Download and installation

THIS WEBSITE IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED

Go to 

https://www.blendercam.com 

to have the latest news about the blender addon.

for windows and now also macintosh and some linux distros, you can download a blender build which runs out of the box:(note: some users reported they needed to install Python 3.3.x to have the build running, but that's a rare case so far)

0.9.0:
Windows builds, Linux and Mac builds:
Googe Drive repository


addon only - read lower on how to install it, it's not a regular Blender addon.

samples file:

you can download a file full of simple samples here. It shows how to set up most of the strategies.

After first start everything should be set up. If you don't see CAM tabs on the right side, go to preferences-addons and enable the Simplify curves addon and CAM addon. Also, if Blender CAM tabs don't show, change Blender Render to  Blender CAM in the upper header.

Other OS - various linux distributions:

you'll need:

• download the addon itself
•  Blender 2.76 (exactly this version, because of some changes in API)
• Shapely python libraries - versions for Python3.4. , 32bit or 64bit depending on what blender version you use. 
•  the addon (in the package)

what to do:

• I recommend NOT to install blenderCAM in the same directory where you have blender if you use it for animation. BlenderCAM changes interface of blender, so it is good to have 2 blender installations in such case.
• Install or unpack blender
• Copy Shapely library binaries to blender's version of python to the directory YOURBLENDER\2.6X\scripts\modules
• Copy the directory you find in the addon zip into blender directory, the dirs should merge, so that you get also config files.
• Enable also addon 'Simplify curves', since BlenderCAM uses that as a library.
• Enable the addon in the addon options in Blender
• now you should see CAM addon tabs in the render section of property window.

detailed instructions for Mac OSX provided by Giovanni Bianchessi:

- Download:

Blender 2.69 32bit intel Mac

BlenderCAM

BlenderCAM installation for Win (of which we need only the “unittest” folder)

numpy-1.7.0 sources

Polygon-3.0.5 sources

- Expand all the archives

- Update Mac python to 3.3 (I don't know if it is really needed, but I did it)

- Run terminal and “cd” to the numpy dir

- compile sources typing “python setup.py build” (without quotes :-)another directory tree is created

- Run terminal and “cd” to the Polygon dir

- compile sources typing “python setup.py build” (without quotes :-)another directory tree is created

- In Finder, go into the Blender folder. Right click on the blender.app icon and from the menu choose “Show package contents”

- Open Contents/MacOS/2.69/python/lib/python3.3 folder

- Drag here the numpy-1.7.0/build/lib.macosx-10.6-intel-3-3/numpy folder created by compile process

- Drag here the Polygon-3.0.5/build/lib.macosx-10.6-intel-3-3/Polygon folder created by compile process

- Drag here the unittest folder from BlenderCam for Win installation files

- Open Contents/MacOS/2.69/scripts/addons

- Drag here the “cam” folder

- Run Blender and enable Simplify curves and Blender CAM addons

detailed instructions for GNU/Linux, mainly Debian based as K/Ubuntu, provided by Bernhard Braun:

New: you can use this convenience script by jonardaron, it should be able to download & setup for you:
https://github.com/faerietree/blendercam

This guide is written updated on 02.10.2014 31.01.2016 using Kubuntu 14.04amd64 and using the 0.8.0 0.9 camADDON.
You should be provided with all neccessary libraries except the libgeos library.
This is provided in the Kubutnu package repository and can be installed via apt-get install libgeos-3.4.2
This library is needed to compile the Shapley binaries needed by the Blender CAM addon to work up to 20 times faster then the Numpy binaries.
You will also have to use Python 3.4 since the 0.9 camADDON is using it.
So lets get to work :D

In this guide we assume the folder where all Source packages including the one from Blender are residing is the folder Download in your Home.
So the paths used will be /home/User/Download.
I will be using the wildcard for this path. For example the path to your compressed Shapley archive in /home/user/Download/Shapely-1.5.13.gz will be printed as */Shapely-1.5.13.gz.

For this installation we will need the files listed below. If you want to use newer or older Sourcepackages, it's your choice, pick what you want.

Blender64amd Blenderi686 
CAM addon
Numpy 1.7 Not needed in 0.9 anymore

Polygon-3.0.7 Not needed in 0.9 anymore
Shapely-1.4.3     Shapely-1.5.13

1. Uncompress the downloaded Blender archieve
2. Uncompress all other archieves
3. cd */shapely-1.5.13
4. Run sudo python3.4 setup.py build -> If you are through without errors you did everything wright ;)
5. There should be a Folder created named Shapely
6. Copy this folder and place it in */blender2.76b*/2.76/python/lib/python3.4/
7. Do the steps 3 to 7 with Polygon and Shapely
8. cd */blenderCAM_0.9
9. Copy the folder config and paste it at */blender2.76b*/2.76/
10. cd */blenderCAM_0.9/scripts/addons
11. copy all the folders and pythonscripts and move them to */blender2.76b*/2.76/scripts/addons/
12. cd */blenderCAM_0.9 scripts/presets
13. Copy all three folders an move them to */blender2.76b*/2.76/scripts/presets/
14.  Finally we will start blenderCAM from the terminal and watch the interesting log output
15. cd */blender2.76b*
16. ./blender
17. Voila, her you go :D 

Have fun with blenderCAM and consider to make a donation for the developer.