Choose Version of Visual Studio : Getting started

[DMadhuri]

I'm starting to develop my first add-in for Revit Strucuture and need some very basic information :
I need to develop the add-in to load families from the shared network drive into a project. this need to be supporting Revit 2011 and 2012(in future). Which is the appropriate verion of .Net framework suitable and Visual studio version.

How to choose between verisons of target framework ??
I have seen in many blogs anf posts that Visual Studion 2008 ( express Edition) with SP1 is used for revit Programming. hw ever I have VisualStudio Professional 2008 Installed  and some blogs also talk abut using VS 2010 express edition and setting target framework to 3.5 .  Please clarify.

Also Another point is how is VSTA different from Express or Professional ?   Which one do I choose to start with
Tthanks in advace

[duncan.mcgregor · Accepted solution]

Good Morning DMadhuri,

The main point i will alert you to is if you are wanting to develop for revit 2011 you will need to target .NET v3.5 as v4.0 is not supported with 2011, but it works fine for 2012.

You should be able to use VS2008 and target .NET v3.5

VSTA is the equivilant of the programming you can do within the Microsoft Offce suite products e.g. Excel.

I would say it is for use to complete basic "macro" styled tasks. If you want more power you will need to develop a full RevitAPI External Command.

I hope this helps lead you in the right direction.

Duncan