Skip to content
Contents

RotoSpider manual

Describes RotoSpider 0.8.12

Docs › RotoSpider manual › Start here

Install the desktop trial

Describes RotoSpider Desktop 0.8.12 · checked 2026-09-12 D5

The desktop trial is a signed installer for Windows, a signed and notarized package for macOS on Apple silicon, and an AppImage for Linux. All three are on the Desktop page, with the size and checksum of each file and the date the current trial is valid through.

Windows

  1. Download the .exe installer and run it. If Windows shows its SmartScreen notice the first time, choose to run it anyway; the installer is signed.
  2. The installer asks where to put RotoSpider and offers your user's programs folder; no administrator rights are needed for that. It adds a Start menu entry and a desktop shortcut.
  3. Start RotoSpider from the Start menu or the shortcut.

macOS

  1. Download the .dmg.zip, unzip it, and open the disk image.
  2. Drag RotoSpider into Applications, then open it from there. The package is notarized, so macOS opens it without a warning.

Linux

  1. Download the AppImage .zip and unzip it.
  2. Make the file executable (chmod +x RotoSpider*.AppImage) and run it.

The first start

The first start shows the trial licence agreement. Read it and choose I Agree; Exit closes the app without installing anything further.

The trial licence agreement on the first start

RotoSpider then copies the trial master data workbook into your Documents folder:

Documents/RotoSpider/trial/masterdata.xlsx

That workbook holds the five sample machines and the trial molds every page of this manual uses. The app shows which workbook it has loaded at the top of the Mold Data and Spider / Arm Data tabs, with a generation number that goes up every time the workbook is saved:

The Mold Data tab naming the loaded workbook

Your own machines and molds go into the same workbook; the chapter on setting up your factory's data explains each sheet and column.

Language, units and the 3D view

The Settings tab holds the desktop preferences: the language (Chinese or English), the display and input unit (millimetres or inches), and Use software rendering for a computer whose 3D view stays blank or unstable. Changing the rendering relaunches the app. The two clearance values on the same tab are explained in the chapter on setting up your factory's data.

The Settings tab

The trial licence

The trial runs without a key until its built-in date, shown on the Desktop page. After that date the app shows RotoSpider trial expired at the top of its window and no longer computes layouts. A new trial build with a later date replaces the download on the Desktop page; installing it over the old one keeps your workbook and layout files, which live under Documents, not in the program folder.

Removing it

Windows: Settings, Apps, RotoSpider, Uninstall. macOS: drag the app from Applications to the Trash. Linux: delete the AppImage. Your workbook and layouts under Documents stay until you delete them yourself.