Step 1

Windows - download and install the JRE.
MacOSX & Linux - skip this step - the JRE is pre-installed.

Step 2

Windows, Linux & MacOSX - download and install your preferred RenderMan complient renderer.

Step 3

Windows - ensure your PATH environment variable includes a path to the bin directory of your renderer.

Step 4

Windows, Linux & MacOSX - download and save cutter.jar. Save this file in a location that is convenient to you - it is not necessary to save it in "Program Files" (Windows) or Applications (MacOSX).

Step 5 - launching Cutter via the "run" file

Windows - to launch Cutter double click on the run.bat. This file must be in the same directory as cutter.jar.

Linux and Mac OSX - open a terminal window and "cd" to the directory containing cutter.jar and the run script file. To add "execute" permission to the run script enter the following command - this only needs to be done once,

chmod 777 run

To launch Cutter using the run script enter the following command into the terminal window,

./run

Step 6 - launching Cutter from the command prompt

Windows - to launch Cutter open a command shell and "cd" to the directory in which the cutter.jar is located, then type the following command,

java -Xms64m -Xmx64M -classpath .;cutter.jar Cutter

Linux & MacOSX - open a terminal and "cd" to the directory in which the cutter.jar is located, then type the following command,

java -Xms64m -Xmx64M -classpath .:cutter.jar Cutter

The only difference between these two commands is in their use of ; and :

Step 7 - Cutter Prefs

Windows, Linux & MacOSX
There are a number of preferences that must be set before you begin compiling shaders and rendering rib files. Open the preferences window from the Edit menu. The upper Rman tab has three sub-tabs. A drop-down menu will allow you to choose the appropriate rendering system. Make sure the two paths in the "Resource Directories" panel are correct. The last tab, "User", is very important. It lists five paths. It is essential those paths point to directories that exist. Cutter will not create them for you. The names of the directories are not important. If any of the paths are incorrect you will get unexpected behavior from Cutter - refer to Whats New v6.1.0.

Step 8 - (Windows) adding paths to the bat file

If you do not have system admin privileges for the computer on which you are working or you are not sure how to edit the paths environment variable here is a work-around. Suppose you wish to add a path to a Tcl/bin. Open the run.bat and add the following text (shown in red),

path %PATH%;C:\tcl\bin
java -Xms64m -Xmx64M -classpath .:cutter.jar Cutter

Additional paths can be added to the one shown above. Just remember to put a ; (semi-colon) between each path. For example,

path %PATH%;C:\tcl\bin;C:\3delight\bin

Step 9 - Additional Paths for MacOSX, Windows & Linux

Line 1: starts the 3delight license server.
Line 2: enable "it" scripts to be run from Cutter.
Line 3: provides access to the various RenderMan Studio initialization scripts.
Line 4: enable "PRMan for python" scripts to be run from Cutter.

The first line assumes a licensed version of DNA's 3delight renderer is installed on the users computer. Lines 2, 3 and 4 assume the reader has Pixar's RenderMan Studio installed on their computer.

MacOSX (bash shell)

licserver -d $DELIGHT/license.dat
export PATH=/Applications/Pixar/RenderManStudio-2.0.2-maya2008/bin/it.app/Contents/bin:$PATH
export RMS_SCRIPT_PATHS=./:/Users/malcolm/Documents/maya/projects/RMS_ini
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$RMANTREE/bin
java -Xms64m -Xmx64M -classpath .:cutter.jar Cutter

Windows

licserver -d $DELIGHT/license.dat
path=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Pixar\RenderMan-Studio-2.0.2-Maya2008\bin
set RMS_SCRIPT_PATHS=H:\maya\projects\RMS_ini
path=%PATH%;$RMANTREE/bin
java -Xms64m -Xmx64M -classpath .:cutter.jar Cutter

Linux (bash shell)

licserver -d $DELIGHT/license.dat
export PATH=/opt/pixar/RenderManStudio-2.0.2-maya2009/bin:$PATH
export RMS_SCRIPT_PATH=./:stuhome/maya/projects/RMS_ini
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$RMANTREE/bin
java -Xms64m -Xmx64m -classpath .:cutter.jar Cutter

Please refer to
    Whats New - Env Variables - CUTTER_APP_DIR & CUTTER_USERS_DIR
for information about keeping the cutter.jar file in a separate directory to your work files.