OrcaSlicer/BUILD.md

Building OrcaSlicer with ZAA on macOS

A step-by-step guide to building OrcaSlicer from source on macOS. No prior experience with building software required.

What You'll Need

• A Mac running macOS 11.3 (Big Sur) or later
• About 15 GB of free disk space
• An internet connection
• About 1-2 hours for the first build (mostly waiting)

Step 1: Open Terminal

Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, and press Enter. A window with a command prompt will appear. All commands below are typed into this window.

Step 2: Install Xcode Command Line Tools

This installs the compiler and basic development tools.

xcode-select --install

A dialog will pop up. Click Install and wait for it to finish (a few minutes).

To verify it worked:

xcode-select -p
git --version

You should see a path like /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools and a git version. Both git and the C++ compiler are included in the Command Line Tools.

Step 3: Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager that makes it easy to install developer tools on macOS.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Follow the prompts. When it finishes, it will tell you to run one or two commands to add Homebrew to your PATH. Run those commands — they look something like:

echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

To verify:

brew --version

Step 4: Install CMake

CMake is the build system OrcaSlicer uses.

brew install cmake

To verify:

cmake --version

You need version 3.13 or later (anything recent from Homebrew will work).

Step 5: Clone the Repository

Choose where you want the source code. For example, in your home directory:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/mnott/OrcaSlicer.git
cd OrcaSlicer

If you want the ZAA feature branch:

git checkout feature/zaa-contouring

Step 6: Build

The build.sh script handles everything. For a first-time build:

chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh --full

This does three things:

1. Builds dependencies (Boost, wxWidgets, OpenSSL, etc.) — takes 30-60 minutes the first time
2. Configures CMake — sets up the build system
3. Builds OrcaSlicer — compiles the application

Go get a coffee. The dependency step only needs to run once.

After the first build

For subsequent builds (after making code changes), just run:

./build.sh

This does an incremental build — only recompiles what changed. Usually takes 1-5 minutes.

Other build options

./build.sh --help       # Show all options
./build.sh --clean      # Clean rebuild (if something is broken)
./build.sh --deps       # Rebuild dependencies only
./build.sh --configure  # Reconfigure CMake only

Step 7: Run OrcaSlicer

After a successful build, the script prints the app location. You can run it with:

open build/arm64/src/RelWithDebInfo/OrcaSlicer.app

Or find OrcaSlicer.app in Finder and double-click it.

Troubleshooting

"CMake not found"

Make sure Homebrew is in your PATH (see Step 3), then brew install cmake.

"No rule to make target" or CMake generator errors

Your build directory may have been configured with a different generator. Clean and reconfigure:

./build.sh --clean --full

Build fails during dependencies

Some deps need a lot of memory. Close other applications and try again. If a specific dependency fails, check if you have the latest Xcode Command Line Tools:

softwareupdate --list

wxWidgets "hardcoded path" errors

wxWidgets bakes the installation path into its config files. If you move the source directory after building deps, you need to rebuild them:

./build.sh --deps
./build.sh --clean

"Permission denied" on build.sh

chmod +x build.sh

Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) vs Intel

The build script auto-detects your architecture. If you need to specify it explicitly:

./build.sh --full --arch arm64    # Apple Silicon
./build.sh --full --arch x86_64   # Intel

Project Structure

OrcaSlicer/
├── src/
│   ├── libslic3r/        # Core slicing engine
│   │   ├── ContourZ.cpp  # ZAA raycasting algorithm
│   │   └── ...
│   └── slic3r/GUI/       # User interface
├── deps/                  # External dependencies
├── build/                 # Build output (created by build.sh)
│   └── arm64/
│       └── src/RelWithDebInfo/
│           └── OrcaSlicer.app
├── docs/
│   └── ZAA.md            # ZAA feature documentation
├── build.sh              # Build script (this guide uses it)
├── BUILD.md              # This file
└── build_release_macos.sh  # Official release build script

ZAA (Z Anti-Aliasing)

See docs/ZAA.md for details on the Z Anti-Aliasing feature. In short: enable Z contouring in Print Settings > Quality to get smoother curved surfaces.