Wacom Wins

So I was recently complaining about my Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 made by Microsoft. I purchased it to help with the hand and arm fatigue I was experiencing whilst using AutoCAD for extended periods of time. I found it the motion to be sloppy and though the Ergo element was better than a standard mouse shape, it did not correct the issues enough to call fixed. So what did I do, I bought a Wacom intuos 3 pen tablet as a replacement. Wacom is HUGE in the graphic design world and it’s abilities within Photoshop is what makes it so freaking awesome. But I don’t use Photoshop all that often. Sometimes, but not often.

So how does it hold up in my neck of the woods? Better than I could have ever expected. Not only does it work seamlessly as a pointing device in Windows, but it works perfectly in AutoCAD. All inputs are customizable, this includes the everything on the pen, tablet, and mouse. The tracking blows away even my best mouse. The pen and mouse do not use batteries. And best of all, I can now use AutoCAD all day without any sort of fatigue. I can’t say I love going 8 hours straight on CAD, but when I need to get something done, I am now able to do so, without shaking my hand out every 10 minutes.

I am seriously considering buying one of these for my home computer, but there are two problems. One, gaming probably won’t work very well with it, and two, Mel might not thinks it’s as “all that” as I do. The second one will be fixed once the office is more setup and I have more than one machine up and running.

So there it is. Wacom is awesome. I have always known that, but known it from afar. Now I can speak of its sweetness. Maybe I’ll sell the house and get the Cintiq.