How to prepare Visual Studio 2010 Express for use with Inventor 2012?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for the complete instruction set prepare Visual Basic Studio 2010 Express to program Inventor 2012 Professional.

At the moment, all I've done is to install VB Studio Basic 2010.  If I'm not mistaken, don't I have to "configure" VB 2010 Express so it can be used with Inventor 2012?

Any white papers, tips, suggestions and errata would be most welcomed!

[YuhanZhang]

If you mean to use Inventor API in a project, that you need to add reference to the Autodesk.Inventor.Interop.dll. If you use the InventorWizard in SDK to create a registry-free addin, I would suggest you to install the Windows SDK(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb980924.aspx) because the VB Express does not include the windows SDK tool mt.exe, and the InventorWizards will use that tool to embed the manfest into the addin binary.

[Anonymous]

Could someone expand as to how to get VS 2010 Express to work with Inventor 2012?  How do I install the reference mentioned by Rocky?

What other things to I need to do?

I've never programmed before and would like to start tonight, if possible.

[YuhanZhang · Accepted solution]

The Autodesk.Inventor.Interop.dll will be installed to GAC(Global Assembly Cache - C:\windows\assembly\) when you install Inventor. What you need to do is:

1. In your VS project, click the command Project->Add Reference....

2. In the Add Reference dialog, go to COM tab, and find the "Autodesk Inventor Object Library", choose it then click OK.

Now you will see a reference named Inventor in the References, then you can start your coding job.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Rocky for the additional information.

Is there a way to make this set-up once, a "set it, forget it" kind of set-up?

Or, must users follow your instructions each and every time they wish to program Inventor with Visual Basic 2010 Express?

[YuhanZhang]

I think you want to configure the project for Inventor then use the same configure for coming projects you create, right? If so I recommend that you export the configured project as a template for VB Express, then next time when you create a new project you can choose the template so that you need not to configure it again:

1. New a project and configure it as you need.

2. File->Export Template...

3. Check the Project Template, Next.

4. Make sure the "Automatically import the template into Visual Studio" is checked. Click Finish.

5. Now you can new a project with the template you created above.

Hope this helps.