Setting up your build envirnoment

I. Getting Fritzing Source Code and keeping it updated

1) The Fritzing code is available for download from the google code repository.  Currently, the code lives at http://fritzing.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/fritzing

2) Choose your favorite SVN client and check out the code:
      svn checkout http://fritzing.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/fritzing fritzing

3) Use "svn update" to grab the latest changes

For GUI-based SVN clients, we recommend Tortoise SVN for Windows, and SCplugin (-10.5), svnX or RapidSVN for Mac.

Alternatively, you can also grab the zipped source of the latest release from our downloads page.

II. Download and Install Qt. 

Download and install the latest version of Qt and related libraries from the Qt software download page. We are always trying to use the latest version of Qt.

The simplest is to use the Qt SDK, which contains the pre-compiled Qt libraries, documentation, and a nice IDE called Qt Creator. In the Qt SDK installer, choose "custom" install, and then only install Desktop Qt (the libraries), Qt Creator (the IDE), and MinGW (the compiler). Everything else is optional.

Alternatively, you can just get the bare Qt framework sources and compile it yourself.

III. Set up your IDE

There are several IDEs that will work quite well and the decision is largely a matter of personal taste.  The easiest route is to use Qt Creator.  It is packaged together with the Qt SDK and configured to run Qt projects with one click. 
Other options include:

• All platforms:
  • Qt Creator
  • Eclipse with the Qt Eclipse Integration plugin
• Windows - see also our Windows notes
  • Microsoft Visual Studio with the Qt Visual Studio Integration
• Mac - see also our Mac notes
  • Xcode
• Linux:
  • QDevelop
  • KDevelop
  • Emacs or vi and an xterm for builds

IV. Run

Qt Creator:

Open the Fritzing project by navigating to the Fritzing source folder and select the phoenix.pro file.

Then go to the project tab, and under "run settings", add this argument:
     -f /location/of/Fritzing/on/my/machine
This is required so that Fritzing can find all the parts, examples, and other data.

Lastly, press the green play button (green arrow) and Fritzing will compile.  It may take several minutes the first time you do this - watch the compile output to see the progress.

For the other IDEs, please look at the notes above.

If you later would like to run the compiled Fritzing from the command line or double-clicking the app icon, you either need to supply the -f argument, or copy the executable from the build folder to the source folder.

Have fun and feel free to bug us on the forums if you run into problems or do something cool.