# FreeCADInstProj
A Windows installer for FreeCAD

To build the installer you can do the following:
1. Get the latest zip-file of the whole installer source code "FC-standard-installer.zip" from</br>
   https://github.com/donovaly/FreeCADInstProj/releases
2. Extract it to e.g. the path "C:\FreeCAD\Installer"
3. Open the file *Settings.nsh* with a text editor</br>
   (the editor jEdit (jedit.org) can be recommended to edit NSIS files)</br>
   and adapt there the following paths to the ones on your PC, e.g.:</br>
   `!define FILES_FREECAD "C:\FreeCAD\Installer\FreeCAD"`</br>
   `!define FILES_DEPS "C:\FreeCAD\Installer\MSVCRedist"`
4. Specify in Settings.nsh if it should be an installer for 32bit by commenting the line</br>
   `!define MULTIUSER_USE_PROGRAMFILES64`
5. Install the latest version 3.x of NSIS (https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Download)
6. Download these special release files of NSIS that support large strings:</br>
   https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Special_Builds#Large_strings</br>
   and copy the containing files into the corresponding NSIS installations folders
7. Download these special release files of NSIS that support logging:</br>
   https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Special_Builds#Advanced_logging</br>
   and copy the containing files into the corresponding NSIS installations folders
8. Copy the file *~\nsprocess\Include\nsProcess.nsh* to the folder</br>
   *\Include* of NSIS's installation folder.</br>
   Copy the file *~\nsprocess\Plugins\x86-unicode\nsProcess.dll* to the folder</br>
   *\Plugins\x86-unicode* of NSIS's installation folder.</br>
   (You can alternatively get nsProcess from https://nsis.sourceforge.io/NsProcess_plugin)

Now you have 2 options:

* Either you got an already compiled FreeCAD, then copy all FreeCAD files to the folder</br>
   *~\FreeCAD" e.g. "C:\FreeCAD\Installer\FreeCAD*
* Or you compiled FreeCAD on your own as described [here](https://wiki.freecad.org/Compile_on_Windows). Then:
    * Open the file *Settings.nsh* as described in step 3. above and set there</br>
     `!define FILES_FREECAD` to the folder you specified as `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`
    * Copy into that folder the file *Delete.bat* that is part of the installer
    * change to that folder and search it for **\*_debug.\***
    * delete all found files
    * repeat this for the searches with  **\*_d.\***, **\*.pyc** and **\*.pdb**
    * open a command line in Windows and change in this to the folder
    * run the comamand</br>
     `Delete.bat`
    * (These steps assure that the installer only contains files users need. Moreover it assures that the
    overall files size is below 2 GB and we can use the most compact compression for the installer.)

10. If you use a version of FreeCAD that was compiled using another MSVC version than MSVC 2019,
   copy its distributable DLLs to the folder FILES_DEPS (see step 3).
11. Right-click on the file *FreeCAD-installer.nsi* and choose **Compile NSIS script**
   to compile the installer.
12. The folder *~\MSVCRedist* contains already all MSVC 2019 x64 redistributable DLLs necessary
   for FreeCAD 0.20. If another MSVC version was used to compile FreeCAD, replace the DLLs by
   the ones of the used MSVC. (They are usually available in the folder
   *C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC*)

For test builds of the installer you can turn off the compression. This speeds up
the build time for the installer a lot but increases its file size. The compression
is turned off by uncommenting the line</br>
`SetCompressor /SOLID lzma`</br>
in the file *Settings.nsh*.