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One of the most important tools any CAD operator, technical
illustrator, or graphic artist can have is a good digitizing tablet.
Digitizing tablets are a great improvement over mice. They allow you to
trace drawings onto the screen with a much greater degree of accuracy
than freehand methods, and their high resolution and absolute scale of
measurement affords the user a finer degree of control when adding small
details to a drawing. The big disadvantage of some tablets is that they
can't work as mice, and in order to use them both, the user must swap
them in and out of the system as needed, which can be a real hassle to
the user. ARISTO Graphics Systems (a company with headquarters in
Hamburg, Germany) has come up with a solution to this problem. Their new
digitizing tablet, the College Board/digital, allows the digitizing
sensor to function as both a mouse and a digitizer. This allows the user
to enjoy the advantages of both components without the problems
mentioned above.
The way ARISTO implements their solution to the mouse vs.
digitizer problem is very simple. Under normal circumstances, the
digitizing sensor acts as a regular mouse, and can be used on a regular
mouse pad. When placed upon their special digitizing tablet, however,
the sensor automatically switches to digitizing mode, and works as an
ordinary digitizer until the sensor is removed from the tablet, at which
time it reverts back to being an ordinary mouse again. The nice thing
about this is that the sensor and its tablet are not connected to each
other in any way; the tablet is connected to an AC power line, and the
sensor detects the powered tablet when it's placed upon it. When the
tablet is not being used, it can be stored out of sight. This provides a
great deal of flexibility for the user, as the sensor doesn't require
the tablet for operation as a mouse.
The sensor can work with any standard mouse driver, although a
special mouse driver provided by ARISTO must be used if you wish to use
the sensor in digitizing mode. While the sensor doesn't feel as
ergonomic in your hand as one of the new fancy-shaped designer mice, you
soon get used to it, and it works fairly well as a mouse. One of the
things I like best about it is that it has five buttons, three of which
can be programmed to perform various functions. One of them is
pre-programmed to act as a double-clicked left mouse button, which I
found extremely useful when starting programs and performing other
double-clicking activities. When placed upon the digitizing tablet, it
reverts to digitizing mode, and works very well here also. The tablet
itself is A3 sized, and provides a large area in which to work. A
tee-square and set square are provided with the product, and can be
attached to the tablet for use in precision drawings. I found that the
product appears to be built very well, and should stand up to fairly
heavy use.
The College Board/digital can be used with any 80286-based or
higher computer with at least one Meg of RAM. You must be running at
least DOS 3.3, and it's compatible with both Windows 3.1 and Windows for
Workgroups. Drivers are included for both DOS (with AutoCAD support
built in) and Windows. A collection of sensor utilities for Windows is
also included in the package, including a simple digitizing program
called ARISTO Collegeware (which is a very basic program, and will be
quickly outgrown by any serious user). At least one Meg of space must be
free on the hard drive for full installation of all the drivers and
utilities. A short 25 page pamphlet is included as documentation for the
product, and while it's rather terse and to the point, it provides
enough information to get you up and running (no documentation is
included for the ARISTO Collegeware program, however).
In use, I found that the College Board/digital works fairly
well. Occasionally, the mouse cursor becomes erratic when switching to
digitizer mode, but it settles down fairly quickly (sometimes removing
the sensor from the tablet helps to calm it down). A more serious
problem occurs when you start Windows. I found that the sensor ceases to
function as a mouse in DOS applications until you exit Windows and
perform a cold boot on the system. After doing this, the sensor
functions normally in DOS until you start Windows again. While I don't
find this characteristic to be a major problem for me, it could be a
major irritation for anyone working in a mixed DOS/Windows environment.
Overall, though, I find the ARISTO College Board/digital to be a product
well worth considering, especially if you need both digitizing and
mousing capabilities built into the same product.
Webmaster
