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Inventor Add-in Templates for 2015

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Message 1 of 31
ebuckner
12301 Views, 30 Replies

Inventor Add-in Templates for 2015

We are rolling into 2015 from 2012 which means that our onsave VBA modules no longer functions. I've replaced all of that code with functioning iLogic code (so easy!) but like and now I need to get the external iLogic (with triggers) into our pre-2015 data on an "as-used" basis.

 

I downloaded and tried Jürgen's solution with decent results but it needs to be tailored for site-wide distribution so I've decided to generate an add-in that meets our needs, my first add-in BTW!

 

Link to Jürgen's solution -

http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com/2011/08/built-for-speed-running-ilogic-rules.html

 

 

I've read thru all of the plug-in tutorials that I can find and they all point to the same method of template extraction but none of those methods seem to work in 2015 since the .zip files don't exist for pasting into the correct folders. From what I understand, simply deploying the .msi's should do the trick but it doesn't. Using the 2014 .zips in the correct locations kind of works although the 2012 templates seem to work better. I also caught some chatter about a .NET installation but that didn't make any sense to me.

 

I'm running a new install of Inv 2015 Pro 64bit and Desktop Express 2013, can anyone point me to a walkthrough that details the 2015 template extraction method?

 

Thanks!

 

Eric

30 REPLIES 30
Message 2 of 31
YuhanZhang
in reply to: ebuckner

Hi Eric,

 

From your long story can I understand your question as you are searching how to use the Inventor 2015 Addin Wizard? If so you can refer to the below page on Inventor API help:

Contents->Inventor API User's Manual->Creating an Inventor Add-In:

 

CreateAddin.png

 

Or below steps will tell you how to use Inventor 2015 Addin Wizards:

 

1. Install Visual Studio and launce it once.

2. Install Inventor SDK DeveloperTools.msi from C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2015\SDK\.

3. Launch VS and then you can see Inventor Addin wrizard for C++, VB.net and C#, use it to create an addin.

4. In the newly created addin there is a Readme.txt which will tell you how to deploy the addin.

 

Hope this helps.

 



If this solves the problem please click ACCEPT SOLUTION so other people can find it easily.



Rocky Zhang
Inventor API PD
Manufacturing Solutions
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 3 of 31
ebuckner
in reply to: YuhanZhang

Thanks for the quick response Rocky but if simply installing the developer tools did the trick I would be a happy camper. I've already installed/uninstalled/reinstalled that .msi multiple times without template success. Is there more information, i.e., which files need to go where? Perhpas the installation folder should be something other than -

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2015\SDK\

 

 

After .msi installation both

 

ProjectTemplates\VisualBasic\

and

ProjectTemplates\Visual C#\

under

C:\Users\ebuckner\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Templates\

 

are empty if that is a hint.

 

My 2015 test machine is running WinPro7, SP1, 64 - Inventor Pro 2015, 64 - VS Express 2013 Desktop

Message 4 of 31
YuhanZhang
in reply to: ebuckner

Oops, I did not notice that you are using the VS2013 now, the Inventor 2015 Addin Wizards does not support VS2013 yet, please try VS2012 or previous versions for now.



If this solves the problem please click ACCEPT SOLUTION so other people can find it easily.



Rocky Zhang
Inventor API PD
Manufacturing Solutions
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 5 of 31
ebuckner
in reply to: YuhanZhang

I uninstalled 2013, installed 2012, followed the steps above and no joy, still no Inventor templates visible under new projects. What's next?

 

IV2015Pro64, VSE2012, Win7Pro64

Message 6 of 31
ebuckner
in reply to: ebuckner

OK, I figured out how to get the templates into Visual Studio manually...

 

First, I extracted the content of DeveloperTools.msi to a throw away folder by stepping through the following...

