WACOM Switcher 1.43 feb/03/2007

Peter Wassink · Post by **Peter Wassink** » 24 Jan 2007, 19:22

i managed to stop the persistant sampling behaviour by right clicking (rather randomly unfortunately) in the PP panel.

no idea what happened there

fabrice_ · Post by **fabrice_** » 25 Jan 2007, 09:26

Leave "Fabrice mode" off

hi mark, maybe should you rename it "swap monitors" or something like that ... else, people will not understand what happen when using it.

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:26

fabrice >> yeah next version I'll put it to "swap monitors" -- the joke had its heyday...

Tantalus >> if you right-click on either the ring or on the spaces adjacent to the saturation/value square it will toggle autosampling for hue/saturation/value. You can tell when autosampling is on based on the "hatching" effect that shows up on the palette.

Peter Wassink · Post by **Peter Wassink** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:29

lemec wrote:Tantalus >> if you right-click on either the ring or on the spaces adjacent to the saturation/value square it will toggle autosampling for hue/saturation/value.

so thats what i did!

...although...shouldn't it also automaticly stop doing it when you close the PP panel?

Peter Wassink · Post by **Peter Wassink** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:32

i realised the answer to my last question should be no.

closing any tvpaint panel doesn't influence the current active tool...
hmm...

maybe a little autosampling on/off button then, for the ignorant users like me?

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:36

maybe a better manual....

Oh yes, I also forgot to mention -- turn off "Dirt" mode as well -- because it also performs some autosampling.

Peter Wassink · Post by **Peter Wassink** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:39

the manual...
... you got me there...

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » 28 Jan 2007, 02:41

Wacom Switcher is great! Now I can start using the full drawing area of my tablet.

I adjusted the ramming speed and switch zone width, and I can now switch between the monitors effortlessly.

gurkoz · Post by **gurkoz** » 28 Jan 2007, 19:39

First i must say, GREAT program!

I've just made the step to buy a intous3 a4 and i don't regret it. Only thing i was a bit curious about before getting it was the dual monitor setup. I read the postings in the Wacom forum about dual setup and i was quite frankly sick of the responses there.

But, now i've found this wonderful piece of software

I'd just like to ask/request if there is a way to use "hotkeys" to change the active monitor? i'd really like to map the expresskeys to change to a predefined monitor. Or maybe just a hotkey on the keyboard?. A "swap monitor" key or even better just ctrl+1 for monitor 1 and ctrl+2 for monitor 2. Is this possible in any way?

Also, when moving the mouse out of monitor 1 to monitor 2, the mouse ends up in the wrong place i feel. (using fabrice mode). It ends up in the left side of monitor 2, when i really would like it to be in the right side because thats where the mousepointer logically would emerge moving from one monitor to the next. So instead of just changing active monitor, you could add something that will place the mousepointer in the opposite side of the screen. (hope you understand what im getting at).

All in all, great work! keep it up!
Are you planning to continue development on this?

I found another program that work in same way as yours, even though i think yours is better. Have a look, maybe you'll learn something new.
http://wacomswitch.illusoft.com/

malcooning · Post by **malcooning** » 29 Jan 2007, 00:02

gurkoz wrote: I'd just like to ask/request if there is a way to use "hotkeys" to change the active monitor? i'd really like to map the expresskeys to change to a predefined monitor. Or maybe just a hotkey on the keyboard?. A "swap monitor" key or even better just ctrl+1 for monitor 1 and ctrl+2 for monitor 2. Is this possible in any way?

Also, when moving the mouse out of monitor 1 to monitor 2, the mouse ends up in the wrong place i feel. (using fabrice mode). It ends up in the left side of monitor 2, when i really would like it to be in the right side because thats where the mousepointer logically would emerge moving from one monitor to the next. So instead of just changing active monitor, you could add something that will place the mousepointer in the opposite side of the screen. (hope you understand what im getting at).

I would like to add my support for both suggestions. we can then assign the monitor swapping to button 3 on the pen (one side of the side switch), instead of ramming it against the edge of the screen (although, we'd probably have to this via the Wacom panel, as the switcher works system-wide, and not specifically TVPaint).

