Getting a Wacom Volito to work on a Mac?

Okay, so we had a store here (Aldi) sell Wacom tablets for dirt cheap today. So all of us poor art students sent out our families to go buy us one. Little did we know that they were Volito tablets, which apparently don't work on our MacBooks (which we need for school).

Since of course all our graphical programs are on the laptop, we have no use for it on the pc. So right now, it's a bit of wasted money and a total shame that we can't use it.

However, I do believe there must be a way to get it to respond, I just don't know how. I have a driver installed (I think it's for the Graphire 2) and the pen kinda responds to it, but not perfectly.

So is there anyone out there who knows of a way to get this Volito to work?

Okay... so.

As you say, its supported. Once plugged into your Mac, you can use standard HID complient drivers (basically a USB device mousey thing), but its not going to work as its supposed to. The touch pad is supposed to be the way your screen is ie: if you press each corner the cursor will go to the corners etc.

So basically, theres no Volito drivers at all for OSX. There was a bug in previous versions, Wacom removed the drivers. I'll keep searching for any third party drivers, but its looking a little dodgy right now.

Gimmie a couple of hours and i'll get back to you.

Okay... so.

 

As you say, its supported. Once plugged into your Mac, you can use standard HID complient drivers (basically a USB device mousey thing), but its not going to work as its supposed to. The touch pad is supposed to be the way your screen is ie: if you press each corner the cursor will go to the corners etc.

 

So basically, theres no Volito drivers at all for OSX. There was a bug in previous versions, Wacom removed the drivers. I'll keep searching for any third party drivers, but its looking a little dodgy right now.

 

Gimmie a couple of hours and i'll get back to you.

Yeah, I think the only reason the pen kinda works is because of the other driver I already had on here. Cause a friend who never owned a tablet before, couldn't get it to work at all (at least that's what I gathered from her story).

But yeah, so far it's pretty much useless to draw with. =(

Thanks so much for trying to help me out by the way.

Right!

Heres the solution:

ftp://ftp.wacom-europe.com/pub/Mac/Mac_X_479_2_EN.dmg < install the Wacom driver first (make sure the current driver is NOT installed... i have no idea how to do this however).

Then install this:

http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/Web/Sites/iWeb/Site/VolitoMidi.html (click VolitoMIDI.dmg)

This will hopefully make it work 100%

Awesome! =D

It took me two restarts but now it seems to work fine! Even works in Photoshop, which that second site said it wouldn't work in. =O

And yay for pressure sensitivity! Wheeee!

Thank you! Now I can help out my poor fellow art students tomorrow with installing it for them. =D

*draws random lines*

I have a £150 Wacom sat around at home that I never use.

I should put it on ebay sometime.

I have a £150 Wacom sat around at home that I never use.

 

I should put it on ebay sometime.

What type is it?

Not that I need another one. >.>;

Awesome! =D

It took me two restarts but now it seems to work fine! Even works in Photoshop, which that second site said it wouldn't work in. =O

And yay for pressure sensitivity! Wheeee!

 

 

Thank you! Now I can help out my poor fellow art students tomorrow with installing it for them. =D

*draws random lines*

 

Good to hear.

Okay soo... you owe me boobs now right? :p

Juuuuust kiddin', I do this out of the goodness of my own heart.

It was going so well...

Just one question why do they require you to use Macs?

Good to hear.

 

Okay soo... you owe me boobs now right? :p

 

 

Juuuuust kiddin', I do this out of the goodness of my own heart.

I knew you were going to say something like that. =P

It was going so well...

 

Just one question why do they require you to use Macs?

Because it's basically an art/graphic design school, and Macs just for some reason seem to be better for art or something? Not sure, but they offer the laptops at a bit of a reduced price, plus you have three or four years to pay for it (without them adding interest to it), so that's pretty nice. =3

Macs are industry standard, i.e. if you went to work at a graphic design or media company after finishing education then you'd be working with OSX. With that in mind it makes sense to learn how to do things the Apple way rather than having a nasty transitional period when stepping into the professional world.