 

1. Copy C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2015\SDK\DeveloperTools.msi to c:\DeveloperTools\ (or whatever temp directory you want)

2. Run Command Prompt As Administrator (Start-All Programs right click on Command Prompt select Run As Administrator)

3. At prompt type the following: msiexec /a c:\DeveloperTools\DeveloperTools.msi /db TARGETDIR=c:\DeveloperTools\DT

 

Note that at the end of the TARGETDIR there is a subdirectory called DT, executing the above line will generate it for you or you can create it in advance. Trying to extract the .msi to the same directory as the .msi generates an error calling the .msi corrupt.

 

Once the .msi has been extracted you just need to copy and paste the correct templates to the correct locations. Since I am using Visual Studio Express 2012 (version 11) these are the files I copied and the locations I pasted them to.

 

Copy VBInventorAddInTemplate2015.zip from C:\DeveloperTools\DT\VS11.0_USRPRJTEMPL to

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual Basic

 

Copy VCSInventorAddInTemplate2015.zip from C:\DeveloperTools\DT\VS11.0_USRPRJTEMPL to

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#

 

I noticed that there are what appears to be Visual Studio Express template directories (\VCSEXP11.0) but these only include the C# templates so I copied the ones from Visual Studio (\VS11.0) and they appear to work fine.

 

One last note, Visual Studio defaults to the following for its templates location.

C:\Users\<USER>\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects

 

I changed this to the following in case somone else needs access to them.

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects

 

This change is made by going to Tools-Options "Projects and Solutions" inside of Visual Studio. If you don't change this you will likely need to paste the above templates to the desired <USER> directory as opposed to the Public one.

 

Eric

 

 

 

Message 7 of 31
YuhanZhang
in reply to: ebuckner

Hi Eric,

 

I think re-install the DeveloperTools.msi would also solve the 'problem'. DeveloperTool.msi will place the template files to the proper locations for VS, so you should install the DeveloperTools.msi after VS, if you install a VS after DeveloperTools.msi you can't see the template files so now you just need to re-install the DeveloperTools.msi to solve it.

 

Hope this makes it easier for you to solve it. 



If this solves the problem please click ACCEPT SOLUTION so other people can find it easily.



Rocky Zhang
Inventor API PD
Manufacturing Solutions
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 8 of 31
ebuckner
in reply to: YuhanZhang

Thanks for the support Rocky, very much appreciated. In this case it didn't matter which order I installed the .msi, before, after, during (sarcasm), I couldn't get the templates to show up.

 

As it stands now, I have the correct templates, I've created a simple registry-free add-in that functions, now I just need to build the code.

 

Thanks again!

 

Eric

Message 9 of 31
ravikmb5
in reply to: ebuckner

Can u post the template here

i tried re-installing Developer tools

but no success

 

i have visual studio express 2012

Please mark this response as Problem Solved if it answers your question.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ravi Kumar MB,
i7 860 Dell Studio XPS Win 7 64 bit 12 Gb RAM & HP Z220 SFF Workstation
Autodesk Inventor Certified professional 2016
Email: ravikmb5@gmail.com





Message 10 of 31
loanst
in reply to: YuhanZhang

Can you clarify, when VS2013 is going to be supported by Inventor 2015 Addin Wizards? I need "VCSInventorAddInTemplate2015.zip". If anyone has it, please place it here. Thank you!
Message 11 of 31
adam.nagy
in reply to: loanst

I think originally the templates were planned to be updated to VS2013 once Inventor itself moved to VS2013. Inventor 2016 is still built using VS2012.

Now it sounds like the .NET templates might get updated in the next couple of weeks for VS2013 - if so I'll post them on the blog too: http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/

 

Here are the templates for VS2012 ...



Adam Nagy
Autodesk Platform Services
Message 12 of 31
TA.Fehr
in reply to: ebuckner

I was able to make the extraction work, but I had to modify the code slightly. instead of:


msiexec /a c:\DeveloperTools\DeveloperTools.msi /db TARGETDIR=c:\DeveloperTools\DT

 

I had to write:

 

msiexec /a c:\DeveloperTools\DeveloperTools.msi /qb TARGETDIR=c:\DeveloperTools\DT

 

Hope this helps anyone having the issue I had.

