I have been taking pics, tracing them, and then putting them into node editing to clean up the images. etc.
My question is… Is there a workable graphics pad or screen that will allow me to use a stylus or pen, without having to spend another grand - a stylus direct to the screen, would be so much easier than either a finger pad or mouse.
Would LB see a graphics pad through Windows as a mouse?
Behavior will partly depend on the input device. But in general LightBurn will work with drawing tablet assuming the OS passes standard pointer inputs.
One thing I’ll note is that using a drawing tablet may not necessarily be easier than using a mouse for input since LightBurn is not predominately driven by freehand drawing. Rather, LightBurn’s interface is more about fine selection, shortcuts, and object snapping. Everyone will be different of course so take that with a grain of salt.
Mouse emulation… yes (I have a touchpad on the front of my laser acting as, and in conjunction with, a mouse).
But as an absolute coordinate input device (like a digitizing tablet)… no, I don’t believe it will work.
Thanks for the response - I was wondering if something like this would work - as an example, as its windows based. It says it works with Illustrator etc
Right… but let me make sure I understand… if you pick up the stylus on that Wacom pad and move it to another area, and set the stylus back down… the cursor continues from where it already is… it doesn’t jump to this new location on the tablet… correct? So it’s just mouse emulation but with a pen.
So you can use it to select or point to specific areas on the screen, just as you would on a mouse?
As an example on this screen we are looking at now, if I wanted to click on JMartin’s face (excuse me Jim ), then with a mouse I would simply roll my mouse over and click it, but with the stylus I can simply use the pen as my mouse instead?
Now what I actually want to do is to have a screen I can do this on, rather than as a mouse. But as my current laptop is less than 6 months old I dont want to have to buy another one - the missus would kill me!! lol
I don’t think this would work with anything that requires persistent mouse click but I don’t see why this wouldn’t work for something like the Draw Lines tool that only requires momentary clicks.
If you don’t already have a lot of experience using drawing tablets and can’t afford to be wrong about this I’d suggest you rethink this. It likely won’t get you the dramatic lift in productivity that you’re expecting. I’d suggest you get very familiar with LightBurn using the mouse or touchpad to understand the types of interactions that are common. That will give you a much better idea of how a drawing tablet would fit-in workflow wise.
Hi Thanks for the response - please see my original post.
I know how to draw using a pad, I’ve had a standard pad for years. I also use a laptop with finger pads…
I want to be able to select nodes using the pen rather than a mouse, which is easy to do on the pad, but I would like to have an interactive screen like a drawing pad, and so my question is, will LB work using this medium? If I was to purchase a touch screen computer, would LB work through this medium too? Or does it only respond to mouse type input commands?
I didn’t see anything in the original post that indicated a history with drawing tablets. If you have one now, I suggest you try using that with LightBurn before jumping into a screen based tablet.
If you’re not familiar, a screen based tablet is really just an integrated screen with similar drawing tablet hardware so functions effectively the same way.
My previous reply on that still holds. It will work. Nothing prevents it. Only question is how well does it work with a LightBurn workflow. Again, if you already have a tablet, I suggest you give it a good go before committing to sometihng that will cause marital strife.
Hahahaha. Will do.
Sorry, my fault for not explaining better. I have a Waco sketching pad, which is just a glorified mouse really.
It is the screen touching/working option that I really want.
Thank you!
Do you use pen mode or mouse mode with the Wacom? I’m not certain but I think with an screen based tablet you will always be in “pen” mode where you’re working with absolute screen coordinates at all time. Where you press on screen is where you’ll be acting on.
Hey guess what folks, after re-installing my old (at least 5 year old stashed in a cupboard) WACOM INTUOS Draw pen tablet.
Installed straight in on my windows 10 pc laptop, and I can now use either my mouse, or the pen tablet - but direct to the screen without having to drag it across the page.
Within LB, using the pen, I can select individual nodes and reposition or delete or whatever, I can select and even use all of the screen controls, exactlyas I wanted!!
Whoop Whoop.
To be fair it is going to take we a while to get proficient with it, but it works!!! Much less clunky than a mouse!! it really is!
This is the same as the one I have - it was more expensive when I bought it…lol
It works in Windows 7 onwards, or Mac os 10 onwards.
I’ve got an XP Pen Pro that I like for traditional graphics work, but I never use it in LB. Mouse generally works better for me in the LB environment, but everybody has different preferences.
), then with a mouse I would simply roll my mouse over and click it, but with the stylus I can simply use the pen as my mouse instead?