FlatCAM Evo (c) 2019 - by Marius Stanciu

Based on FlatCAM: 2D Computer-Aided PCB Manufacturing by (c) 2014-2018 Juan Pablo Caram

FlatCAM is a program for preparing CNC jobs for making PCBs on a CNC router. Among other things, it can take a Gerber file generated by your favorite PCB CAD program, and create G-Code for Isolation routing.

Installation instructions

Works with Python version 3.11 or greater and PyQt6.

More on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVvP2SYRpx-AQgNlfoxw93tXUXon7G94_

You can contact me on my email address found in the app in:

Menu -> Help -> About FlatCAM -> Programmers -> Marius Stanciu

Running from Sources (any operating system)

1. Git clone the project

git clone https://bitbucket.org/marius_stanciu/flatcam_beta

2. Create a mamba/conda environment

mamba env create -f environment.yml

3. Activate the environment

mamba activate flatcam

4. Launch FlatCAM

python flatcam.py

Old Instructions

• Make sure that your OS is up-to-date
• Download sources from: https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/
• Unzip them on an HDD location that your user has permissions for.

Windows

• download the provided installer (for your OS flavor 64bit or 32bit) from: https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/
• execute the installer and install the program. It is recommended to install as a Local User.

or from sources:

• download the sources from the same location

• unzip them on a safe location on your HDD that your user has permissions for

• install WinPython e.g. WinPython 3.9 downloaded from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/winpython/files/WinPython_3.9/ Use one of the versions (64bit or 32it) that are compatible with your OS. To save space use one of the versions that have the smaller size (they offer 2 versions: one with size of few hundred MB and one smaller with size of few tens of MB)

• add Python folder and Python\Scripts folder to your Windows Path

• (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/developer/sharepoint-2010/ee537574(v%3Doffice.14))

• verify that the pip package can be run by opening Command Prompt(Admin) and running the command:

pip -V

• look in the requirements.txt file (found in the sources folder) and install all the dependencies using the pip package. The required wheels can be downloaded either from: https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ (Recommended) or if the required modules cannot be found in the previous source use: https://pypi.org/

You can download all the required wheels files into a folder (e.g D:\my_folder) and install them from Command Prompt like this:

cd D:\my_folder

and for each wheel file (*.whl) run:

D:\my_folder\> pip install --upgrade package_from_requirements.whl

Run FlatCAM beta from the installation folder (e.g D:\FlatCAM_beta) in the Command Prompt with the following command:

cd D:\FlatCAM_beta
python FlatCAM.py

Linux

• create a folder to hold the sources somewhere on your HDD: mkdir FlatCAM-beta
• unzip in this folder the sources downloaded from https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/ Using commands (e.g using the sources for FlatCAM beta 8.995):

cd ~/FlatCAM-beta
wget https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources.zip
unzip FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources.zip
cd FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources

• make sure that Python 3.9 is installed on your OS and that the command: python3 -V confirm it
• verify that the pip package is installed for your Python installation (e.g 3.9) by running the command:

pip3 -V

If it is not installed, install it. In Ubuntu-like OS's it is done like this:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip 

or:

sudo apt-get install python3.9-pip

• verify that the file setup_ubuntu.sh has Linux line-endings (LF) and that it is executable (chmod +x setup_ubuntu.sh)
• run the file setup_ubuntu.sh and install all the dependencies with the command:

./setup_ubuntu.sh

• if the previous command is successful and has no errors, run FlatCAM with the command: python3 FlatCAM.py
• Alternatively you can install it on Ubuntu with:

# Optional if depencencies are missing
make install_dependencies

# Install for the current user only (using the folder in its place)
make install

# System-wide instalation
sudo make install

MacOS

Instructions from here: https://gist.github.com/natevw/3e6fc929aff358b38c0a#gistcomment-3111878

• create a folder to hold the sources somewhere on your HDD: mkdir FlatCAM-beta

• unzip in this folder the sources downloaded from https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/ Using commands (e.g using the sources for FlatCAM beta 8.995):

cd ~/FlatCAM-beta
wget https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources.zip
unzip FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources.zip
cd FlatCAM_beta_8.995_sources

• check if Homebrew is installed:

xcode-select --install
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

• install dependencies:

brew install pyqt
brew install gdal
python3 -m ensurepip
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

• run FlatCAM

python3 FlatCAM.py