Installing software

Eggbot 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.

Optionally but suggested, you may also want to download the set of example files from the EggBot Releases page.

Mac

For macOS Catalina (10.15)

If you are using a Mac (MacOS Catalina 10.15 -- released October 7, 2019), please contact technical support for special installation instructions. We will be posting special installers for Catalina in the near future.

Quick install (for macOS versions 10.7 - 10.14)

1. Download and open the EggBot Mac bundle DMG

2. Run the XQuartz installer included in that DMG (disk image) file.

3. Drag the included copy of Inkscape to your "Applications" folder.

4. Eject the disk image (DMG).

Alternative (Manual) install

If you already have XQuartz and Inkscape 0.92 installed on your computer, or cannot run the quick installer for some reason, you can also install the EggBot extensions alone.

1. Prerequisites: Download and install XQuartz and Inkscape 0.92.2

2. Download the software in this ZIP archive (0.4 MB), and unzip it.

3. In the finder, open a new window (File > New Finder Window) and then select Go > Go to Folder...

4. Paste the following folder location into the dialog box:

/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/share/inkscape/extensions/

and click the "Go" button to open that location. This is your "Inkscape extensions" folder.

5. Copy the contents of the ZIP archive that you downloaded (12 items total; 11 files and one folder) into your Inkscape extensions folder, overwriting any files with the same names.

6. Launch (or quit and re-launch) Inkscape.

• The "EggBot" 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 EggBot 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 EggBot extensions for Inkscape (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through our contact form or through the EggBot forum.
• If there is a chance that a problem you encounter is specific to EggBot 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 EggBot. And, we'd like the Inkscape team to be ready to help us when we do encounter Inkscape-specific issues.

Windows

1. Download and install Inkscape version 0.92.4 from the download page at Inkscape.org.

• Install Inkscape in the default location, the main "Program Files" folder.

2. Download and run the EggBot installer for Windows

• Download the latest version of the Windows installer (This is a direct download link to the "exe" version of the installer). Run the EggBot installer to install the EggBot extensions and its USB driver.
• The "Eggbot" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape after you restart Inkscape.

Troubleshooting

Your software should now be set up to work correctly.

• If you encounter difficulty installing Inkscape or the extensions (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through the EggBot 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 EggBot software or hardware, please request support from us, rather than through Inkscape's support resources. You're much more likely to get your problem solved by asking people who know about Eggbot.

Linux

The EggBot 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.

EggBot software installation instructions for Linux:

• Install Inkscape 0.92 on your computer. The best way to do this will vary by distribution, but in most cases you can use the software installer provided with the OS. See here for additional information.
• Launch Inkscape, and select Edit > Preferences from the menu, and then select the System entry. That should list the location of your User extensions directory.
• Download and unzip EggBot_extensions_v281.zip . Copy its contents into your Inkscape User extensions directory and relaunch Inkscape.

Adding your user account to the "dialout" group:

In recent Linux releases, it is also necessary to change your user permissions, to explicitly grant access to the USB port where the EggBot 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 EggBot 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 EggBot 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 Eggbot" type error messages.

If the EggBot 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 EggBot folder, and .py files might be misplaced)

Additional linux configurations

If you use EggBot under Linux, please feel free to add your known-working linux distribution and/or configuration to this non-exhaustive list:

• Ubuntu 18.04 with Inkscape 0.92
• Ubuntu 14.04 with Inkscape 0.91
• Ubuntu 12.04 with Inkscape 0.48.2 - 0.48.4
• Fedora Core 18 with Inkscape 0.48.4
• Debian 7 Wheezy with Inkscape 0.48.3.1
• Antergos 18.3 with Inkscape 0.92.2 2405546

Firmware Update

We encourage all EggBot users to update the latest firmware version, which is "EBB" firmware version 2.6.2. Once your AxiDraw software is up and running, you can check which version of the firmware you have by selecting the "Manual" tab of EggBot Control, picking "Check EBB Version" from the menu there, and clicking Apply.

EBB Firmware versions 2.4.6 and newer contain performance improvements and bug fixes that can prevent certain types of errors.

To update your firmware, please follow the directions here.