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Installation Guide

Prerequisites

NanoCut Control requires the following dependencies:

Required Dependencies

  • Git (for version information and dependency fetching)
  • CMake 3.21+
  • C++20 compatible compiler (GCC 11+, Clang 14+, MSVC 2022+)
  • OpenGL development libraries
  • GLFW development libraries

Building from Source

Building is similar for all platforms thanks to CMake. An installation step is provided via CMake, which will install the executable, themes, and fonts.

Pre-requisites

Downloading/updating is done with Git. Windows users can run winget install Git.Git, then restart your terminal.

First-time setup

Clone the repository and check out the desired release:

git clone https://github.com/nwjnilsson/nanocut-control.git
cd nanocut-control
git checkout v1.0.0

Updating

Fetch the latest tags and update the source:

git fetch --tags
git checkout latest

I don't recommend staying on main.

Windows

A powershell helper script is provided to help Windows users build from source. The script will check for CMake, Ninja, and Visual Studio Build Tools — offering to install any that are missing via winget — then configure, build, and install the executable to bin\NanoCut.exe inside the repository.

Simply run:

.\scripts\build-windows.ps1

If you already have vcpkg, you can point to it with e.g -VcpkgPath C:\vcpkg

Linux

NixOS

  1. A shell.nix is provided, enter the environment:

     nix-shell

  2. Configure and build:

     mkdir build && cd build
 cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.... -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
 make

APT-based

  1. Install required dependencies:

     sudo apt-get install -y \
  build-essential \
  pkg-config \
  cmake \
  libglfw3-dev \
  mesa-common-dev \
  libglu1-mesa-dev \
  libgl1-mesa-dev \
  zlib1g-dev

  2. Configure and build:

     mkdir build && cd build
 cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
 make

macOS

I have not tested on macOS myself but the process should look something like this. I'm sure you'll figure it out :)

  1. Install dependencies using Homebrew:

     brew install cmake glfw3 ...

  2. Configure and build:

     mkdir build && cd build
 cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
 make

Installation

To install the application (Linux users need to sudo if installing to protected directories):

make install

This will install:

  • Fonts to ~/.config/NanoCut/fonts/
  • Themes to ~/.config/NanoCut/themes/

Running the Application

After building, you can run the application:

# From build directory
./bin/Release/NanoCut

# After installation
NanoCut

CMake Configuration Details

The build system uses CMake's FetchContent to automatically download and build all third-party dependencies:

  • nlohmann/json v3.11.3 (JSON library)
  • Loguru v2.1.0 (logging library)
  • ImGui v1.92.6-docking (GUI library)
  • ImGuiFileDialog v0.6.7 (file dialog extension)
  • Mongoose 7.2 (web server/networking)
  • stb (header-only utilities)
  • serial 1.2.1 (cross-platform serial port library)
  • dxflib (local DXF parsing library)

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

CMake version too old:

CMake Error: cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.21)

Upgrade CMake to version 3.21 or later.

Missing OpenGL development packages:

fatal error: GL/gl.h: No such file or directory

Install OpenGL development packages for your distribution.

GLFW not found:

Could NOT find glfw3

Install GLFW development packages or let CMake download it automatically.

Compiler doesn't support C++20:

error: ‘std::format’ is not a member of ‘std’

Upgrade your compiler to GCC 11+, Clang 14+, or MSVC 2022+.

Clean Build

If you encounter build issues, try a clean build:

rm -rf build
mkdir build && cd build
cmake [same parameters as the first time]
make/ninja/......