I'm thinking of getting a Graphics tablet rather than use a mouse for some of my modeling packages.
Any thoughts on this, or what you find to be the best modeling input tool?

I found the graphics tablet much more useful than the mouse when using organic shape creation.

I like it for sculpting...not really my thing for standard modeling though.

  Ok, at the risk of sounding stuffy, or something, I'm going to point out something that you always have to keep in mind... "What works perfectly for you, doesn't always work at all, for someone else." it's like applications.... some people take to one like a duck to water, while others struggle. A tablet may suit you perfectly... I like mine, and use it for nearly everything... I also have friends who hate them... these are also guys who are STILL looking for the "any" button. My best advice would be, to find a friend who has one, and try it out for yourself..... if you like it, then, by all means, buy one... be advised, though, there are several out there, and price is no guide to how good they are... I bought mine for $50 USD, and have had no trouble with it... it's an unknown, ( off ), brand. Lou.

Personally I hate the tablet for anything except sculpting and painting textures, but one of my friends uses his for everything. All down to personal preference IMHO.

I don't have one unfortunately, though I have used one a couple times, and I find it to be worlds better than a mouse. Mostly for painting textures, and certain modeling tasks, where I'll be tweaking a lot of points one at a time.

It is a lot of personal preference tho, like everyone has said. I know some people go so far as using them to browse the net, while others won't use them beyond painting, and some people never warm up to them.

Definately try one if you can, or look for a company that offers a return policy. I think Wacom has a 30 day money back deal, I'm not certain, you'd have to check their site to be sure.

I have a a XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro screen drawing pad , it is the one I have been using for the last 3 or 4 years, perfectly fine for 3d modeling , You use the stylus directly on the monitor image which gives great natural control.

OK to jump in here, I've used a tablet for years for sculpting, painting and drawing. For modeling on Silo and other pixel pushing I use a mouse, but since they added ZModeller I do mus less of that. Recently I've seen that Wacom is offering the "One" which appears to be a relatively low cost entry level to their Cintiq, smaller and with less bells and whistles. I think some people that are not familiar with using a tablet may find this easier to get used to, depending on your budget, I believe it is priced in the $400.00 range, but I'm not positive.

12 ½ years later [xp-pen's bot sure went digging!], my answer is about the same as it was then. I'm on my second Wacom now. Used primarily for texture painting and sculpting [which didn't exist when this thread was started], I do sometimes use it for working with UV maps, particularly stitching up/aligning large selections of points, pretty much everything else 3D is traditional mouse for me.

I'm left handed, and the home position/shortcuts for every program are all left hand based, having learned and used them for a long while before getting a digitizer, they're just "natural" for me at this point, so I'm quicker/more efficient with a mouse for most stuff if shortcuts are going to be involved. Couldn't live without it for the more "expressive" aspects of 3D tho.

Gog posted at 12:21AM Fri, 19 June 2020 - #3138966

Personally I hate the tablet for anything except sculpting and painting textures, but one of my friends uses his for everything. All down to personal preference IMHO.

Yes, I use mine for everything as well, but that's mostly because I suffer from acute CTS, so using a mouse is often painful. It was strange getting used to, but once I did, I couldn't think of using anything else.

Wow I thought this was a relatively new thread until I saw the OP. LOL. Well, since there isn't many posts in the 3d Modeling forum to begin with, I thought I'd just chime in here as well.

I'm in the club that uses the Wacom tablet for sculpting and painting, but that's about it. I still prefer the mouse for standard polygon modeling techniques as well as navigation. I suppose I could get used to doing everything with the pen and tablet, but some applications I found do not support it very well, even in Windows 10 which has some excellent support for tablets. When I use Zbrush, 3dCoat, or Substance Painter, I'll use the tablet. Everything else I'll stick with the mouse.