Difference between revisions of "RoboPaint"

Revision as of 04:58, 18 November 2013

This wiki page is part of the documentation for the WaterColorBot. Click here to return to the WaterColorBot overview.

Overview

There are three main software interfaces for driving the WaterColorBot: RoboPaint (as described on this page), the real-time painting app RoboPaint RT, and the WaterColorBot extensions for Inkscape.

RoboPaint is the Automatic Painting Software for the WaterColorBot. It runs under Mac, Windows, and Linux. In RoboPaint, you can open existing artwork in SVG format, snap the colors to your paint palette, and paint the document. It also has a rudimentary edit mode that lets you create new drawings to print.

If you’re starting with existing SVG artwork, RoboPaint is generally the best of the WaterColorBot interfaces to use for a few different reasons. Most importantly, it’s good at automatically filling in large solid regions of a painting.

We recommend that all WaterColorBot users download and install RoboPaint. Windows users should download and install RoboPaint prior to the other programs, as it also installs the WaterColorBot’s USB driver.

Getting RoboPaint

RoboPaint runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Download and install the latest version from the releases page.

Note for Mac users: There are two different versions available, one for MacOS 10.7 and newer, and one specific for MacOS 10.6.

Using RoboPaint

Launching RoboPaint

RoboPaint is a stand-alone application that you open in the normal way, and can be run whether or not your computer is connected to the WaterColorBot.

If you are planning to make paintings in a given session with RoboPaint, we suggest that you take the following three actions before opening RoboPaint:

1. Move the carriage to the upper left (Home/START) corner,
2. Plug in the power supply (both to the WaterColorBot and to power), and
3. Plug in the USB cable (both to the WaterColorBot and to your computer)

The Home Screen

When you first open RoboPaint you will likely be greeted by this welcoming screen. If RoboPaint has managed to find and connect to your WaterColorBot, you may also see a message flash by quickly ("Port found, connecting... Connected!") as it says "hello" to the WaterColorBot.

If you can't connect to the WaterColorBot

If RoboPaint cannot find your WaterColorBot, you will see a slightly less welcoming message: "Couldn't connect! - Port not found. What do you want to do?"

You will get this message when the WaterColorBot is not connected to your computer by USB, or when your computer is already using the USB port. (For example, if RoboPaint RT is already talking to your WaterColorBot.) If trouble persists, please see our troubleshooting guide for additional assistance.

When the WaterColorBot is unable to connect, you will have a choice presented, to either "Continue in Simulation mode" or "Try to Reconnect." If you choose simulation mode, RoboPaint pretends that it has a valid connection to the WaterColorBot. You can use this mode for opening, creating, and preparing files, or to try out the whole WaterColorBot process when you do not have the machine handy.

Choices from the Home Screen

There are two main options presented on the Home Screen: Create and Print.

• In Create mode, you can open, resize, and edit existing vector artwork. You can also make new drawings to print out on the WaterColorBot.
• In Print mode, you actually operate the WaterColorBot to paint your drawing.

Most commonly, one begins in Create mode (for example, to open and prepare a file), and then switches over to Print mode when ready.

Create Mode

Here is what it looks like when you first enter Create mode: A blank canvas, with a set of tools and commands.

From the File menu, you can create a new document to paint, or open an existing SVG drawing.

Aside: We generally recommend http://inkscape.org Inkscape] as a great place to create SVG documents for use with the WaterColorBot. Inkscape can import artwork in many vector graphics formats including PDF, and is excellent for creating new artwork as well. The WaterColorBot does not (directly) paint bitmap pictures (e.g., JPG, PNG, BMP files), but the tracing functions in Inkscape are one approach towards converting pictures into paintings.

You can also open one of several included sample files, to test out the process. (The "Earth" and "Tree" examples are two of our favorites.)

Once you have opened a file, you normally need to do some simple prep work to prepare it for printing.

We suggest the following two steps, in most cases:

• Click the "Fit Content" button to resize your drawing to fill the available print area of the WaterColortBot, and
• Click the "Auto Color" button to "snap" all of the colors in your drawing to those of the paint palette, giving you a preview of how it will print.

Other controls available in Create mode allow you to:

• Add new shapes (with the various controls on the left-hand side)
• Group and ungroup elements (from the Object menu)
• Pick fill colors and line colors ("stroke" colors) from the paint palette
• Arrange objects in front of and behind other objects (from the Object menu)

When you are ready, switch over to Print mode to paint your drawing.

Print Mode

In Print mode, you have a simpler set of controls: The big "Start" button that begins painting, and three other buttons:

• Raise/Lower brush. Use this to check and adjust the position of the brush in the brush holder, or if you should need to raise the brush for any other reason.
• Park Home. The WaterColorBot carriage needs to be in the upper-left (START) corner before you start a new painting. If the WaterColorBot moved its carriage elsewhere and you would like to to go back home, click this button.
• Unlock motors. This command disengages the WaterColorBot's motors so that you can move the carriage by hand.

While painting, the Start Button turns into a "Pause" button. If you click the "Pause" button, the painting will halt, and the top button now reads "Resume"; you can use it to resume your painting.

You may also notice that the lower part of the controls indicates the status of the WaterColorBot.

You can also return to Create mode by clicking the symbol in the toolbar.

Settings

To access the RoboPaint settings dialog, click the "gear" logo in the upper right corner of the screen. Settings are available in all three modes: home screen, print mode, and create mode.

Troubleshooting

In case of difficulty, please begin at our troubleshooting page.

For Developers

Repository

RoboPaint is maintained at our github repository.

Bugs and feature requests

Please use the issues page at our repository to report bugs and request new features for RoboPaint RT.