Protobot runs well using Wine. I have not tested it on Linux yet, but it works well on my Mac. For macOS, I like to use Wineskin. Install it with homebrew.
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Get Protobot here:
and Wineskin(macOS):
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Thank you for sharing with us, I’ve been trying to find a free solution to run Protobot beta on max. Could you be a little more specific on how to download Protobot Beta on mac with wine? What is homebrew and is it necessary?
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Homebrew is not necessary. If you look at the readme of Wineskin linked above, you can see that there is a way to install it manually, but I have not tried this way, and it is not recommended. With Homebrew, you can be sure that you are using the latest version of Wineskin and its dependencies. Just paste the link that is on the website into your terminal to install it if you want.
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Follow the instructions on the readme to install Wineskin. Once it is installed, you can run the program called “Wineskin WInery”.
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You need to install an engine by clicking on the +, select an engine, then click “Download and install”. I am not sure what the differences are between engines, so I just chose the first one. I think different programs run slightly better on certain engines.
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Download Protobot from the website and unzip the file.
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“Create New Blank Wrapper” and name it Protobot.app or something. Once it is created, run it, and “Install Software”, and “Move a Folder Inside”. Select the folder that was extracted. Make sure this is the main folder that contains Protobot Beta.exe and some other stuff. If it asks you which executable to run, select Protobot Beta.exe.
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You can quit Wineskin now. Run the same wrapper, and this time it will be protobot instead of Wineskin. If you want to change some settings, show the package contents of the wrapper and open Wineskin.
Please reply if you have problems or specific questions!
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this works great, but the graphics are kinda meh, still usable though, great guide
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Thank you for the instructions! I’ve got the app to work and it runs really well! I do have one question though, I noticed that once I opened the app, my cpu temperature quickly gets to around 80 degrees Celsius, this is a little concerning to me and I was wondering if this is normal.
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This is normal. Also, the battery will drain very fast.
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Got it, thank you for the help!
Can confirm it works on Linux (Fedora 40) with wine
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So, I understand the arguments of why people use Protobot, but as someone who once used Protobot as their only source of CAD for robotics, please switch to Fusion, inventor, or one of the many other industry standard CAD software.
here’s my view on this if anyone is interested
Summary
The argument of it being harder to CAD is just not true and it gets blown way out of proportion, it took the people on my team less than a week to learn how to use fusion.
Learning how to CAD on this industry-standard software is something all current and incoming robotics students should know, even if you go into something like computer science, or something that doesn’t require CAD skills because once you know how to CAD, it opens so many more doors to possible careers that you might have never learned of if you didn’t begin cadding
this is all obviously opinionated but I don’t believe some people know yet, Protobot has not received an update since spinup and I doubt it ever will again due to Dave disappearing from the internet
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Sorry to revive this thread. I’ve got protobot working on my mac and everything works except for one thing, i can’t delete any parts. I’ve searched for solutions on the forum but nothing seems to work, can anyone help me? Thanks
Make sure you are using the delete key (not backspace). Also, quite strangely, if your mouse cursor is on the part you are trying to delete, it will not work. I recommend getting Protobot Rebuilt as it’s getting new updates, parts, and (most likely) fixed this bug.
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I am using protobot rebuilt (sorry for being unclear), and my macbook only has one button that says delete 
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Try doing fn + backspace on the keyboard for deleting, which should be the keybind on Mac for the delete key
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