Although most people use a mouse, Accucadd is also designed to work with digitizing tablets. One use for such tablets is in "tracing" artwork into your Accucadd drawing. Such tracing can be done in a way that preserves the size - see the Accucadd Reference Manual, section 6: Setup - Set Digitizer (page 6-23), for more information.

Set up the tablet under Windows

The digitizer is handled by Windows, and not by Accucadd (which was not the case with our previous RoboCAD programs), and so the first thing you must do is get the digitizer working under Windows.  This may involve a number of steps.

1. Check for, and remove if necessary, any conflicting drivers (e.g. a "tablet mouse driver" that makes your digitizer "look like" a mouse). Check with the digitizer manufacturer if you are unsure about compatibility issues and how to resolve them.
2. Install the digitizer Windows driver(s). Note that RoboCAD digitizer drivers will not work with Windows - you must use a Windows driver. Be sure sure to use the correct one(s) for your Operating System – Windows 98 drivers won’t work with Windows NT or windows 2000. Windows ME divers don't work with Windows XP, and so on. Check that you are using the latest version. Drivers and operating systems can both have problems, and these are often addressed in updated version of the driver. You will usually find these available on the digitizer manufacturer's web site.
3. Many digitizer drivers will allow you to switch modes - that is, switch between using the digitizer as a mouse (relative) or "original digitizer" (absolute or position) mode. To use the digitizer to trace a drawing you will need to set "digitizer" or "absolute" mode, and not mouse mode. When you are done digitizing you may wish to change modes and use the digitizer as a mouse to control Accucadd - this is personal preference. Your digitizer driver will typically allow this, as shown in the CalComp DrawingBoard III TabletWorks driver, below.
4. The next step is mapping the screen to the tablet surface. This determines how far, and in what direction, the screen cursor moves when you move the digitizer puck or pen. Note that "out of the box" the tablet driver may not be set for equal motion in the X and Y axes (because of the way mice have historically operated). You will want to set it up so that it is equal in both axes, and also ensure that you can cover the whole screen. If you change your screen resolution (e.g. from 800 x 600 to 1024 x 768) you will also have to change this mapping. The example, taken from the DrawingBoard III TabletWorks driver, shows 12000 digitizer units in the X direction mapped to 800 pixels, and 9000 units mapped to 600 pixels in the Y direction. Notice that 12000/800 = 9000/600 for equal X and Y scaling. You may also spot that the Y axis is inverted (9000 to 0 instead of the other way around) to conform to the usual convention that moving "up" the screen is a positive move (increase in coordinates).