Pen right-click while hovering

Question

Hi there,

I'm a 3D artist and I just bought a Surface Pro 4 with the almost exclusive intent to use it as my "3D Sketchbook", using zbrush as my main app.

Said that I am having problems with the way right clicks are currently performed.

I am used to perform pen right-clicks while hovering, but it looks like ntrig pen drivers don't allow to use the side button this way.

I always need to first click the side button, and then touch the screen with the pen tip.

This completely disrupts my workflow, because many 3d applications use the right click to perform viewport pan/rotate/zoom operations.

Said that, I tried to actually get used to the standard windows pen behaviour, but zbrush doesn't like the side-button+click thing: it doesn't either register the command, or it lags a lot (maybe because the ring icon appear? Just guessing).

I can't stress enough how important is to support it.

In other applications you can use both the right+left click at the same time, sometimes to emulate the middle mouse button (like maya). Sadly, the current pen behaviour doesn't allow it (side button + pen tip performs right-click only), seriously limiting its usability.

I've recently seen that Microsoft is listening to their customers and I really, really hope you'll fix this.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, none of these solutions have worked properly for me.

I'm a professional graphic artist who's used Wacom tablets for almost 20 years. I thought the Surface Pro would be the perfect tablet for me, but after spending over £1000, I found that it is virtually useless due to it not supporting the hovering right click on it's pen (like Wacom). 

My Surface Pro 4 is now sitting on a shelf as is a useless machine to me, apart from the occasional web browsing!!! I now have to look to buy the Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet.

Microsoft had the almost perfect machine, and it has been crippled by it's poor choice on pen driver software. A update fix could sort this, but after 2 years MS have not listened to anyone in these forums.

Answer 2

This is horrific! Being able to use zbrush was 100% of the reason I chose the Surface Pro in the first place - the fact that there's no support for this is terrible. Right-click+LMB-tap = right click...?? Who does that? This is a strange and terrible standard.

Answer 3

Can't agree more - I'm literally just about to buy a Surface Pro 4, but the only thing holding me back is whether I'll be able to use the pen for hover & right click / middle click for Maya/Mudbox down the line. 

Seems funny that Mudbox was shown in the Surface 4 keynote, but the pen just doesn't seem to support its most basic function. 

We like PCs for how customisable they are - it seems crazy that we can't customise something as important as the pen. 

Are there any plans to do this, or is it possible for any other pen to work with the Surface Pro 4 that would allow this? 

Thanks,

Lewis

Answer 4

RadialMenu doesn't seem to be under active development anymore and it crashes frequently on Windows 10. For an alternative solution, you can use AutoHotKey and some scripting. Look here:

https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30422

Answer 5

I really regret buying my sp4, for zbrush.. this right click is the deal breaker :(