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 29 Jan 2007, 05:17

Hey guys...

it seems that Wacom has finally caved in and released a new XP driver to allow you to use a stylus button to toggle the monitor mapping. Mac OS people are apparently still up a creek, unfortunately. My tool still works for those of you who would rather not sacrifice an extra button to swap monitors...

gurkoz >> It matters not whether or not your monitors are flipped when swapping monitors because the tablet itself uses absolute-coordinate mapping. If your stylus sits in the centre of the screen, then the cursor goes to the center. If you stylus is on the right side, the cursor goes to the right as well. This is just the nature of absolute-coordinate mapping and if I were to go against that, chaos would ensue...

I'm planning to continue development for people who are using graphire tablets. The control layout is very different than what is found on the intuous and cintiq tablets so they need a bit of extra help...

gurkoz · Post by **gurkoz** » 29 Jan 2007, 07:50

lemec wrote:it seems that Wacom has finally caved in and released a new XP driver to allow you to use a stylus button to toggle the monitor mapping.

Are you refering to this?

wacom wrote:- Cintiq display toggle via pen buttons or ExpressKeys (toggles mapping between display tablet and Desktop or individual monitors)

I bet this works fine for Cintiq users but i only use a Intuos3 with dual monitor setup, and i have no way of swaping monitors as described. Would it be possible for you to add a shortcut key that result in the same as ramming the mouse into the edge of the screen? When using a A4 tablet i experience a great deal of arm movements swapping screens, and just be able to push a button would be great.

lemec wrote:It matters not whether or not your monitors are flipped when swapping monitors because the tablet itself uses absolute-coordinate mapping. If your stylus sits in the centre of the screen, then the cursor goes to the center. If you stylus is on the right side, the cursor goes to the right as well. This is just the nature of absolute-coordinate mapping and if I were to go against that, chaos would ensue...

Well absolute-coordinate mapping really is the problem here. It results in even more arm movements for me, back and forth back and forth. Some kind of mouse position alteration would be nice but i can tell you would not get into that.

Again, great application!

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 31 Jan 2007, 20:30

gurkoz >> Unfortunate that the toggling only works for Cintiqs. Man, WACOM REALLY wants to sell one tablet-per-monitor. This bare-minimum approach to solving problems just smacks of it. I'm so disappointed in WACOM, a company that makes a product that is indispensable to digital artists that is stooping to such lows. It's not as if we don't already buy their tablets..

Of course, I have no intention of following WACOM's pattern of lousy programming and laziness. I have stayed up all night to bring you a nice, pretty hotkey-editing window. You can now assign a hotkey to toggle monitors, a hotkey to switch to the right monitor, another one to switch to the left monitor. Umm... There's a bit of a bug where the hotkey seemingly won't work unless the stylus is in range of the monitor. I have to add functionality to automatically teleport the cursor to the other monitor but I'm exhausted at the moment...

I've also fixed up the layout of the menus a bit and renamed the Fabrice Mode to Swap Monitors. Also, I went and spent some time putting in what I hope is better Graphire support, but I need testers for this feature.

ZigOtto · Post by **ZigOtto** » 31 Jan 2007, 22:20

lemec wrote:gurkoz >> ... I have stayed up all night to bring you a nice, pretty hotkey-editing window. You can now assign a hotkey to toggle monitors, a hotkey to switch to the right monitor, another one to switch to the left monitor. Umm... There's a bit of a bug where the hotkey seemingly won't work unless the stylus is in range of the monitor. I have to add functionality to automatically teleport the cursor to the other monitor but I'm exhausted at the moment...

take a rest, man, tomorrow is an other month!...

gurkoz · Post by **gurkoz** » 02 Feb 2007, 14:24

lemec >>

Oh man im just speachless!.... speachless i say. hehe
Im wizzing about my dualscreens all the time.. even more than i need i think, i just love this toggle hotkey feature!

You mentioned that the hotkeys don't work unless the stylus is in contact with the screen/tablet. I can agree to that statement but all in all that's no issue to me, the bare use of the hotkeys blows me away hehe.

One small thing that im experiencing is that the active program/window looses focus when swapping screens. Like when im in Photoshop. I have the working area in one screen and then all the tools and plaettes in the other screen. When i switch from one screen to the other, Photoshop looses focus and is not the "active" program anymore. So when i then click on a tool/palette i need to clock twice... one time for making Photoshop active, and one more to select my tool. I guess this happens when you send some commands to the tablet properties window, but is there a way to automatically toggle back to the previous active window/program?.

No big bug or anything, just giving my feedback on this fine piece of software. Maybe you already have noticed this or something is wrong with my setup. Anyway, kickass work on your part, keep it up!