15th April 2009, 02:41 PM
As hosty says Wacom are far and away the best tablets... but also the most expensive. For what you're talking about you need to make sure you get a puck so it'll be compatible with CAD. It's CAD that does the calibration for you to ensure your squares are square.
As an archaeological illustrator this is kinda my bread and butter. The best solution for you will depend on your on site survey methodology so you can tie everything in accurately. (e.g. is everything planned by hand or do you have access to gps survey kit?)
As Oxbeast mentions you can get OS plans. But best practice for illustration is to ALWAYS tie drawings into the OS grid.
A tablet is an expensive extra but can be useful if you are looking to remove distortion in plans as you can take three known points on a plan using the tablet and with CAD calibrate it so it will remove any distortion within those points. (Gotta be 3 as it needs to remove distortion in two planes... 4 is better, obviously but it can extrapolate the fourth from three.)
Time wise there's going to be almost no difference as you've still got to digitise the plan whether you scan or not. By the time you've calibrated the tablet for each sheet as you go, it'd take the same time (or longer) than scanning.
I could write essays about all of this... if you want to drop me a line I'd be more than happy to try and help. Also checkout the AAI&S (Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors) Facebook page (hope the shameless plug's allowed?) as you should get some handy hints from the discussions there too.
As an archaeological illustrator this is kinda my bread and butter. The best solution for you will depend on your on site survey methodology so you can tie everything in accurately. (e.g. is everything planned by hand or do you have access to gps survey kit?)
As Oxbeast mentions you can get OS plans. But best practice for illustration is to ALWAYS tie drawings into the OS grid.
A tablet is an expensive extra but can be useful if you are looking to remove distortion in plans as you can take three known points on a plan using the tablet and with CAD calibrate it so it will remove any distortion within those points. (Gotta be 3 as it needs to remove distortion in two planes... 4 is better, obviously but it can extrapolate the fourth from three.)
Time wise there's going to be almost no difference as you've still got to digitise the plan whether you scan or not. By the time you've calibrated the tablet for each sheet as you go, it'd take the same time (or longer) than scanning.
I could write essays about all of this... if you want to drop me a line I'd be more than happy to try and help. Also checkout the AAI&S (Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors) Facebook page (hope the shameless plug's allowed?) as you should get some handy hints from the discussions there too.