RoboPaint

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.

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.