RotoSpider manual › Reference

What changed

Describes RotoSpider Web App 0.8.13 and Desktop 0.8.23 · checked 2026-10-27 GMK

The manual describes the version of RotoSpider the site offers for download, and only that version. This page lists what each release changed for a user and which pages of the manual were written or rewritten for it, newest first. The line under every page's title says which version it describes and when it was last checked against the app.

0.8.23

Windows is updated to 0.8.23, released with RotoScheduler 0.3.4 in one package; macOS and Linux follow.

• On Windows the download carries the runtime both programs share as the folder program\runtime-1\, in place of RotoRuntime_1.exe. A working folder from 0.8.20 or 0.8.21 already has that folder: copy the new EXE into it (Install the desktop trial).
• On Windows a new version, at its first start, takes the open layouts, the language and the rendering choice of the RotoSpider version you used last. Close the older version before that first start. RotoSpider and RotoScheduler each have their own taskbar button.
• From the tester rounds of October: a mold moved by hand in the 2D view is no longer refused with a message about the one-micrometre grid; the staging area draws each waiting mold with its footprint, as the spider's 2D view does; a sphere's saved preview is shaded smoothly; a new mold's default name skips numbers another row already uses and is in the screen's language; in Chinese, the 3D view's loading line and the table's length, width and height headers are translated.

0.8.21

Windows, macOS and Linux are updated to 0.8.21, released with RotoScheduler 0.3.3 in one package per system. The web app stays at 0.8.13.

• On macOS one disk image holds RotoSpider and RotoScheduler, and on Linux one ZIP holds both AppImages. Each program's name carries its version, so a later version installs beside this one (Install the desktop trial). The 0.8.16 program stays and runs to December 30, 2026; 0.8.21 asks for the agreement once more.
• The trial runs 30 days from its first start on your computer; the registered trial from www.rotospider.com/account/ runs 180 days (Install the desktop trial).
• Layouts left open in 0.8.20 are not open when 0.8.21 starts; layout files you saved open as before. Save each open layout before you move (Keep and reopen layouts).

0.8.20

Windows was updated to 0.8.20, released with RotoScheduler 0.3.2 in one package. macOS and Linux stay at 0.8.16 until the next trial release, and the web app stays at 0.8.13. The desktop trial is valid through December 30, 2026.

• The Windows download is one ZIP holding both trial programs, RotoSpider_TRIAL_EN_0.8.20.exe and RotoScheduler_SCHEDULER_TRIAL_EN_0.3.2.exe, their shared RotoRuntime_1.exe and the trial's data folder data\trial\. Unzip it into a new working folder; both programs read and write that one data folder. The install page.
• RotoScheduler reads the molds and arms you save in RotoSpider's workbook, and the two clearances from its settings, through Take from masterdata in its Factory inputs. RotoSpider itself lays out spiders as before. The RotoScheduler manual's factory page.
• Because the ZIP carries data\trial\, the first start copies nothing in from an installed trial's Documents\RotoSpider\trial\. To bring that data over, delete the new folder's data\trial\ before the first start; the install page says what comes along.
• Each window's title carries its version, RotoSpider v0.8.20.
• From the tester rounds of October: the Mold Data and Products and Need tables number their rows 1, 2, 3 in order; a clearance option picked in the results strip stays picked; opening and closing a shape editor again and again keeps the 3D view usable; the wedge preview has solid faces and sharp edges; dragging empty space in the 3D view with the spider almost edge-on turns the camera and moves no mold; a Need change survives a draft with warnings, Undo and Redo and a recovery; the mold preview no longer shows the previous mold's shape for a moment when a row changes shape.

0.8.16

Windows, Linux and Apple-silicon Mac were updated to 0.8.16, released with RotoScheduler 0.3.1. The web app stays at 0.8.13. The desktop trial is valid through December 30, 2026.

