Axidraw Software Installation

AxiDraw is designed to work well on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. To use it, you'll need to install certain software on your computer. Please read below for specific instructions for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Mac

Easy install (Most users)

Download the all-in-one software bundle: Download link (138 MB)

• This bundle includes Inkscape, XQuartz, and the AxiDraw driver.
• When your download finishes, you will have a file called "AxiDraw Software.dmg". Double click that file and agree to the license.
• Run the XQuartz installer, and drag Inkscape to your Applications folder. Eject the installer disk image (DMG) file.

When you open up Inkscape, you may be met by a message saying that "Inkscape.app" can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. If so, right-click (or hold down the "control" key on your keyboard while you click) on the Inkscape Icon, and select "open" from the menu. You will only have to do this once.

Alternate install (If you already use Inkscape)

If you already have XQuartz and Inkscape installed on your computer, you can also install the AxiDraw extensions alone: Download link (1 MB)

• When your download finishes, open the resulting DMG file, and run the installer. This installer requires Inkscape 0.91, installed in your main applications folder.
• The "AxiDraw" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape after you restart Inkscape.

For Older MacOS versions (older than 10.7)

The instructions above are for MacOS 10.7 and newer. Please contact technical support if you need to install AxiDraw software on an older Mac.

Troubleshooting

Your software should now be set up to work correctly.

• Because Inkscape runs on X11's architecture, keyboard shortcuts use control (^) instead of Cmd (⌘) as modifier key.
• If copy and paste are not working correctly in Inkscape, open the X11 preferences dialog, and disable the "Update Pasteboard when CLIPBOARD changes" option.
• If you encounter difficulty installing the AxiDraw extensions for Inkscape (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through the AxiDraw forum, which you can find on our front page.
• For older Macs (MacOS 10.4 - 10.6), please contact Evil Mad Scientist for tech support. You will need older versions of Inkscape and XQuartz.
• If there is any chance that a problem you encounter is specific to AxiDraw software or hardware, it is important that you do not directly seek assistance through Inkscape's support resources. You're much more likely to get your problem solved by asking people who know about AxiDraw. And, we'd like the Inkscape team to be ready to help us when we do encounter Inkscape-specific issues.

Windows

Installation

Step 1. Download and install the latest version of Inkscape (Version 0.91 or newer) from the download page at Inkscape.org.

• Install Inkscape in the default location, the main "Program Files" folder (or "Program Files (x86)" on newer systems).
• If you need additional assistance for installing Inkscape, you may be able to find good advice at the the Inkscape wiki and/or the Inkscape Forums. Please do not use Inkscape support resources for AxiDraw-specific issues-- see note below about troubleshooting.

Step 2. Download and run the AxiDraw installer for Windows: Download link (0.5 MB)

• The installer is an executable, named "AxiDraw_100A.exe".
• After running the installer, launch (or restart) Inkscape. The "AxiDraw" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu.

Troubleshooting

Your software should now be set up to work correctly.

• If you get a "Application failed to initialize (0x0000135)" error, it means that your copy of Windows does not have the .Net libraries installed. This is straightforward to fix - go to [1] and run the installer from Microsoft, then run USBDriverInstaller again.
• If you encounter difficulty installing the AxiDraw extensions for Inkscape (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through the AxiDraw mailing list or forum, which you can find on our front page.
• If there is any chance that a problem you encounter is specific to AxiDraw software or hardware, it is important that you do not directly seek assistance through Inkscape's support resources. You're much more likely to get your problem solved by asking people who know about AxiDraw. And, we'd like the Inkscape team to be ready to help us when we do encounter Inkscape-specific issues.

Linux

The AxiDraw extension for Inkscape has been developed and tested extensively under Ubuntu. We expect it to work equally well in most Ubuntu derivatives and other distributions where Inkscape is known to work. However, we do not have the capability to test every distribution.

Ubuntu install instructions:

• Use the Ubuntu Software Center to install Inkscape 0.91 or newer
• Launch Inkscape from the Applications menu, and then quit it.
• Download the latest Inkscape extensions .ZIP file from the downloads section of the github site.
• From the "Places" menu, open your Home Folder.
• From the "View" menu select "Show hidden files" -- the .config folder should be visible.
• Place the contents of the folder inside the ZIP archive inside .config/inkscape/extensions/
• Add your user account to the "dialout" group. (See below for details.)
• Log out and log back in, for that group change to take effect.
• The "AxiDraw" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape when you start Inkscape.

About adding your user account to the "dialout" group:

In recent Linux releases (e.g., Ubuntu 12 and newer), it is also necessary to change your user permissions, to explicitly grant access to the USB port where the AxiDraw is located. This can be done by adding your user group to the "dialout" user group on your system.

• Open up a terminal window
• For most distributions (including Fedora and Ubuntu), enter the command "sudo usermod -a -G dialout <myUserName>" <return>, replacing the <myUserName> part with the user that is running Inkscape (and without the quotation marks or angle brackets!).

• If you are unsure of your user name, enter the command "whoami" <return>, and the computer will happily remind you.
• If you are unsure whether you are already in the "dialup" group, enter the command "groups" <return>, and the computer will list the groups that you are in.

• After changing groups, you need to log out and log back in for the change to take effect.

sudo usermod -a -G dialout <myUserName>"

Debian Wheezy install instructions(command line):

• Download the latest Inkscape extension .ZIP file from the downloads section of the AxiDraw Releases page.
• Open up a terminal window, enter the command ,<return>, where you type your user name instead of UserName (And, no quotation marks.):

"sudo apt-get install inkscape"
"sudo apt-get install unzip python-lxml"
unzip the latest Inkscape extension .ZIP file into 
/home/'UserName'/.config/inkscape/extensions

Than you can use the AxiDraw extension for Inkscape by type: "inkscape" <return>

Troubleshooting

If your permissions are not correct (your user is not in the dialout group), you may get consistent "Unable to find an AxiDraw" type error messages.

If the AxiDraw menu doesn't appear in Inkscape, verify that when you've extract the zip file, all the .py files are inside .config/inkscape/extensions/ folder (you might have extracted the entire AxiDraw folder, and .py files might be misplaced)