3 ms·

My dad had a digitiser tablet for doing CAD, this big slab in front of the keyboard with a mouse like thing but instead of a ball or optics it had a crosshair m

by daemin 7y ago

My dad had a digitiser tablet for doing CAD, this big slab in front of the keyboard with a mouse like thing but instead of a ball or optics it had a crosshair made out of copper on it to precisely pin point where you were on the surface. There was an area that represented the screen and around it were all manner of UI shortcuts. I remember it was much more accurate to use than a mouse, and better interface than having toolbars all over the display.

gpderetta 7y ago
so did my dad for a very long time. But in recent years he (and my brother as well) switched to a normal mouse. I haven't asked him why (I should!), but I suspect that lack of support from more recent OS revisions and the hardware just being harder to find might be a reason. I have used the digitiser a few times and it seemed much more efficient than the mouse. Also autocad has (or at least had, last time I looked at it years ago) a very prominent prompt where to input keyboard commands (in autolisp, no less!).
- baq 7y ago
  maybe current breed of optical/laser mice are just really good enough.
  - gpderetta 7y ago
    Very possible. Also, with everything being already digitised today, there is less of a need of being able to precisely input points from a piece of paper.
jacquesm 7y ago
That's a graphics tablet/digitizer and a puck. http://www.brisk.org.uk/gt1212b/index.html http://www.brisk.org.uk/gt1212b/index.html Crazy high res and absolute rather than relative which makes them very useful for some applications.
- daemin 7y ago
  Yep, that one and another less colourful model.