Drawing Tablets

[djsmale]

Hi,
I'm new to cnc programing and V carve does make it a lot easier but I'm trying to draw a flat pack rain dear for a window display, thinking about getting a usb drawing tablet, do they work?? or failing that does anyone have any v carve programmes for a flat pack rain dear??

Thank you
Dan

[martin54]

I've seen this sort of question asked on signmaking forums I use & the answers always seem to be very mixed. I have a tablet that I use (not with vcarve) & find it very useful but I have read that lots of people don't get on with them at all. It does take a bit of getting use to, not quite as straight forward as you might think so maybe some of the people that don't get on with them have given up to easily.
Only reason I haven't tried using the tablet with vcarve is because I don't do any design work with vcarve as I am more familiar with other software.

[Ms Wolffie]

I use my Wacom Tablet for any graphics program I own, much easier than a mouse.
Cheers
Wolffie

[Leo]

I bought a tablet and I am beginning to use it more often. For simple stuff - I just use the mouse. For the artsy stuff I use the tablet.

The tablet uses a stylus and you hand and fingers. It's more natural to the hand than the mouse to do stuff like the motion of "coloring" in something.

I use the tablet most often when I use the sculpting tools in Aspire. I also use it with corel draw.

For node editing, the mouse works just as well or better.

It does take getting used to.

[milo30]

I bought a wacom tablet and yes it will work. I tried it for awhile and stuck it in a drawer and went back to my mouse. If you run some searches for flat pack reindeer, different ways you'll probably find something online that will be useful to turn into a file. It should be relatively easy to vectorize.

[djsmale]

Hi,
Thank you all for your reply's, so if I understand it right, it's better to do a design in another software like corel draw or something similar then export/import into Vcarve to create the tool paths??

Thanks
Dan

[Adrian]

Hi,
Thank you all for your reply's, so if I understand it right, it's better to do a design in another software like corel draw or something similar then export/import into Vcarve to create the tool paths??

Thanks
Dan

Not at all. You should be able to design pretty much anything you want once you've got used to the Vectric way of working. A lot of people get confused early on because they're so used to the way the programs they currently use work and think that VCarve can't do it. As it's a CAM program rather than an art drawing package it just has different names for the tools and a different way of using them.

There are quite a few slot together reindeer files around on the 'net. Not sure about the copyright situation with them so I won't post link but if you do a Google search for "reindeer CNC file" or similar you'll soon find them.

[Leo]

I was one that mentioned Corel Draw.

Your question was about the tablet.

I mentioned corel ONLY because of how I use the tablet.

I do ALL my work in Vectric - not in corel.

[martin54]

As Adrian says you should be able to design just about anything you want once you have got use to how Vectric works, I don't use it personally but only because I use a different program on a daily basis & don't want to have to learn how to use another software package.
If you are new to using vector based software then I would suggest you stick with learning how to use the vectric software as the support is excellent & any questions you have will get answered on the forum pretty quickly.

[cac67]

As Adrian says you should be able to design just about anything you want once you have got use to how Vectric works, I don't use it personally but only because I use a different program on a daily basis & don't want to have to learn how to use another software package.
If you are new to using vector based software then I would suggest you stick with learning how to use the vectric software as the support is excellent & any questions you have will get answered on the forum pretty quickly.

I agree with the above with one caveat: Vectric doesn't have freehand drawing. Sometimes it's much easier to freehand draw what you want than to use the vectric tools. For that I use inkscape, then import it into aspire. It's a cumbersome enough process that I rarely use it, but every so often it comes in handy. If aspire had freehand drawing I would use it every day.

In aspire the only thing I use the tablet for is sculpting.

[lovebugjunkie]

This might work for you

http://www.makecnc.com/holidays/christmas/