Wacom. What's the idea of an opaque tracing sheet?

[dogbone]

My old A3 Intuos two had a translucent plastic covering over the drawing surface. Its purpose was to be able to place a drawing under it and trace.

Then I got an A4 Intuos three. Suddenly my whole life was thrown into chaos. 18 months later and I'm still wondering what it the purpose in making the tracing sheet...er...opaque?

Tantalisingly Wacom have made a couple of positioning marks on he opaque sheet but they are not easy to see because they are transparent and the tablet is the same colour as the tracing sheet.

EDIT: removed mysterious clipboard instertion

 

[DrNeroCF]

Um, I don't have that one... but the graphire came with a white slip under the transparent casing... take that out...?

 

[vniow]

Lib Dem, Gay and Hypocrite!

 

[cr2sh]

The subject of discussion. Haven't used it myself.

I'm sure not everyone will appreciate your democratic gay reference.

 

[dogbone]

Don't worry, I'm more confused. Could you please point me to the post so I can try to work out how that happened?

EDIT:

Oh I see it is in the top post. How embarrassing. Don't know how that got there. It was in my clipboard. Weird. Sorry about that. I'll remove it.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Oddly, I've never used that to trace. I have however put a piece of white printer paper on the top to gain further control of very detailed items. Now that I have had a wacom for 3+ years, I haven't needed the paper. At first it was hard to control a hard plastic tip on a hard plastic board yanno.

 

[dogbone]

I have written to Wacom a couple of times but I've not received any response.

Surely there must be some rhyme or reason to this. I mean if your new model car came with an opaque windscreen you'd want to know why wouldn't you?

 

[dogbone]

Oddly, I've never used that to trace. I have however put a piece of white printer paper on the top to gain further control of very detailed items. Now that I have had a wacom for 3+ years, I haven't needed the paper. At first it was hard to control a hard plastic tip on a hard plastic board yanno.

You can get new black 'felt' tips, that aren't really felt but they have a slightly 'bitey' quality although they wear out quickly. I assume that they fit the old stylii

This only was introduced with the Intuos 3 The Intuos 2 used to have a clear sheet with white markings.

I don't really use the sheet it just really bugs me that I don't know what the purpose of the invisible marks are and why the sheet is now opaque.

The original wacom literature made it very clear that the purpose of the covering sheet was indeed to trace.

 

[Mac Kiwi]

Hmm..I have had 3 Intuos tablets over the years.First an Intuos,then a 2 and now a 3.I am guessing though someone screwed up because the overlay is definitely not easy to see through.Maybe the replacment ones are transparent like the previous ones.


Word of warning to people those overlays and the tips are quite expensive for what they are.I got a new pack of five about a year or so ago,they were about $8 each {NZ} and an overlay was about $40 NZ,I just about fell over.


My tip for the tips themselves is keep removing them and roll in your fingers and replace again,it makes them last longer.The plastic does get harder as they wear down though to encourage you to replace them.


I love my Intuos 3 I use it just as much for 3D modelling in c4d or Z brush.Personally I think organic modelling with a tablet has it hands down on poly by poly with a mouse etc,and the new 3 version has buttons so you can setup a myriad of commands for your apps and not just PS.