ShopBot SketchPad: a drawing interface

Overview...The SketchPad is a start at a more natural drawing interface for a ShopBot that lets you draw with a digitizing tablet and directly create a part file. The thought behind it's development is that it could be used for things like creating textures or just carving hand-drawn pictures or signatures, or maybe as a simple interface for kids.

Notes...Requires an open source control (vbtablet.dll) that interfaces with the digitizing tablet. The control, a .bat file that registers it, and the licensing information for the control is included in the download. More information on the control can be found on Sourceforge.

Contact info...Bill Young

Download size...96 k

Project Type...Program

Additional equipment/software required...Requires a digitizing tablet. It's been tested with a small WACOM tablet that has a pressure sensitive tip so that cutting depth can be changed by changing the pressure on the tip. These tablets are available at places like BestBuy for around $100...not sure about other tablets. I wouldn't suggest buying a tablet just to play with the SketchPad, but if you have one you might want to give it a try.

Special instructions...This project requires modifying your Windows registry. The process is automated and painless, but if you're nervous about it this might not be the project for you to play with. 

Known Issues...This in one project that works much better with a fast computer because it can sample the points quicker...the faster the better!

Confidence...

Completeness...

Download the Sketchpad



Confidence is a measure of how far along a project is in the opinion of the person that created it. If it only has 1 star then it's very rough, more likely to not work than to work correctly. 4 stars means that they think it's ready for prime time and just needs a little more feedback or testing. A 5 means that it's all done...you won't see any "5 star" projects in ShopBot Labs because at that point it's ready for release!

Completeness really goes hand in hand with Confidence and is the measure of how complete they feel the Project download is. It could include important things like if there are instructions or help files available, but also might reflect if there are sample files or even simple things like a lack of icons or graphics.