What type is it?

 

Not that I need another one. >.>;

It's a Graphire4.

Wacom basically targetted this tablet at the PC market... for some reason.

I really don't see the advantage of using a Mac in Photoshop. I mean... surely a PC with a Core 2 Quad can run it better than a Mac with a Core 2 Duo?

Not only that, but i've seen Letty play around with Corel Painter X. She had such a high resolution image it even crippled my machine which is a fairly high spec (C2D E6600 @ 2.87ghz, 3GB Ram, 8800GTS 640mb). So... how would a Mac handle that differently?

And yes Eenuh, with the boob comment i was playing to your expectations. Trust me i'm not that 2 dimensional.

I really don't see the advantage of using a Mac in Photoshop. I mean... surely a PC with a Core 2 Quad can run it better than a Mac with a Core 2 Duo?

I don't know how much of difference there is these days, but I believe that previously graphics packages ran better on Macs due to how the operating system integrated graphics chips into general performance, plus the more limited selection of hardware specifications allowed for better optimisation. As Apple owned the platform and could hone the OS to its strengths, naturally it was better suited to those specialist programmes.

There might not be much of a performance difference in 2008, but standards are self-perpetuating: those going into the media are trained to use Macs, therefore they use Macs and sustain the tradition.

Juuuuust kiddin', I do this out of the goodness of my own heart.

Hes lieing! Hes doing it for the prospect of vag-tastic antics! Lol.

Mad props to Jordan though. PC Lord.

I don't know how much of difference there is these days, but I believe that previously graphics packages ran better on Macs due to how the operating system integrated graphics chips into general performance, plus the more limited selection of hardware specifications allowed for better optimisation. As Apple owned the platform and could hone the OS to its strengths, naturally it was better suited to those specialist programmes.

 

There might not be much of a performance difference in 2008, but standards are self-perpetuating: those going into the media are trained to use Macs, therefore they use Macs and sustain the tradition.

Right. Got ya. Thanks for the insight there Aimless

And Rez, i am no "lord" (of any kind ). Trust me, people are far better than i am on here. Its just knowing what to search for and having patience. You can find anything on the internet if you try hard enough.

Thanks for the insight there Aimless

S'okay. It's pretty much the only thing I picked up from Media Studies other than, "Don't trust a retiring tutor with your coursework."

Still the length and breth (sp?) you went to impresses me.

Th reason graphic industries use mac is heritage. It was started on mac, and Apple kept targeting them to creative consumers.

There no reason why it would run better or worse, it's just the industry that prefers macs because they are used to them.

@Eenuh : is the tablet a volito or a volito2 ?

Th reason graphic industries use mac is heritage. It was started on mac, and Apple kept targeting them to creative consumers.

 

There no reason why it would run better or worse, it's just the industry that prefers macs because they are used to them.

+1 at university (I'm on games design, but I'm mixed with animation/film media/photography) we actually use both mac and PC, I personally prefer PC for everything but filming, for the simple fact of imovie etc. Otherwise as long as you've got a graphics tower, you may as well have a pc.

@Eenuh : is the tablet a volito or a volito2 ?

Was a Volito, but it's stopped working again. Poop.

Th reason graphic industries use mac is heritage. It was started on mac, and Apple kept targeting them to creative consumers.

 

There no reason why it would run better or worse, it's just the industry that prefers macs because they are used to them.

This, it's purely for legacy reasons. Also, it really feeds the overpriced, creative art student image to Macs, and Apple seems to love that

Hi there Eenuh

Can you tell me how exactly you got your tablet to work as when I try to install driver it wont let me on os10.5

I havent bought it yet but want to

Hi there Eenuh

Can you tell me how exactly you got your tablet to work as when I try to install driver it wont let me on os10.5

I havent bought it yet but want to

Don't buy the Volito, as it probably won't work. Mine stopped working too and I can't get it to work again.

Just buy another Wacom tablet, like the Bamboo or something, or the Graphire. Those should work on a Mac.