• On Windows the trial is a folder, not an installer: unzip the download into a working folder and run RotoSpider_TRIAL_EN_0.8.16.exe. A later version is one more EXE in the same folder, and the older one still runs. The first start in a new working folder copies in the data an installed trial left in Documents\RotoSpider\trial\; from an installed 0.8.14 only the workbook comes, and the install page lists what does not come along.
• The workbook, the settings and the shapes live together in the trial's data folder, so a copy of the folder carries them all. Open data folder beside the workbook's name opens it, and the File menu no longer opens a workbook from elsewhere. The workbook page.
• Each window's title carries its version, for example RotoSpider v0.8.16.
• After a crash, or after the app was ended in Task Manager, the next start says so, and Export bundle… saves the session that failed. The support page.
• The mold preview draws a small mold at its real size, and a mold with a zero dimension shows Enter positive mold dimensions to preview. instead of a box.

0.8.14

Windows, Linux and Apple-silicon Mac were updated to 0.8.14, a language and output refresh released from the same tree as RotoScheduler 0.3.0. The web app stays at 0.8.13.

• The Chinese interface uses the approved rotomolding terms throughout (the term rounds of September 2026): 设备 and 臂 for the machine and its arm, 最大回转直径 and 回转直径 for the envelopes, 间距 for the clearance, 上模盘 and 下模盘 for the two spiders, 占地尺寸 for a mold's footprint, 中心不可用高度 and 模盘偏距 for the two arm dimensions.
• The results strip shows no reason line when a layout carries only its result code (a layout the app kept after a Need change); the Chinese strip once ended with the English word "partial".
• RotoCli's output keeps Chinese text whole on every platform; it could be cut off at the first Chinese character.
• The trial data's notes name no client.

0.8.13

Windows, Linux, Apple-silicon Mac and the web app were updated to 0.8.13. The desktop trial is valid through October 30, 2026.

• Edit the maximum arm load on Spider / Arm Data and save it to the workbook.
• A spider Y offset of zero is refused in the arm grid, as every layout already refused it.
• The Chinese center dead-height label is consistent throughout the app.
• On Windows, the STEP import suggests a mounting position from the mold row dimensions. Review the mold on its mounting plane, change the face or quarter turn if needed, and choose Use Shape. A larger envelope warns without blocking the import; Show the parts… uses the same preview. The import page and arm data page.

0.8.12

Windows, Linux, Apple-silicon Mac and the web app share one qualified layout release.

• The status strip shows the loaded count, spider use, minimum clearance and centre-of-gravity offset together. The result page.
• The support bundle export handles spaces in user and folder names and removes the full local path from the diagnostic files, including older sessions. The support page.
• RotoSpider is the mold-layout tool; factory scheduling belongs to the separate RotoScheduler application.

The whole manual was written against this version in September 2026.

0.8.11

• The 3D view of an asymmetric mold, an L, an offset triangle, an asymmetric Levels Shape, an imported CAD mold, follows the same side as the plan views and the clearance check; since 0.8.10 it had been mirrored front to back.
• The sphere and the Levels Shape editors open on the mold's own footprint and height instead of a fixed sample size. The sphere page and the Levels Shape page.
• The Levels Shape numbers its levels from the plate as level 0 in every message.
• A machine row on the layout tab selects the machine with one click; Reset view restores the camera and re-seats the arm; the 3D view is no longer a horizontal mirror of the plans.
• Web app: a Need typed while the layout was still recomputing no longer leaves the page waiting with an outdated result; the Spanish, German and French Reset layout buttons fit the phone layout.

0.8.10

• Two new shapes: Levels Shape, for a mold whose outline changes from level to level, and Sphere. The trial catalogue gained one of each, DEMO-M23 and DEMO-M24, making 24 molds. The Levels Shape page and the sphere page.
• Clearance between a Levels Shape and any other shape is computed exactly, like every other shape family. The space page.

0.8.9

• A Need change shows its preserved-arrangement result at once, with the automatic rearrangement following when it is ready. The Need page.
• The +1 marks beside Need are computed in their own process, so editing never waits for them.
• Reopening a workbook holding quarter-turn catalogue shapes no longer loses the workspace.

0.8.8

• Every Need change keeps the current mounted arrangement first, including manual edits, before checking whether a full rearrangement places more; Undo steps back through both results and then to the previous Need; lowering Need removes staged copies first. The undo page.
• A paused 3D view stays paused through recalculation and editing; the +1 mark uses the same placement order and clearance search as a real increase.

0.8.7 and earlier

Packaging and support-bundle corrections, a normal closure no longer recorded as a crash, and the removal of the RotoScheduler workspace from the RotoSpider desktop app.