Fail to continue develop Inventor Add-In with Visual Studio 2022 (revert to VS 2019?)

[Maxim-CADman77]

(this thread is consequent to this)

Recently I've bought a new PC and decided to use most recent Visual Studio 2022 Community instead of VS 2019 Community I have on my old PC ... BUT

When I tried to compile the code of my add-in on my new PC it failed reporting error BC31424 on all mentions of "stdole.IPictureDisp" (ribbon button images).

I then decided to add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Interop.DLL references of the project*.

This solved compile issue but Add-In button than failed to load into Inventor's ribbon with catch-Message:
"Method not found: 'Void Inventor.ButtonDefinitionObject.set_StandardIcon(stdole.IPictureDisp)'."

I'm a bit puzzled. Initial project code keep compile successfully in VS 2019.

What I'm missing?

*
I've found such recommendation for Excel Add-In developers - New version requiring Microsoft.VisualStudio.Interop.dll 

[bradeneuropeArthur]

use an earlier Framework instead.

[Maxim-CADman77]

@bradeneuropeArthur 

... with all the respect, your advice neither sounds logical (why should I downgrade Framework on upgrading software?) nor help.

Initially my code targets Net.Framework 4.8 (which is the recommendation of most relevant article I've found - Creating an Inventor Addin )
Even so I've tried to use both 4.7.2 and 4.8.1 ... without any change/progress of course.

PS:
.. I even tried 3.5 but it just failed to compile with 50+ errors regarding almost everything related to Inventor (version 2022).

[bradeneuropeArthur]

My suggestion is based on and simple that I can remember (when I am right) that "stdole.IPictureDisp" is not there anymore after Framework 3.5.

[Maxim-CADman77]

@bradeneuropeArthur 
I believe this is not true (this same Net Framework 4.8 targeted code was successfully compiled with VS 2019).

[Maxim-CADman77]

Dear @JelteDeJong 

I did the clear experiment:
I've downloaded the MyILogicAddin-master.zip by 'Download' link present in your Creating-an-Inventor-Addin tutorial.
I then unpack it an open the MyILogicAddin.sln file with VS 2022 Community, run Build and got a bunch of errors and couple of warnings:

The last two warnings are clear, expected and can be easily fixed (replace references to DLLs of Inventor 2021 with those of really installed Inventor release).
But what I'm missing regarding those six stdole-related errors?

[Frederick_Law]

I remember "stdole.IPictureDisp" but some point in time I moved away from it.

PS Didn't move away.  It's in another file: InventorButton.vb

I found an old project still have that.  I'll try to build it again.

Last build was IV2018, .Net 4.7.1.  Still work with IV2023.

We might be using the same "PictureDispConverter.vb".

[Frederick_Law]

No problem building 4.7.1 and 4.8.1.

Do you have post build manifest?  There is no mt.exe anymore and I've deleted it.

Don't think that's your problem.

BTW:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-basic/misc/bc31424

[Maxim-CADman77]

@Frederick_Law 

My problem - I don't know the working way to create Inventor Addin with the button by means of VS 2022 .
I've already developed several more-or-less working addins:
- one with a button (by means of VS 2019 Community).
- couple button-less (by means of VS 2022 Community). 
Now I want to develop a new addin with button by means of VS 2022 Community but neither of known methods works for me nowadays 😞

[Frederick_Law]

I don't think there is any different.

The one I just build was VS2017 Community or earlier.

Which template are you using?

My Template attached.

[Maxim-CADman77]

@Frederick_Law 
Could you, please, repeat the sequence (reproduce the errors) described in the message #6 of this thread?

[Frederick_Law]

That's "iLogic" addin, not a Inventor Addin.

What kind of addin are you trying to do?

I have 2 working ribbon templates.  Don't really want to debug someone else template 😋

Especially when it's using code that I don't use anymore.  Not that one is better.

PS Those code are in another file: InventorButton.vb

BTW it does use the same PictureDispConverter.vb as I had.

So something wrong in the code.

PS: "PictureDispConverter" is wrapped in "MyButton" this is outside my knowledge.

The error you got is related to this "wrapping".

Oh, also it'll be difficult to convert a Solution to Template.

Been there, done that a few times.

Took a while to get one to work in VS Community 2017.

VS 2020, I think, changed everything.  Had to set it all up again.

[Maxim-CADman77 · Accepted solution]

Ok.
As soon as I forget about 'a better way' from that 'iLogic-Addin' Tutorial I've found, uncommented and modified a bit the code present in standard VS-Template and got some progress.

Here is how my button looks like within the Light theme:

But that same icon (see attached) looks horrible within the Dark theme:

I believe I should disable somehow the auto-transparancy, right?

PS:
I've tried to replace PNG with BMP but got the same result...

PPS:
Here is the project's repository - https://github.com/CadMan77/BomQtyManager

[Frederick_Law]

I think IV use different icon, unless there is way to change black arrow to white.

Look at the Extrude icon in light and dark mode.

[Maxim-CADman77]

I agree this can be. But question is - how to tell IV not to cut-off (make transparent) the icon's background?

[Frederick_Law]

I know BMP use "pink" as transparent.

I don't remember how PNG use to define transparent.

[Maxim-CADman77]

My guessing - you mean 'Magenta' (255, 0, 255) mentioned at almost end of "Inventor Icon Design Guidelines.pdf" (it can be found at ...\SDK\DeveloperTools\Docs\Guidelines\ after SDK installation).
...but this is related to browser Icons, and mine background is white...

[Frederick_Law]

I open your icon in Paint 3D and it didn't show as transparent.

[Maxim-CADman77]

Ok.
It seems like only 'Pure White' (255, 255, 255) becomes transparent.
Thus the easiest workaround is to use 'almost White' (ex. '254, 254, 254') instead ...

[JelteDeJong]

To be clear the object type "stdole.IPictureDisp" is used by the Inventor API for images. In this case for the icons of your buttons. Therefore there is no working around or moving away from them. (I would like it very much if it was possible.) To process those objects you need a reference to the stdole.dll. in the Inventor installation directory, you will find the dll and you can reference that stdole.dll. You can find it here:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor [VERSION]\Bin\stdole.dll

The object type "stdole.IPictureDisp" is very old. In fact, it is so old that Microsoft does not support any direct conversion any more from "System.Drawing.Icon" or "System.Drawing.Bitmap" to "stdole.IPictureDisp". (Those object types are the most common at the moment.) There used to be a conversion class "VisualBasic.Compatibility.VB6.Support.IconToIPicture" but it has been deprecated. Therefore a utility class was created by "Philippe Leefsma" back in 2012. (link1 and link2)

Anyway, some of this information is in my tutorial "Adding icons to your buttons". There is also some other information that might be interesting.

The MyILogicAddin solution you found and downloaded is the result of all tutorial parts not just the first. in the complete tutorial there is information about each file and setting in the solution. 

http://www.hjalte.nl/tutorials