Can't Use Tablet & Pen in Blender

Support Basics & Interface
1

My issue: I’ve never been able to use a tablet in Blender (on a Mac) and I just can’t figure out why.

When using a mouse, I have my navigation set to be more like Cinema 4D - which is what I used to use. So, Option & Left Mouse Button-hold to Rotate around an object. Option & Middle Mouse Button-hold to Pan and the Mouse Wheel to Zoom (but also Option & Right Mouse Button-hold to Zoom in finer adjustments). Have been using these for years so they are burned into my muscle memory.

I’ve followed many Youtube tutorials on the settings to use for a tablet but they never (ever) work. It seems that my choice of navigation (above) just won’t allow me to get a Rotate and a Pan with a tablet and pen. I can get a Zoom/Dolly, I can get a Rotate but I can’t get a Pan. If I play around with the settings some more, I can get a Zoom/Dolly, I can get a Pan but I can’t get a Rotate. I feel like I’ve tried everything but just can’t get all three navigation tools to work together… or I just get other weird behaviour.

I have my pen configured in the Wacom settings so that the top button is Right click and the bottom button is Middle click. In theory, holding down the bottom button whilst holding the Option key should give me a Pan operation but, at the moment, it just Rotates and ‘sticks’ so I have to click multiple times to unstick it. Strangely, every now and then (at complete random) I can Pan by holding down the bottom button and the Option key but it doesn’t seem to like it and quickly reverts back to the sticky-Rotate behaviour.

At the moment, I can’t even get the Zoom/Dolly to work, which is a new problem!

Has anyone experienced this before? And have a solution? Basically, I’ve done what most tutorials say to go to your Preferences and enable the Emulate 3 Button mouse checkbox. But that only allows me to Option & Left Mouse Button to Rotate around… I can’t Pan or Zoom/Dolly. If I disable it, I can use Option and my Bottom Pen Button to Pan and Option and Top Pen Button to Zoom/Dolly… but nothing will allow me to Rotate.

I’ve tried making a new Key Config Present in the Keymap preferences but they all seem to be overridden by my custom keyboard shortcuts. I’d really love to play more with sculpting but I’m hamstrung in not being able to take advantage of my tablet and pen.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance. ALEX

2

Welcome to the group. I wish I could help but I have also had some nightmares with Wacom and blender. I eventually settled on just using while sculpting but even that was a pain. It seems for no reason the pressure flips and it pushes instead of pulls…

Close and re open it works normally again until it doesn’t…:frowning:

I have given up for now… think implementation is buggy.

3

Welcome :tada: …

Using a Wacom Bamboo CTH 661 with Debian Linux… didn’t even had to install drivers. Just decided on which monitor i want to use it and when to use touch and/or pen only.

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Hi. I use a Wacom PTH-651 tablet with a Mac mini M1. Blender 4.2.7. I didn’t change any of the default Input preferences in Blender. Navigation preferences set to: ‘ON’ for orbit around selection, auto perspective and depth.

My Wacom tablet settings are top button=middle click. Lower button=right click. Pen nib=click.
I can pan when I press the pen top button (i.e. middle click) while pressing the ‘shift’ key on my keyboard.
As a relatively new user, I keep forgetting the combination of tablet pen and keyboard press, but a quick test combination of pen button with either keyboard ‘shift’, ‘control’ or ‘command’ allows me to pan, zoom/ dolly etc.

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Thanks for your replies. I still don’t have a working solution, however. If anyone out there has some suggestions that would be great. Appreciated lots. Alex

6

My style of working in Blender using a tablet originates from the experience of working with a tablet in C4D, where buttons 1, 2 and 3 are used for this. the keyboard.
I.e. yes, by pressing 1 and moving the stylus over the tablet, I have the viewport rotating; 2 is panaromination; 3 is zoom.
All this is easily installed in the settings The blender.
I haven’t used a mouse for over 20 years.