PainterFactory.com

Probably nobody has an interest in this since it is a Painter 7 problem and we've moved on to Painter IX.5 or Painter X,  but it continues to puzzle me and I would like to find an answer, if possible. Painter 7 will not apply freehand paint when using a Wacom tablet. Everything works fine with a mouse. The straight line feature (the "V" key) works fine with my Wacom pen, but no stokes are made when freehand painting with the pen. (See image below).

I'm using a Mac Pro computer and have used both a Wacom Intous 6X8 and a Wacom Intous 6X11 and neither will apply freehand paint in Painter 7. The tablet is plugged into the Mac Pro and not a USB hub.

Any suggestions? Anybody?

Hi Frederick,

Since this forum is for PainterFactory Help (help using The PainterFactory), and your question is about Painter 7, I'm going to move this thread to the appropriate forum, Painter Past.

I hope someone reading your post can give you some help. I use Painter 7 (and five other full Painter versions) in WinXP Home SP2 with a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet plugged directly into a USB port on the back of my computer.

What you're experiencing hasn't occurred on my system, but if you can tell us exactly which brush category and brush variant you're using, we might be able to help you figure out what's going on.

Cheers! 

Sorry, Jinny. I didn't know where to post this. Thanks for moving it to the proper place.

None of the brushes will apply paint. I've tried all of the brushes that came with Painter 7 and none of them work in the freehand mode when using the tablet and pen. It's just strange how the tablet and pen works fine in the straight line mode. I wish it was the other way around. I could just use my mouse for the few straight lines I use. As it is, the program has been rendered useless for painting.

Hi again,

Don't worry about posting in the other forum. It takes a while to figure out the best ones to post in, depending on the subject. It's easy enough for me to move threads, and it didn't take but a minute. 

Not being a Mac user, I can't help with that end of the problem, but the first thing I'd do is to call Wacom to see if they can help. That I did, and coincidentally the tech support person, when I described the problem, told me he remembered talking to you. He said he'd suggested using Edit > Preferences > Brush Tracking but he guessed you might have thought he meant something in the Wacom Tablet Preferences.

What he was referring to is within Painter 7 (and other Painter versions) and if it's like Painter IX and Painter X, the menu is Painter 7 on Mac rather than Edit in Windows:

Mac - Painter 7 > Preferences > Brush Tracking

Windows - Edit > Preferences > Brush Tracking

In Brush Tracking dialog box, paint a brush stroke on the Brush Tracking scratch pad using your normal hand pressure and speed, then click the OK button. This will reset your Brush Tracking settings to match your own normal hand pressure and speed and it may be the solution to your problem.

Like the rest of us, you may need to reset your Brush Tracking every now and then, sometimes for a specific brush variant to work the way you want it to, sometimes just because we don't paint the same way every day due to how tired we might be, for instance.

Let me know if this helps.
 

I tried that but no stokes show in the brush tracking pad. I tried all kinds of pressure from very light to very hard and nothing shows on the pad. I was pretty sure that wouldn't work because I adjust my brush tracking fairly frequently and I remember that didn't help before.

This is driving me crazy. I do wish there was a solution to this problem. I can get by with either Painter 8 or Painter IX.5, but I prefer to use Painter 7. For some reason I always had better control of what I was doing in Painter 7.

Thanks for all you've done to help me resolve this maddening problem, Jimmy. I do appreciate it.

Sounds like it's time to contact Wacom Tech Support again and ask them if you might possibly need to update to the latest Wacom tablet driver, or another driver. Then ask them for the step by step instructions for removing the current driver and installing the new driver (or other driver).

Before you call Wacom, though, try this simple fix that works for me when for no apparent reason, I can't get my stylus to paint brush strokes:

(These instructions apply only to Painter 7 and earlier versions.)

Mac - Hold down the Option key, go to the Brushes palette's Variant menu, and choose Restore Default Variant, then click the OK button.

Windows - Hold down the Alt key, go to the Brushes palette's Variant menu, and choose Restore Default Variant, then click the OK button.

Good luck! 

