New Colour Mendel - Help Installing beta slicer prog

Problem installing the Beta release of the RepRapPro Slicer programme

I am eager to try out the new beta version of Reprap pro slicer, but am having problems installing it.
I have downloaded the ZIP folder from [github.com]
After running Reprap.bat file in a command window, the text produced looks ok for the 1st of around 4 screen fulls then is the line -

If Not exist reprap-wv.stl cd “c:\\program files\reprap”
The system can not find the path specified

After that are another 3 screen fulls of lines ending in Unknown Source.

I do not have any reprap files in my program files folder, I have been running pronterface from a downloads directory – the same place where I have unzipped this newly downloaded host master folder.
Nor can I find a reprap-wv.stl file on my system

Clearly I am running this batch file from the wrong location, or It’s looking for something in my existing setup that isn’t there.

I am running on Windows XP, and have just installed Java, (I have re booted)

Has anybody done this yet? Or does anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks

Same problem.

I've installed the software (all java is installed) and when I try to open a .stl file all I get is about 3 pages for this. I've tried the software on 3 different computers at its athe same.

Running windows 7 64bit

G'day guys,

Can you please tell me what they solution is to get the program runing?

I am getting all the same symptoms as you guys have listed

Please help!

Mattcad

How about whoever found the solution posts here publicly what the issue/resolution was, to help others with the same problem?

Indeed, I don't understand the need for secrecy; this is meant to be open source, right?

In any case, I think I've found the solution - it may not be the most elegant solution, but it seems to work, more on that later.

If you are trying to get it working on a windows 7 machine like me and getting the blank dialogs, have a read of the command window that opens up when you run the reprap64.bat file (or reprap32.bat file as the case may be for you), the answer is in there.

Basically from what I can tell, the software is looking for a folder that isn't present in your 'User' folder in the C drive. - that is, the folder with your username which located inside the User folder on the C drive.

Look for the big 'ERROR' 'cannot find path...' messages, then remedy by placing the correct folders into the places the software is looking for it.

In my case the software was looking for a file called 'Machine', inside a folder called '.reprap' which was meant to be located in my User folder on the C drive.

The 'Machine' file was there, but by itself not in a folder, and instead of a folder called '.reprap', there was a file with that name.

So, I created a new folder in my 'User' folder, named it '.reprap' and placed the 'Machine' file inside it.
I also put the file with the name '.reprap' inside it cause the computer wouldn't let me rename the new folder as '.reprap' along side a file of the same name.

The software was also looking inside the '.reprap' folder for another folder named 'Mendel-0.5mm' (I imagine this will be the 'Huxley-0.3mm' folder if you have the Huxley), so I copied the 'Mendel-0.5mm' folder from the 'reprap-configurations' folder where the installation folders were unzipped, and put it into the '.reprap' folder I created in my 'User' folder on the C Drive.

And that is where I've gotten to so far.

The RepRapPro Slicer software now starts up, and I can load rfo files etc to it and access all the menus for variables etc.
And view the loaded files on the 3D plate view dialog.

I'm not able to test the printing yet as I'm at work (have my laptop here), so I'm keen to get home and test it all out.

A couple of notes:

- the software command window is still showing an error saying it can't find the 'reprap.properties' file inside the original copy of the 'Mendel-0.5mm' folder which is located inside the 'reprap-configurations' folder of the 'executables' folder, where the files were first unzipped.
The thing is, the file it is looking for IS still there, there is no problem with the path it is looking at so I don't know what to do about that yet.
I'm not sure if this is a problem or not, I'll find out tonight.

- when you create the '.reprap' folder in your User folder on the C drive, you need to actually name it with a period at the beginning AND end of the folder name, like this '.reprap.', otherwise windows won't let you name it.


I'm interested to hear if this works for others and if you can find a solution to the 'reprap.properties' issue.



Cheers guys, let me know how you go.

Mattcad

Thanks Mattcad,
That sounds pretty comprehensive, I will try it out.
After my original post I dropped my investigations, as there were plenty of other skills to learn with using my new Mendel pro, but it's probably time to set about getting the 3 head upgrade. I did not respond to our friend with the big number, as I too felt it was a little suspicious, and indeed if you look at his other posts you will see what I mean.
Thanks again
Core Storage

Hey, I did some more investigating last night and discovered the real cause of my software issue.

All of my previous post was really only describing the symptoms and not addressing it.

Basically I was looking into the reason why the software couldn't find the 'reprap.properties' file, since it was located in the place I unzipped the sofware, I thought about it some...

Then remembered from my CAD Admin experience that some software doesn't like folder paths when there are folders with spaces in their names.

I had unzipped the RepRapPro software in a folder path where one of the higher folders was named '3D Printing', so I renamed that folder with an underscore in the name to '3D_Printing'.

Problem solved, the software ran flawlessly, no files were missing and I didn't have to do the file jigging I described previously.

So to make it simple, before you go about copying files and folders, have a look at your folder names along the path to where your software files were unzipped, if you have any spaces in any of the folder names, replace the spaces with underscores or dashes.


Ah, the path to discovery...


Cheers
Mattcad

Thanks for the input Mattcad.

No probs.

I love a good puzzle

I finally got the time to try again.
I didn't want to close up the gaps in the name Documents and settings so. I installed the whole lot again in a new directory path with no spaces.
At least I now have all the latest versions. The new quick Windows installer, seems to only be for Win7 at the moment, and I am on XP.
Alas it still didn't work, well not quite - I got the new slicer screen surround but with nothing in it. So I followed Mattcad's instructions and put the "machine" file in a ".reprap" folder in C:/Documents and Settings , where it wanted to be found. The batch file "reprap32" calls the java files that in turn use a system dependant location, in my case C:/Documents and Settings. So I imagine something needs to be changed in one of the java files, to point to its download location.
So now all I have to do is get the three colour upgrade!
Thanks for your help Mattcad.