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My First Add-In Jason Newell

The Charles Machine Works, Inc

Ditch Witch

Applications Architect

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Background

The Charles Machine Works, Inc. (Ditch Witch)

• 1997 – Hired into IT support for Engineering department

• 1999 – Took over administration of multi-million dollar Unix based PDM

system

• * The beginning of my programming journey started here

• 2000 – Started learning how to automate Solid Edge

• 2002 – Moved to full-time programming position

• 2005 – Implemented SAP

• Present – Little bit of everything with a focus on Microsoft technologies

JasonNewell.NET

• 2005 – Created website and forums

• Consulting work for customers world-wide

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Overview

We will be thoroughly covering the basics of Solid Edge Add-Ins. Nothing fancy

but you will understand how Solid Edge Add-Ins work when you leave and know

what the bare minimum code it requires to write one.

There is so much that needs to be understood before attempting to write an add-

in. So many situations and scenarios. So many programming languages to

choose from.

What programming language is used in this presentation ?

Survey says: Visual Basic .NET

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Solid Edge Add-In - Definition

What in the an Add-In?

Standard Definition

“Solid Edge defines an add-in as a dynamically linked library (DLL) containing a

COM-based object that implements the ISolidEdgeAddIn interface.” - addin.doc

Extended Definition

Besides the technical definitions, the add-in architecture allows you to execute

code in process “in-proc” with Solid Edge rather than out of process “out-of-proc”

like macros.

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Solid Edge Add-In Pros \ Cons

Pros

• Add-In gets loaded when Solid Edge is started (typically or can be later).

Point is no user interaction is required to start the add-in.

• You can achieve a higher level of integration with Solid Edge compared to say

a macro.

Cons

• Generally speaking, if you crash, you’re taking Solid Edge down with you.

Challenges

• The current add-in architecture was designed with native COM friendly

languages in mind. Writing add-ins in .NET is challenge because of this fact.

• Getting a .NET cat to bark like a COM dog (no pun intended) is damn hard!

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Managed vs Native

Code written in .NET compiles to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) and is

referred to as “Managed” code. The code is Just-in-time (JIT) compiled at

runtime whereas “Native” code is compiled directly to machine code.

Solid Edge is a native application so any interaction with .NET must go through

an interoperability (Interop) layer. This interoperability layer is the one of the

biggest pain points in .NET add-in development compared to native add-in

development.

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.NET Framework Versions and Dependencies

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb822049.aspx

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Basic Architecture of .NET

Shared Components

CLR v2

.NET Framework

2.0

.NET Framework

3.0

.NET Framework

3.5

CLR v4

.NET Framework

4.0

.NET Framework

4.5

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Process Overview

Edge.exe – Native Process

Native.dll Native

Addin.dll mscoree.dll – (Default “vanilla“ shim)

CLR v2

(Default app domain)

MyAddin_20 MyAddin_30 MyAddin_35

CLR v4 (Default app domain)

MyAddin_40 MyAddin_45

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Application Domains & Runtime Callable Wrappers

COM Object

Ref Count = 2

AppDomain 1

RCW

Ref Count = 1 Addin1

Addin2

AppDomain 2

RCW

Ref Count = 1 Addin3

Addin4

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Visual Studio Bugs!

Visual Studio 2010 has a bug that will cause the Type Library Importer

(tlbimp.exe) to generate interop assemblies in the wrong format. I only noticed

the bug when having Solid Edge x64 installed. This will cause regasm.exe to

fail. To correct this, you have to manually edit your . vbproj and add the following

line.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

<PropertyGroup>

<PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>

….

</PropertyGroup>

</Project>

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Live Demos!

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Thank You! Questions?