What you need

The computer

Stackmill runs on Windows and on Linux, on ordinary hardware. It draws the cell in 3D and plans trajectories, so it wants a real graphics card rather than an integrated one, and it wants memory more than it wants cores.

A server installation runs in Docker and needs nothing on the host beyond Docker itself — see Add to an existing server.

The security module

Whether the machine has a TPM 2.0 decides how its licence behaves, and it is worth establishing before you install rather than after:

• With a TPM — the licence binds to the machine and then works with no internet at all. This is the only configuration in which the software will drive a real robot.
• Without one — the licence stays online and the software checks in regularly. Such a machine runs simulations only.

Most industrial PCs and most business laptops have a TPM. Licences explains what follows from it.

The robot

Stackmill talks to FANUC controllers. The controller needs to be reachable over the network and set to accept remote commands; the options and the setup are in FANUC controller setup.

Other brands are on the roadmap — the driver, the solver and the exporter are already written to be brand-agnostic inside.

The network

• Between Stackmill and the robot: a normal Ethernet link. The two must be able to reach each other; nothing is routed through us.
• Between Stackmill and the internet: needed once, to activate the licence. After that a machine with a TPM never needs it again, though without it the software cannot tell you a new version exists.