Generating Netbeans project files

After you start getting a significant part of your robot designed in RobotBuilder you can generate a Java project for use with Netbeans. The code that is generated includes project files that will let you just open the project and start adding your robot specific code. In addition, if you later make changes in RobotBuilder, you can regenerate the project again and it will not overwrite your changes. This process is described in detail below.

Setting up the project properties for export

Setting up the project properties for export

Here is the procedure for setting up the project for Java code generation (export).

  1. Select the project name in the top of the robot description to see the project properties.
  2. Set the project name to something meaningful for your teams robot.
  3. Set the directory where the project should be saved. This might be inside your NetbeansProjects directory or some other folder.

Generate the project files

Generate the project files

Once the location of the exported project files is defined (previous step) either click on Java from the Export menu or use the "Java" item in the toolbar to generate code to the correct location. This will generate a full project the first time the button is pressed, or it will update the project with changes on subsequent exports.

Open the project in NetBeans

Open the project in NetBeans

In NetBeans, select "File" from the menu bar, then "Open project..." and select the location where the file was saved from RobotBuilder. The project will be opened and you will see it in the "Projects" tab on the left side of the NetBeans window. The project name will be the same as the name of the top folder in RobotBuilder.