Smooth Draw 3

Fletch

http://www.smoothdraw.com/index.htm

freeware.
paint with your tablet.

used by Khan for his (incredible and free) khanacademy.org teaching videos.

srx

Thanks for the link.

Dave R

Thanks Fletch. I'm interested to try this. I've been working with MyPaint which is very good and a few others that aren't free or are seriously limited. It'll be fun to try Smooth Draw as well.

Dave R

I downloaded and installed it tonight. Looks very intuitive to use. There are some interesting tools and brushes included. I am having an issue with the pen and my Cintiq in that if the pen gets too far away from the screen, the tool switches to the Eraser tool. I sent an e-mail to the contact address and we'll see if it gets sorted out.

mitcorb

I fooled around with it on my pc. Very nice, although it would be better to have a stylus. I also grabbed a Mr. Doob Harmony sketch and inserted it for further experimentation. That was fun.
Thanks for letting us know about this neat little program.

Dave R

I played with it for a couple of weeks. On my Cintiq, if I pulled the stylus back from the screen and then moved it close again, it would switch from whatever brush I was using to the eraser. I had a bit of e-mail conversation with a person from their support group about this. It is supposed to switch to the eraser if you turn the stylus around and then return to the brush when you put the point back to the screen. The person I was conversing with blamed the driver for the Cintiq but it is the most current and does not exhibit this behavior with any other application so I doubt it is driver related. The program would be quite nice but having the tool switch to Eraser every time you lift the pen makes it virtually unusable for me. I told the person I'd be happy to try another version of the program if they come up with a solution but in the meantime, I've removed the existing version from my computer.

mitcorb

I will have to verify(?) this eraser issue on my OLD Motion Computing LE1600 tablet. It utilizes Wacom and Toshiba components with an integrated mobile graphics card, which for some reason supports OpenGL fairly well, and evidently, ActiveX or DirectX or DirectDraw or whatever.

Dave R

I was amused by one of the brush names. "Something like watercolor"

I assume the stylus works correctly on some tablets or there would be a lot of complaints. I'd be interested to here from other users of the Cintiq 21UX, though. As long as the tip of the stylus stayed within about an inch of the tablet surface it was fine but that's not easy to do. Since the cursor doesn't change based on whether you have the eraser or a brush, it's easy to miss that it changed to the eraser until you erase something.

I wonder if you could get a foot switch mapped to Undo.

mitcorb

Yeah, and as soon as you got tired of the footswitch, you'd want it direct wired to your brain

Dave R

They can do that?

mitcorb

Well, maybe in the movies.

By the way, my tablet stylus does not perform as hoped. Both ends use whatever the current "brush" selection is. The expected eraser function is not present.

Dave R

Does it stick with the current brush when you pull the stylus away from the tablet and then move it back in?

mitcorb

Yes, Dave:
The current brush remains active in my case, even when I move the stylus away from the screen. I checked with the pen brush and the soft eraser brush and the airbrush. I pulled the stylus away much more than 1 inch. Kind of wish the Wacom stylus eraser function would work. However, it would have to select soft or hard eraser.

I do not know whether this has anything to do with anything, but in other applications, I do have stylus pressure effects.
I did notice that there is an update to v3.2.7? Have you checked this? Some mention of drivers.

Dave R

3.2.7 was the version I tried. I was told they would be looking into the issue but I haven't heard anything since.

mitcorb

Off Topic: Regarding external wiring to nervous system: I believe there is research going on with auditory nerve and optic nerve external wiring, and isn't there something involving prosthetic limbs?

Dave R

Yeah. there's myo-electrics and some implanted electrodes for telling prosthetic limbs what to do. Maybe someday you'll be able to buy a desk chair with electrodes in it. You'll work your computer with your butt.