Installing RepRap on your computer
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Please Note this page describes how to install the RepRap standard software. There are alternatives to the standard software available and these are listed on the Comparison of RepRap Toolchains.
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Prerequisites
The RepRap software currently runs under 32-bit Linux or Microsoft Windows. We are working on adding Mac and 64-bit versions.
You will need Java on your computer. If you don't have it already, get it here:
The Host software is still a little buggy on Windows with Java 6 installed, if you encounter any problems with Java 6 and the software, try uninstalling Java 6 and install the latest Java 5 runtime from:
You will also need to download and install the Arduino development environment to build the firmware for your RepRap machine. That is available here:
You will need to download and install the Sanguino add-ons for Arduino. Get them here:
Finally in this section, you may care to take a look at software that is useful for RepRap, but not required to run it. There's a list here:
Download
From SourceForge
Download the RepRap distribution from Sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/reprap/
There are a number of files and packages from the project available there, but the main download (which is about 65 MB) will have a name like reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd.zip. This is the one file you want. It is the main Sourceforge download for RepRap; nnnnnn is the name of the current RepRap machine and yyyymmdd is the date of the release.
Nightly Builds
For the more adventurous, unofficial nightly builds of the development tree are created automatically and are downloadable from http://jonathan.reprap.org/nightly-builds/ . The last several days builds are available for download there.
Development code
For those who absolutely must be on the bleeding edge, the RepRap source code respository uses svn and is at SourceForge. You can download the host code and the design files for RepRap Mendel by doing
svn co https://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/reprap/trunk/reprap/host svn co https://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/reprap/trunk/mendel
Linux Installation
You can install and use RepRap in your own file-space under Linux.
In your own space
Unzip the downloaded file:
$ unzip reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd.zip
This will create a directory called reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd (with the name of the current RepRap machine and the distribution date substituted, clearly). To run the RepRap software simply move to that directory and run the file named reprap:
$ cd reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd $ ./reprap
Installing for all users
If you want RepRap to be available system-wide to all users, you will need to log in as the superuser to install it.
Assume you downloaded reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd.zip into the directory /xxx/yyy. Move to the directory /usr/local, then unpack it:
# cd /usr/local # unzip /xxx/yyy/reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd.zip
Then move to the /usr/local/bin directory and create a short shell script called reprap using your favourite text editor (gedit in the example).
# cd /usr/local/bin # gedit reprap
Copy and paste these three lines into the script, then save it:
#!/bin/sh cd /usr/local/reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd ./reprap
(Don't forget to replace the nnnnnn and the yyyymmdd with the right strings for your distribution file.)
Finally, set execute permission on the file:
# chmod 755 reprap
Any user will now be able to run the software just by typing the command "reprap".
There is a RepRap teardrop symbol in the file /usr/local/reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd/reprap-icon.png which people can use if they add the program to their desktop or task-bar as a clickable executable. The program is /usr/local/bin/reprap .
If you want to save space, you can now delete the distribution .zip file:
# rm /xxx/yyy/reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd.zip
Linux AMD64
The reprap software comes with rxtx and java3d binaries needed for 32bit arcitectures so getting the reprap software working on amd64 either means installing 32bit version of java or installing native 64bit versions of the libraries. For the latter option here is how you can set it up.
For java3d its a simple these can simply be installed using
cd /path/to/your/host/software sudo apt-get install libjava3d-jni ln -sf /usr/lib/jni/libj3dcore-ogl.so .
For rxtx it's almost the same:
cd /path/to/your/host/software sudo apt-get install librxtx-java ln -sf /usr/lib/librxtxSerial.so .
In case your Linux distribution doesn't come with a librxtx-java package, you can download binaries for the latest stable version here. Copy the librxtxSerial.so appropriate for your system into the host software directory.
GilesBathgate 10:50, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
Traumflug 17:44, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
Windows Installation
You will need administrator privileges to do this.
Create a new folder:
C:\Program Files\Reprap
Unpack the ZIP file anywhere you like on your system. It will create a folder called reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd where nnnnnn is the name of the current RepRap machine and yyyymmdd is the date of the release. Move all the files in that folder into C:\Program Files\Reprap.
You can then delete the reprap-nnnnnn-yyyymmdd if you like, and the ZIP file.
In C:\Program Files\Reprap there is a .BAT file called reprap.bat. Running that will launch the RepRap host software. You can copy that .BAT file to your desktop or elsewhere to give you a clickable executable.
Note: With Java6 on Windows 7 64bit (and possibly others, please confirm), you have to set the PATH enviromental variable manually.
Source Code
Distribution Contents
Information on the files in the RepRap distribution are available at RepRap Distribution Files.
Getting the latest sources
All the files for RepRap are kept in a Subversion repository on Sourceforge.
You can use your web browser to inspect and download individual files here.
If you want to get the latest versions of files you can check them out of the repository. But take care - these files will be development versions that may have bugs.
The simplest way to obtain the files is probably to use the Eclipse software development environment, which is used by all the RepRap hardware and software developers.
Do the following:
- Download and install Eclipse from this link,
- Download and install Subclipse (that is, Subversion for Eclipse) from this link, and
- Run Eclipse.
In Eclipse go to the menu: Window -> Open Perspective -> Other... and you will get a menu containing (among other things) SVN Repository Exploring. Select that and click on OK. It should open a window called SVN Repository. Right mouse click in that window and select New -> Repository location.
Copy and paste the RepRap repository URL: https://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/reprap/ as the location.
Open the repository (the little arrow at its left) and go down to trunk. Right-mouse-click on mendel, and select Checkout.... This will give you all the mechanical and electronic design files, and the microcontroller firmware sources.
Next go down to reprap and check out host (this is the Java software for the host computer).
Note that you are downloading a lot of information (about 60M), so these will take quite a while on a slow connection.
Now go back to the Java view in Eclipse (two little arrows: >> top right) and you should have all the project's files.
You can update any file or a whole folder full of files from the repository at any time by right-clicking on it and going to team -> update...
To work with the Java source code you will need the system-dependent libraries that RepRap uses. Those are in the directory Reprap/lib/system-dependent/. You will need to copy (or create links to) the .so files (Linux) or the .dll files (Windows) in there to the place in the Java system where these are stored.
Alternatives
Alternative software packages are available to generate G Code and drive the Rep Rap. More information on these can be found on the Alternative Software page.