I have the latest driver for my operating system (OS X Tiger 10.4.11) unless Wacom has one that isn't posted at their website. There is one other for Intel Macs but it is for OS X Leopard (10.5) and I haven't upgraded to that version of the system.

I did the other thing you suggested; Restoring Default Brush Variant and nothing changed. Still no brush strokes. I also trashed the Painter 7 p-list, which can sometimes correct problems, and that was no help either.

I also downloaded a new version of the latest driver, uninstalled the version that was currently installed, unplugged the tablet, as instructed, and plugged it back in after the new driver was installed. Still no change.

Since it is the weekend, I can't call Wacom Tech Support. Monday morning I leave for my semi-annual, two week visit with my daughter's family in Florida. I'll call Wacom when I return and can be at my desktop computer.

This is the craziest thing. I could understand it more if the pen made no marks, but it works with the "V" key down for straight lines. Both the pen and the eraser on the other end work in the straight line mode. How frustrating!

Thanks again, Jinny. 

Hi, Jenny.

To keep you up to date with what has happened since I posted yesterday (Saturday):

Sunday: 

While packing for my trip tomorrow, I decided to try the Intous 3 tablet with my MacBook Pro to determine if the problem is indeed the Intel processor, as I suspected. Both the MacBook Pro and my Mac Pro have Intel dual core Xeon 2.66 GHz processors. I plugged the Wacom Intous 3 into the MacBook Pro and launched Painter 7. Eureka! The tablet and pen worked!!! I was so happy with this, and it told me that it was not the processor.

However, there was a problem. The tablet wasn't tracking the monitor properly, so I took a look at the tablet driver that was already installed on the MacBook Pro. It was version 6.0.0 (as best as I can remember.) And it was installed back when I was using an Intous 2 tablet.

In an effort to get the tablet and the monitor aligned, I installed the proper driver for the Intous 3 from the CD that came with the tablet. After that installation and a re-boot of the computer, I launched Painter 7 once again only to find my delight short lived. The Wacom pen made no paint stokes - the same problem I have with the Mac Pro! How disappointing!

Well, at least I know the problem is the driver and not the processor of the computer. Of course, when I installed the proper driver for the Intous 3, it eliminated the 6.0.0 driver that was working, at least to a degree. It did apply paint.

When I return home in a couple of weeks, I will call Wacom and see if there is a driver that I can use with the Intous 3 tablet and Painter 7. At least, now I know the problem is with the tablet driver.
 

 Well, I'm back from Florida and ready to tackle he Painter 7 problem once again.

While I was in Florida I sent an email to Wacom's technical support about this problem. Their answer was:

"Corel Painter 7 is not an Intel compatible application on its own.  If
it installs at all, it would have to be run in Rosetta since Painter 7
would not be a Universal Binary application (app that runs on PPC and
Intel Mac).  We would not be able to control how our tablet works in an
app running in an emulation mode.  I hope this helps out some.  Thanks
and take care,"

Well, DUH! I know that Painter 7 is not a Universal Binary application. We Mac folks have had that to contend with for a while now and I understand that. (Also, there is no check box for running Painter 7 in Rosetta.) However, that is not the problem. Painter 7 worked on my MacBook Pro before I installed the new driver that came with my newer Intous 6X11 tablet. That installation eliminated driver version 6.0.0 (the one that worked.)

Now, I can't find that exact driver at the Wacom website. I wrote back and asked for a link to driver 6.0.0, but I haven't heard anything so far. Perhaps I will get a reply after the holiday weekend. I suppose I'm just being stubborn, but I do believe there is an answer out there somewhere and I'm determined to find it if at all possible. 

Frederick,

I'm relatively new to Painter and the Wacom tablet and don't know anything about Mac systems so I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not. 

I went to the Wacom sight and looked at the Intuos 2 drivers and found drivers for Mac OS X,  v 6.0.4-2  &   v 6.0.5-3.  Here is  the link:  http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/drivers.cfm?os=OSX&product=XD&CFID=4577794&CFTOKEN=32651181

 Thanks for the response and willingness to help, Richard. I have those drivers (6.0.4-2  & v 6.0.5-3) and they don't work.

