How to install HeeksCAD in Ubuntu 12.04

Hi! In a previous post where I wrote about the CNC Software Toolchain for Linux I mentioned HeeksCAD, which is a great software to generate the toolpaths from the 3D models for CNC machining. Since I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 I started having some problems with the HeeksCNC plugin and some features like the pocketing and profile operations stopped working. I tried to reinstall it in Ubuntu 12.04 but then I found out that it wasn't a so straight forward process as with previous Ubuntu versions. As such, I decided to make a small tutorial on how to install it under Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

(Click the photo for better resolution in Picasa Photostream)

So, the first trick is that you cannot install the official version from the official HeeksCAD git repository.

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How to setup a PIC microcontroller development environment in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot with piklab + sdcc

Hi! In this blog entry I'll show you how to setup a development environment to develop and compile code for Microchip's PIC microcontrollers. We'll need three main packages:

1. gputils - a collection of tools for the Microchip (TM) PIC microcontrollers. It includes gpasm, gplink and gplib.
2. sdcc - small device C compiler
3. piklab - an integrated development environment (IDE) for applications based on Microchip PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers similar to the MPLAB environment. It integrates with several compiler and assembler toolchains. It supports the most common programmers (serial, parallel, ICD2, Pickit2, Picstart+), the ICD2 debugger, and several bootloaders (Tiny, Pickit2 and Picdem).

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