Reload (debug) custom Add-In without Inventor restart

[Maxim-CADman77]

Some time ago I tried myself as AddIn developer for Revit.

Revit is definitely not my favorite Adsk software but there is one thing I wish be present for Inventor.

It is about possibility to reload addin on-the-go (without restarting Revit) for debugging purposes.

More details in articles:

 - AddInManager 

 - Reload Add-In for Debug Without Restart 

 - Debugging an Add-In without Restarting Revit 

I'd like to know whether "on-the-go" reload of Add-In is possible for Inventor?

[Frederick_Law]

Try unload the addin in Inventor, replace the files, reload the addin.

[Maxim-CADman77]

Seems like Inventor don't really release dll of AddIn that was loaded to current release and then "unloaded" ("The file is in use by Autodesk Inventor" on attempt to delete the dll).
I wish Inventor behave the same as Revit.
Maybe it worth to register the Idea at IdeaStation or, maybe, there is such one already?

[Frederick_Law]

Just tested.  2023.

I can rename the dll while it is loaded.

Test another one with event handler.  I can rename that too.

So your addin is still running?

[Michael.Navara]

This  behavior is really bothering and it consumes a lot of time during development process. Several years ago I created the tool for it for our team. But it is for internal use only.

But the concept is similar to my iLogic for VisualStudio tool. You can load multiple versions of the same DLL to single process (AppDomain), but they must have different versions. Then you can instantiate objects and call methods on them and this is the way, how you can mimic the reload of the add-in.

Maybe in future I will create updated version for public use.

If you found this tool helpful, please give a LIKE. If there will be more than 10 likes, I promis the public version.😀

[Maxim-CADman77]

Wow, 10 Likes per day!

Update:
..already "more than 10 Likes"

[Michael.Navara]

OK This looks like a challenge. I'm working on it and I will notify you about progres.😀

[JelteDeJong]

Most of the time I make a separate application within my solution. With that application, I just start/call the part of the addin that I want to debug, without restarting Inventor. I wrote a blog post about this.

Debugging without restarting Inventor

[Michael.Navara]

As I promised, the initial release of public version of Inventor AddIn debugger  is available. 

See the GitHub page

[Maxim-CADman77]

It can't load any of my addins

I press "Activate" then "NET 4.8" and point to my DLL

It then shows MsgBox "Failed"

... and then MsgBox "There is no add-ins in this assembly".

[Michael.Navara]

Try to load addin from my samples.

[Maxim-CADman77]

From your samples?
Do you mean to compile any project from https://github.com/CSmichaelnavara?tab=repositories ?

[Michael.Navara]

Ooops! There was a bug in loading add-ins. 

Sample addins was added as downloadable zip package to release

Fixed release was published.

[Maxim-CADman77]

I can confirm - v 1.0.1 does see your Sample AddIn when pointed to <location of unarchived SampleAddIn.zip>\SampleAddIn\2025\SampleAddInModuleNet8\bin\Debug\net8.0\SampleAddIn.dll

But it still fails with other AddIns,
ex. after install of ViewReference

and pointing to "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\iAutomate Design View Reference.bundle\Contents\ViewReference.dll" (either "NET 4.8" or "NET 8")
it again shows two consequent MsgBoxes "Failed" and "There is no Addins in this assembly".

[Michael.Navara]

😀Fu..ing users!😀

There was an issue in passing arguments to external process.

Try the next release. 

[Maxim-CADman77]

Seems like NET 4.8 AddIns is OK to reload
Unfortunately I'm already in the half-way to migrating one of my AddIns to NET 8 and it fails with this msg:

The AddIn itself can be loaded and works more or less as expected.
Any Ideas?

[Michael.Navara]

It looks like a reflection hell in .NET8. 

Try to fill settings manually (Assembly file and AddIn CilentId). I will continue to look for solution.

[Michael.Navara]

New release was published.

Main change is the ability to load settings information from .addin file instead of compiled DLL file.

[gerald_engineers]

I think this topic should really be something Autodesk should improve. The feedback loop is to long when restarting Inventor is needed.
I could not find an issue in the "Inventor Ideas" forum.

Did I miss something?
Shouldn't that be a thing which would get many upvotes?

And: Thanks to @Michael.Navara and @JelteDeJong for your solutions. At the moment I am trying the solution from Jelte because I got an error (being on Inventor 2024) with Michaels solution. But I might look into it again and create a issue in the github repo.