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Configuring tablet menus and screen pointing areas in AutoCAD
A screen pointing area is a rectangular region on the tablet surface where the tablet acts like a system
mouse. When the pointer is within a screen pointing area, the tablet can access windows, menus, and other
applications outside AutoCAD’s drawing area. You can configure both a fixed and floating screen pointing
area.
Before you configure the tablet, its entire surface is the fixed screen pointing area. AutoCAD recommends
that you change the size of the fixed screen pointing area so that a small screen area on your tablet maps to
the entire monitor screen. AutoCAD also recommends that you select the default tablet menus, columns,
and rows they provide.
After you configure the tablet menus, AutoCAD prompts you for the fixed and floating screen pointing areas.
This allows you to designate a tablet area as a Windows system pointer.
The fixed screen pointing area is disabled when you digitize points into AutoCAD with T
ABLET
M
ODE
O
N
.
This is due to the fixed correspondence between the tablet and AutoCAD’s drawing area. To access menus
from the tablet, you must use the floating screen pointing area. This allows you to access a menu from
anywhere on the tablet surface, and to toggle it off when finished. You can define a tool button to toggle the
floating screen area on and off.
Important.
The floating screen pointing area takes precedence over menu areas, Tablet Mode On,
and the fixed screen pointing area.
1. From the D
RAWING
E
DITOR
, open the T
OOLS
menu (O
PTIONS
menu for Release 13).
2. Select T
ABLET
, and then C
ONFIGURE
.
3. Define tablet menu areas. Follow the prompts at the bottom of the AutoCAD Drawing Editor. Type the
number of tablet menu areas you want (0-4) and press E
NTER
. If you do not want to use a menu
template, type 0 (zero). Digitize the upper-left, lower-left, and lower-right corners of the menu area and
then press E
NTER
. Next, enter the number of columns and press E
NTER
. Now enter the number of rows
and press E
NTER
. Repeat for each menu area.
4. Define the fixed screen pointing area. By default, the entire tablet is a fixed screen pointing area. If you
are using a menu template, you should re-specify the fixed screen pointing area to match the template.
Continue to follow the prompts at the bottom of the A
UTO
CAD D
RAWING
E
DITOR
screen.
5. Define the floating screen pointing area – it allows you to access all areas of the screen. The floating
screen pointing area takes precedence over T
ABLET
M
ODE
O
N
, the fixed screen pointing area, and the
menu areas. Continue to follow the prompts at the bottom of the A
UTO
CAD D
RAWING
E
DITOR
screen.
Please check your AutoCAD documentation for additional information.
