch between the interfaces. Tablets had their time in the dark ages, but learn the new way of doing things you may loose a little bit of screen to the tool bars but you won't regret it. If it is too much for you get a bigger monitor. Maybe you could set up a projector and have a 90" screen. =^)

Anyway I don't think the tablet is usefull anymore it had it's time in the era of 13" monitors but isn't as relevent anymore.

And as far as the command prompt is concerned it was a quick and reliable way of doing things 2 handed in AutoCAD but if you set up and get to know the shortcut keys in SW you will find they can bring you back to a similar place, Though it is best to get to know the location of the tools you want.

Corey

Thank you all for your thoughtful guidance. I plan to use the toolbars and forget about the tablet approach As a side point I am getting up to speed using the PE edition at home and it doesn't seem to have the command line add in - so I'll just have to do without it.

Kind regards

Bruce Murray

Solidworks 2D Emulator is what you want. It is still in SW, even 2005.

I think you will find the SW sketch tools work out better for making SW sketches. Although if you are really fast with ACAD commands you might be able to use autodimension to get fully defined sketches after laying things out.

SW modeling does better with this 3 step process:

1. Establish toplogy (regardless of dimensions)
2. Establish remaining relations (perp., parallel, tangent, etc.)
3. Dimension starting with smallest features first and work up to large features.

Keep fillets and the small stuff out of the sketches. They have their own feature.

I think it was a sop to help convince borderline ACAD installations to have a go at SW. Like many things that have gotten into SW over the years, this was half baked. I would be surprised if anyone on the NG actually made productive use of it.

At one point I think SW toyed with incorporating Visio (which is now Intellicad). I always rooted for Anvil to make a SW drafting addin. Why they put the 2D stuff in the sketcher is beyond me. The shift in thinking required to go from ACAD to 3D is far more than a user interface issue.

And I do wish there was a command l> P,

Has anybody tried out one of the new Laser Mouse's that is available? The precision is supposed to be 20X better than an optical mouse. I haven't used one myself But I've read, from people that have used them for just for windows applications, that they're much better than an optical mouse.

Richard