 I've never been able to use Painter 7 on my Mac Pro, but Painter 7 worked on my MacBook Pro. Both computers have the same Intel processor. The difference was that the laptop MacBook Pro had Wacom tablet driver 6.0.0 (I believe that is correct) but stupid me, I installed a later driver and that eliminated the 6.0.0 driver and now Painter 7 doesn't work on the laptop computer either.

 There is no driver 6.0.0 that I can find on the Wacom website. I've asked for a link to that driver so I can try it, but my request has been ignored. I've installed every driver I can find and none of them work with my system (Mac OS X 10.4.11) or the Dual-Core Intel 2.66 GHz Processor in both of my Macintosh computers.

  Wacom's answer is that Painter 7 is not a universal binary application and will not work with Mac OS X.  I know this is untrue because I used Painter 7 every day on a Mac G4 running Mac OS X. It has to be a problem with the Intel processor and only one driver will work with that processor. I've used it and I know that it will work if the correct driver is installed, but I don't have the correct driver and I can't find it anywhere and Wacom is no help.
 
 

Frederick,

O.K., I can see that Wacom isn't helping.   I've done somemore internet searching and looked up the Wacom Europe site and found a driver for Mac OS X (I scrolled down the page to find it):  v 6.00-3   ----    

Driver 6.00-3 RC for Mac OS X v10.3.9 and 10.4.x.  This driver was built for the USB versions of Intuos3, Intuos2, Intuos, Graphire2, Graphire, and CintiqPartner pen tablets and the Cintiq 21UX, Cintiq 18SX, Cintiq 15X and PL-500 pen displays.

http://www.wacom-europe.com/index2.asp?pid=29

I hope this helps.

Richard

 Richard,

I clicked the link you provided and downloaded tablet driver 6.0.0-3. I installed it on my MacBook Pro and it worked!!! I was ready to jump up and down in celebration. Then I installed the driver on my Mac Pro computer and found that it didn't work there. I thought both Macs had the same processors, or at least similar enough to work pretty much the same, since I bought them at close to the same time. I was wrong.

 The Mac Pro has a dual core Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz processor.

 The MacBook Pro has an Intel core 2 duo 2.33 GHz processor.

 Both have Mac OSX 10.4.11

This tells me that it isn't a system software problem. It has to be a conflict with the processor in the Mac Pro. Now, if I could only find a driver that will work with the processor in the Mac Pro - if there is one. Painting with the portable computer defeats the purpose of having more RAM and the dual Apple Cinema Displays that were bought with the Mac Pro for more painting "real estate."

Thanks again for the help, Richard.

.
 

Frederick,

I noticed that you also posted on the Apple forum. Kudos.  This maybe a silly question, but do you still have the original installation disc for Painter 7 and your Wacom Tablet?  If so, I'd try uninstalling and reinstalling (again) your P.7 and then reinstall the Tablet driver.  If it was working on your Mac Pro at one time, but not after you updated the Wacom driver (6.0.4?) then it's possible that you may need to do a complete uninstall and registry clean and then reinstall the Wacom driver (6.0.0).  Just a suggestion at this point.  I'm going to search to see if there is such a thing as a "Clean Install" procedure for Painter 7 and the Wacom driver.  If there is, it may help.

Richard

 I can't tell you how many times I have deleted Painter 7 and all associated files and then installed it again. I've done the same with a lot of tablet drivers. I do this with a Mac freeware application called, "AppZapper." It puts everything in the trash so you can see what is being deleted before the trash is emptied. I've found that it does a good job of trashing everything associated with an application.

 To be clear, Painter 7 has never worked with my Mac Pro. It worked beautifully with my older G4 Mac PPC. I gave that computer away when I bought the new Macs for more power.

I finally got my dream painting setup: a more powerful Mac with almost a terabyte of hard drive space, kickin' RAM and dual monitors only to find that Painter 7 won't work with it. But if it will work on one Intel Mac, surely there is a driver out there somewhere that will allow Painter 7 to apply paint on the Mac Pro, even though Wacom says it won't work. (I'm kinda' hard-headed about this) LOL.