Message 13 of 31
TA.Fehr
in reply to: adam.nagy

When I create a new add-in with the templates I get the error:

 

The command "call "%VS110COMNTOOLS%vsvars32"
mt.exe -manifest "C:\Users\tim\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\Batch Program\Batch Program.X.manifest" -outputresource:"C:\Users\tim\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\Batch Program\bin\Debug\Batch Program.dll";#2" exited with code 9009.

 

I can't figure out what it referrs to.

 

I've run this in VS2010 & 2015 but get the error each time. Also, after saving, the file becomes incompatable with VS2010, which is a shame because I have the full 2010 but only the trial 2015.

Message 14 of 31
YuhanZhang
in reply to: TA.Fehr

The error is from a post-event, in the command it will call the mt.exe from VS2012 because the template is for VS2012, if you want to use it for VS2015 you can edit the Post event(project properties->Compile->Build Events) and update the command line, change VS110 to  VS140 like below(for VS2010 you can change it to VS110):

 

"call "%VS140COMNTOOLS%vsvars32"
mt.exe -manifest "C:\Users\tim\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\Batch Program\Batch Program.X.manifest" -outputresource:"C:\Users\tim\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\Batch Program\bin\Debug\Batch Program.dll";#2

 

You can also edit the template project file for VS2015, so you need not to manually edit each project when you create a new addin. Hope this helps.



If this solves the problem please click ACCEPT SOLUTION so other people can find it easily.



Rocky Zhang
Inventor API PD
Manufacturing Solutions
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 15 of 31
TA.Fehr
in reply to: YuhanZhang

Thanks, that got me pointed in the right direction.

 

I was able to make the compile function work with VS2010 using your suggestion, however I had to change the code to VS100 rather than VS110.

 

However, it still runs into the compatibility problem whenever I save it.

I can open up the .vb sections of the program, but I'm unable to open the whole project in VS2010. It opens up in 2015 just fine, (but my trial expires this week). Is there some special way to save the project to ensure compatibility with older VS versions?

Message 16 of 31
YuhanZhang
in reply to: TA.Fehr

You are right, it should be VS100. 

 

I attached the Inventor 2015 Addin Wizards files for VB and C# of VS2010, you can place them in your C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\ folder to use them.

 

Hope this helps.



If this solves the problem please click ACCEPT SOLUTION so other people can find it easily.



Rocky Zhang
Inventor API PD
Manufacturing Solutions
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 17 of 31
TA.Fehr
in reply to: YuhanZhang

These templates work perfectly for me now. I'm not sure how they are different than the ones I modified, but there's no more compatibility issues.

Thank you very much.

Message 18 of 31
kmiller
in reply to: TA.Fehr

Hi there,

 

I am pretty sure I used the above extraction work around for 2015 templates.  Am now looking at trying to get the 2016 templates.  Anyone know if we have to still do the same work around? 

 

I have VS Express 2012 loaded and have already extracted developer tools (after VS was already installed).  I will try the solved work around for 2016, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. 

 

Thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this response answers your question please click "Accept as Solution".
Message 19 of 31
kmiller
in reply to: kmiller

The work around for the 2015 templates via extracting msi to different location also worked for 2016 templates.  Make sure to use the "/qb" switch as noted by TA.Fehr in luie of original post.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this response answers your question please click "Accept as Solution".
Message 20 of 31
wmgshurik
in reply to: loanst

developertool.msi don't see VS2015 Community. So I had to do the next:

 

1. http://www.legroom.net/software/uniextract - download Universal Extractor, install, maybe like admin. If there are some problems - click SKIP (or MISS=)

2. run. 1.jpg

First line - developertools.msi

Second - where.

3.2.jpg

4.3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg

Copy this to the folder with VS templates. For example C:\Users\Администратор\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Templates\ProjectTemplates -> Visual Basic and Visual C# respectively.

 

Then in VS you must see this:

6.jpg

 

After building project, Inventor must see a new Add-In.  Enjoy!=)

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