5. Makelangelo Software Guide

I don't have a picture for this. Please enjoy this Mona Lisa.

Java can be downloaded from https://www.java.com/en/download/

Makelangelo Software can be downloaded from https://www.marginallyclever.com/product...

In the main window you can drag to pan and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom the what you see is what you get preview.

The Connect panel is like a phone call from your PC to your robot and allows for direct control.

The Creative control panel is for managing art that will be drawn by the robot.

The Animation control panel is also used for direct control of the robot: start, stop, pause, etc.

The advanced dialog at the bottom shows the conversation with the robot and gives you a way to directly type commands in text.

The top level menu has helpful links to the support forums and more configuration options.

Click the Settings button.

Change the Model to your machine version.

Click Paper and then change the Paper Size, Is Landscape, and Margin to match your preferences.

A Makelangelo 5 can draw A1 portrait, A2 landscape.

Close the settings dialog by clicking 'OK'. You are now ready to prepare a drawing.

Click Open File....

At the bottom of the save dialog change the Files of Type to Image. Select your jpg, png, bmp, or gif.

Play with Conversion Options until the preview looks appealing. There are several major styles.

Some styles are iterative and take time to generate results - let them run until you are satisfied. Others may have sub-options for tweaking.

Close the Conversion Options dialog. Your image is ready to Run.

Click Open File....

At the bottom of the save dialog change the Files of Type to DXF R12 for map data (dxf). Select your file.

DXF may offer to optimize on load. This will greatly improve your drawing time AND will take longer to load your file. Choose wisely.

Another option is Scalable Vector Graphics 1.1 (SVG). SVG files are automtically scaled to fill the margins of the paper.

Your image is ready to Run.

Build your Scratch drawing at https://scratch.mit.edu/.

Click File > Save to your computer.

In Makelangelo Software, Click Open File....

At the bottom of the save dialog change the Files of Type to Scratch (SB2). Select your file.

Your image is ready to Run.

Click Generate Art.

From the first drop down, select a style of art to generate.

Adjust any additional parameters. After changing a parameter you may need to press the Tab key to see changes in the preview window.

Close the additional parameters dialog. Your image is ready to Run.

Put your SD card in your computer and click save to file/SD card in the Makelangelo Software.

At the bottom of the save dialog change the Files of Type to GCODE (ngc). Save your file to the SD card.

Eject the SD card and plug it into the robot on the left side of the LCD panel.

Click the dial, scroll down to print from SD card, click again, scroll to the file, and click one more time. Follow the prompts on the LCD panel.

Don't forget to Find home on the robot before starting your drawing! Find home can also be done through the LCD menu.

Plug the a USB cable from the robot into your PC running Makelangelo Software.

Click Connect and choose one of the USB ports. After a few seconds the buttons under connect should turn from grey to black.

If there are no ports, refer to the Updating Makelangelo firmware guide steps for updating the USB driver.

Click find home. The weights will move up until they touch the switches next to each motor. Then the pen holder should move back to a point ~20cm below the center of the machine.

Click Start. Follow the prompts on the LCD panel.

Take a picture.

Post it on social media. #plottertwitter is a great tag to use!

Tag your post #makelangelo or @imakerobots so we can +1 like kudos it.