The desktop app

The desktop app is 454 Design, 454 Control and these docs in one program for Windows and Linux, with no browser needed and nothing loaded from the internet. It talks to the machine directly over USB.

Note

The desktop app is in testing. Download for Windows (or for Linux) on the home page gets the newest version. All of them are on the project’s GitHub Releases page (opens in a new tab), newest at the top.

While the machine is busy (a job, a probe or a jog running, the spindle on, or the machine moving), the desktop app keeps the computer from going to sleep. The screen can still turn off. Once the machine is idle, the computer sleeps as it normally would.

Installing

Each release has two downloads (under Assets on the Releases page):

• The installer, named like 454-Workshop-0.6.2-beta.26-win-x64.exe: installs 454 Workshop for your user account, adds it to the Start menu, and keeps it up to date. This is the one to use.
• The zip: runs from wherever you unzip it, with nothing installed. It can’t update itself, so it’s best kept for trying a build out.

Your settings, tool library and drawings are kept separately from the program, so they carry over between versions, and between a zip copy and the installed one.

Tip

Windows may warn that the installer is from an unrecognised publisher, because it isn’t signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Reinstalling over an older copy? Quit 454 Workshop first, and check Task Manager that nothing called 454 Workshop is still running. Then launch it from the Start menu: an old pinned shortcut may still point at a copy you unzipped earlier. 454 Workshop → About 454 Workshop shows which version you’re running.

Installing on Linux

The Linux version is new. It runs the same jobs as the Windows version against the simulated machine in the tests, but few people have tried it at a real machine yet: air-cut first, and tell us how it goes.

It’s one file, an AppImage, named like 454-Workshop-0.6.2-beta.46-linux-x86_64.AppImage, for 64-bit Intel or AMD computers. It runs on most Linux systems (Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Fedora and others) without installing anything, and keeps itself up to date.

1. Download the AppImage from the Releases page (under Assets), and put it somewhere it can stay, such as a folder called Applications in your home folder. Updates replace the file where it is.
2. Make it runnable: right-click it, Properties → Permissions, and tick Allow executing file as program. Or in a terminal: chmod +x 454-Workshop-*.AppImage
3. Let your user use the machine’s USB port. On Ubuntu, Debian and Mint, run this once, then log out and back in: sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER (on Arch, the group is uucp; on Fedora, dialout). Without it, 454 Control says it can’t open the port and repeats this command.
4. Double-click it to start.

Tip

Nothing happens when you double-click it, or it says FUSE is missing? Newer Ubuntu (22.04 and later) and Mint need a small package that AppImages use: sudo apt install libfuse2t64 on Ubuntu 24.04 and later, or sudo apt install libfuse2 on 22.04. Then try again.

Your settings, tool library and drawings are kept in ~/.config/454, separately from the program, so they carry over between versions.

A desktop shortcut

To start 454 Workshop from your applications menu, with its icon, and pin it to the taskbar or dock:

1. Rename the AppImage to 454-Workshop.AppImage. This matters: while its name has a version in it, each update saves the new version under the new version’s name and deletes the old file, so a shortcut to it stops working. With no version in the name, updates keep the name, and the shortcut keeps working.

2. Make the shortcut. If the AppImage is in ~/Applications, paste this into a terminal (it downloads the icon and writes the shortcut):

   wget -q -O ~/Applications/454-workshop-icon.png https://454workshop.com/docs/454-workshop-icon.png
   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
   cat > ~/.local/share/applications/454-workshop.desktop <<EOF
   [Desktop Entry]
   Type=Application
   Name=454 Workshop
   Comment=CNC design and control for GRBL routers
   Exec=$HOME/Applications/454-Workshop.AppImage
   Icon=$HOME/Applications/454-workshop-icon.png
   Terminal=false
   Categories=Utility;Graphics;
   StartupWMClass=454 Workshop
   EOF

   If it’s somewhere else, change Applications to that folder in the three places it appears. The icon on its own (256 × 256): 454-workshop-icon.png.

3. Look for 454 Workshop in your applications menu. It may take a moment to appear, or need a log out and back in. Right-click it there to pin it.

Updates

The installed app checks for updates 30 seconds after it starts, then every 6 hours while it’s open. Help → Check for updates… checks straight away.

Nothing pops up. When there’s a new version, a notice appears at the top of 454 Control and 454 Design, beside Docs, and nothing more happens until you click it.

1. Update available: click it to see what’s new, then choose Download or Skip this version. To decide later, just leave it. Every version’s changes are listed on What’s new.
2. Downloading update: it downloads in the background while you work, and the notice shows how far it has got. The download is checked against the release before it’s used. If it doesn’t match, or the download fails, the notice says Update didn’t download: click it to see why, and to Try again.
3. Restart to update: click it, then Restart now. 454 Control and 454 Design close, the update installs, and 454 Workshop opens again. The machine disconnects, so reconnect it afterwards. If 454 Design has a drawing that isn’t saved to a file, it asks first: Save…, Don’t save (it can be recovered) or Cancel (which stops the restart). Or leave it: the update installs the next time you close 454 Workshop.

Never during a job

While 454 Control is busy (running a job, probing, jogging or running a quick action, with the spindle on, or with the machine moving), Restart to update turns grey and Restart now can’t be pressed. 454 Workshop checks again when you press it, so if the machine gets busy just before, it doesn’t restart. The download itself never interrupts anything.

In the Help menu:

• Check for updates… checks now, and tells you either way in a window: if there’s a new version, the same Download, Later or Skip this version choice. Once an update is downloaded, it becomes Restart to update to…. The questions it asks wait until the machine is idle.
• Updates → Check automatically turns the background checks on or off.
• Updates → Stable releases or Beta: pre-releases too chooses the channel. Beta also offers pre-release versions: early, and meant for testing. A beta version starts on the Beta channel, so it’s offered the next beta; a stable version starts on Stable. Once you choose, your choice is kept.

A copy run from a zip explains that it can’t update itself, and how to get one that can.

The menus

The menu bar is the usual one: File, Edit, View, Window and Help, with Tools after View in 454 Design.

• File follows the window in front. In 454 Design it has New, Open…, Open recent (the last ten projects you opened or saved), Import…, Save, Save As… and Recover last drawing; Export DXF…, Export SVG… and Save G-code…; and Job setup… and Settings…. In 454 Control it has Open G-code file… and Settings…. Close window and Exit are always at the bottom. Each item does exactly what its button in the window does, and, like the keys, nothing while a dialog is open.
• Edit, in 454 Design, works on the drawing: Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste in place, Duplicate, Delete, Select all, Group and Ungroup, each doing what its key does (the key is shown beside it). While you’re typing in a box, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select all work on the text instead. In 454 Control and the docs, Edit works on text.
• Tools, in 454 Design, has every tool on the toolbar, in the toolbar’s own groups: Draw, Change shapes, Move and copy, Combine, Text and Align and nest, then Dimension, Measure and Parameters…, then the guides and Machine area. Each does what its button does, and shows its key if it has one.
• Window switches between 454 Design and 454 Control, and ticks the one in front. Open at start chooses which one opens when 454 Workshop starts, on this computer: Design on the laptop you draw on, say, and Control on the one by the machine. It’s 454 Design until you choose.
• Help has Help (the guides, in a window over your work), Docs (the guides in a window of their own), Report a problem…, the update items above, and About 454 Workshop.