Tablet PC (Wacom Penabled) Pen Right Click Trouble

I just purchased a Gateway tablet computer and am having some trouble with using Animation Master. The problem is that the pen buttons do not behave the same as my desktop wacom pad.

Specifically in modeling in Animation Master: the right click function on the pen does not ‘weld' or 'attach’ one point to another. This is the function where you are moving one point over another with the left mouse button (tip of Wacom pen) down and you press the right button (pen button) and ‘weld’ or attach the two points. Works all day with a mouse, but not with the Gateway Pen and Screen.

Any ideas – thoughts – (and especially solutions) are welcome!

FWIW – Im still using AM98 on my old Mitsubishi Tablet and it has the same problem, but you can use the ‘Enter’ key on the tablet face to cause two points to ‘weld’. The Gateway also has an ‘Enter’ key on its face, but (alas) it does not do the same trick, even in AM98. Now, all I have tested is AM 98 and 2000 – not the newest version – because I do not want to switch my subscription till I have a solid platform.

Arggggggg ==> "Im in trouble and I need your help!"
~Andrew (long time AM user)

Right click to attach? Right clicking in the modeling window brings up a menu of options, and I think it's worked this way for several versions. You use the tilde key to attach, or just click on top of an existing spline or cp if you're in "Add" mode.

You can also customize your keyboard shortcuts under Tools>Customize.

Gerry-
Yes, those of us on PCs modeling can drag a CP over another, and simultaneously Right-Click to weld the points.

Andrew-
There should be a program/applet on the computer (perhaps in the control panel, or in the start menu) to adjust the right-click and tablet button functionality in general.

That being said, you need to upgrade to the latest version, as it is impossible to help you effectively beyond this if your software is so old. Certainly if you intend to use your software on a brand new computer - much has changed in the last 8 years.

Using the tilde keyboard shortcut (or whatever the shortcut was on AM98) sounds like the most likely solution if your penabled pen behaves non-standardly.

You can reprogram the upper pen button to do that keystroke in your pen control settings, but then you wouldn't have a right-click available.

I'm presuming you have checked the control panel to make sure the upper button is indeed set to "right-click".

I have read that the pen driver supplied with tablet PCs is not as fully functional as the the one that comes with a wacom tablet. Wacom does provide an alternate driver for "penabled" PCs that turns on such things as pressure sensitivity. You might check that out.

I think he is refering to "Right + Left"-click to create a Hook...
That would be a little bit annoying with a pen, but should be possible although. Press the pen on the board and click with the button on the pen to do that...
Since A:M (as most programms) doesnt know that you are using a pen and think it is a mouse, this should work.

You need a special support to get more functionality (like pressure, etc.) out of the pen, but it doesnt make sense for A:M dont know of a function which should be pressuresensitive there...

*Fuchur*

Thanks All!

Several things worked, but the award for best solution goes to Robert Holmén for suggesting re-mapping the side button to the ‘`’ key. I had forgotten that trick. Thank you Robert! Im happy now.

Adding the ‘Enter’ key short cut worked, but using the button available on the face of the Gateway was cumbersome. (Too likely to hit other buttons and Zoom WAAAAA Out.)

I would be interested in knowing if other folks have had better experience with Wacom based tablet computers – and also if anyone has used the Cintiq 12WX? Its got me drooling.

Thanks Again!
Andrew

I use A:M on a PC for my day job, and on my Mac at home. I actually do about 90% of my 3D work on the PC.

I'm sitting here at a Dell Inspiron and trying and trying to get a right click to attach either a cp to another cp, or to a spline to create a hook. It doesn't work, I tells ya!

Seems I can do it by using the pen and mouse together, but that's not very intuitive. (i.e., drag with the pen, right click with the mouse, or vice versa) However I cannot get a right-click to attach a cp nohow by using the mouse or pen alone.

Gerry:

Your pressing the ` for each and every attachment when you are modeling? That sounds crazy to me. Seriously – with both mouse and tablet – (just not tablet computer) the default function for every version of AM I have used is that the right button will attach a point, provided that the left button is still down and that one point is selected and another valid point is close enough. Maybe Im just lucky. (That was a joke)

Anyway – Here (link below) is a refinement for my situating – in case there is anyone else out the who wants to use AM with a tablet PC based on Wacom digitizer. It’s a pen with two buttons, so you can have your ‘attach’ as well as the left mouse function in the rest of windows.

http://direct.wacom.com/stores/5/Penabled_...Du_P1052C72.cfm

Probably requires the Wacom tablet driver:

http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/select.cfm <==== click on 'Tablet PC' & pick your OS

Cheers:
~Andrew

Click and drag with the left button, then simultaneously press the right button when you are over the point you want to "weld to"

Nope, I just hit A and left-click, left-click etc. Everything attaches. For hooks I guess I hold down the tilde key. I usually don't even think about it. Until now!

It was precisely for this that I abandoned my Apple mouse and started using 3rd party ones. You can right-click with the Mighty Mouse, but you can't left-click and right-click at the same time.

Very strange to me that people really use the tiled-key for hooks...
I always use the mouse alone for that...

The way it has to be done:
1.) Hit A and create a spline by clicking LMB (left mouse button).
2.) RMB (right mouse button) to end creating that link.
3.) Do this again with another spline. It shouldnt be connected with the first one for now.
4.) LMB and keep pressing it to select and drag a point around.
5.) Drag the mouse (keeping pressing LMB) to the first spline where you want to create the hook and if you are near the spline, press the right-mousebutton.
Important: KEEP pressing the LMB while pressing RMB. So the hook is created by pressing both mousebuttons!

The "magic": You have to interrupt drawing the spline and after that you have to select and drag it around to create a hook.
Otherwise it wont work.

*Fuchur*

PS: I have a Wacom (a middle-big bamboo) but I dont use it for A:M... I am much faster with my mouse there.

Over the weekend it hit me that I do all my modeling, in fact all my AM work, with the tablet so the right-vs-left click thing is moot. When I was trying to recall my actual work process last week I blanked out on that.

I recently went from working deep in AM for my holiday animation to deep into a Flash actionscripting project. That shift tends to dislocate certain brain cells.