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.

The current software version is v. 1.7.8, released May 4, 2018.

Mac

Easy install (Most users)

Download the all-in-one software bundle: Download link (145 MB)

• This bundle includes Inkscape 0.91, XQuartz, and the AxiDraw driver.
• When your download finishes, you will have a file called "AxiDraw_Mac_v178.dmg". Double click that file and agree to the license.
• Run the XQuartz installer
• Drag Inkscape to your Applications folder. Then, 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. In some cases with computers prior to MacOS version 10.12, you may need to temporarily change your computer's security settings (System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General tab) to allow applications from "Anywhere" in order to allow Inkscape to open.

Alternative (Manual) install (If you already use Inkscape)

If you already have XQuartz and Inkscape 0.91 installed on your computer, you can also install the AxiDraw extensions alone. (If you are upgrading from a prior AxiDraw software version, you can use either method to upgrade.)

1. Download the software in this ZIP archive (0.4 MB), and unzip it. (Your computer may unzip the archive automatically for you.)

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

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

• Please note that we do not yet recommend Inkscape 0.92.
• 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 Inkscape version 0.91 from the download page at Inkscape.org. (Most users will want the "Windows : 64-Bit : Msi" download.)

• 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 (0.6 MB)

• The installer is a zipped executable, named "AxiDraw_178.exe".
• After running the installer, launch (or restart) Inkscape. The "AxiDraw" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu.

Alternative (Manual) install

If you already have Inkscape 0.91 installed on your computer, you can also install the AxiDraw extensions alone. For Windows 8 and older versions, please use the installer above for the first time that you install AxiDraw software, as the installer also includes a necessary USB driver. (You can use the manual method for subsequent installs and upgrades, and for Windows 10, which does not require the USB driver.)

1. Download the software in this ZIP archive (0.4 MB), and unzip it. (Your computer may unzip the archive automatically for you.)

2. Locate and open your Inkscape extensions directory. Your extensions directory is usually located at:

C:\Program Files\Inkscape\share\extensions\

or possibly

C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\share\extensions\

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

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

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.

If you have a choice during installation, we strongly recommend to install the "flatpack" or "PPA" options instead of the "snap" option of Inkscape.

Ubuntu install instructions:

• Install Inkscape 0.91
• Launch Inkscape from the Applications menu, and then quit it.
• Download the software in this ZIP archive (0.4 MB), and unzip it. (Your computer may unzip the archive automatically for you.)
• From the "Go" 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 modern Linux releases, it is often 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)

Firmware Update

We encourage all AxiDraw users to update the latest firmware version, which is "EBB" firmware version 2.5.5. Once your AxiDraw software is up and running, you can check which version of the firmware you have by selecting the "Manual" tab of AxiDraw 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.